{"id":2843,"date":"2016-09-23T07:00:31","date_gmt":"2016-09-23T07:00:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/betondinner.com\/?p=2843"},"modified":"2018-04-30T00:36:14","modified_gmt":"2018-04-30T00:36:14","slug":"salted-dark-chocolate-pumpkin-seed-bark","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/betondinner.com\/salted-dark-chocolate-pumpkin-seed-bark\/","title":{"rendered":"Salted Dark Chocolate Pumpkin Seed Bark."},"content":{"rendered":"

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I think it’s a food blog rule that you have to post “pumpkin something” the first week of fall. But I already shared my favorite, favorite pumpkin bread<\/a>…and last year I skipped pumpkin completely and brought you\u00a0this perfectly dense, cinnamon-y apple cake<\/a>. So\u00a0now we have\u00a0salted dark chocolate pumpkin seed bark…and oh my word. It’s addictive.<\/p>\n

My mom bought a bag of extremely similar bark from Costco awhile ago, and I thought, “hmm, looks good.” And then I tried it. And I wanted to eat it all,\u00a0<\/em>without coming up for air (or perhaps more realistically, by having just.one.piece every time I walked into the kitchen).\u00a0It had this amazing crunch…not so much hard-and-crunchy, like nuts, but more light-and-crunchy. It kind of reminds me of a Nestle Crunch bar, but only texture-wise, since I’ve never liked those, and I LOVE this bark. Fortunately, it couldn’t have been simpler to recreate it for mass consumption!<\/p>\n

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This\u00a0recipe is literally 3 ingredients, and the culinary skills involved are 1) microwaving and 2)\u00a0chilling in the fridge. Self-control would also be a good skill to have, but I can attest that it’s not actually\u00a0necessary…your bark just won’t last very long.<\/p>\n

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So: chop up some chocolate (you can skip this step if you’re using chocolate chips). Melt it in the microwave by heating it at 50% power, stirring every 30 seconds or so. Stir in roasted pumpkin seeds and spread the mixture out on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Sprinkle on more seeds and a bit of salt. I think the bark is prettier if you leave it alone, but I love it extra thin, so I usually press another sheet of parchment on top and smooth the melted chocolate into an even layer. Stick the pan in the fridge for an hour or so, then break up the bark into random chunks.<\/p>\n

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Pressed thin and smooth on the left; spread out with a spatula with more visible seeds and salt on the right.<\/em><\/p>\n

I tried\u00a0the bark with\u00a0semi-sweet chocolate chips and also with 72% cacao chocolate (#research #science #usingmydegree), and both versions are\u00a0delicious: the semi-sweet chocolate bark is\u00a0more obviously a sweet treat, and I love that sweet\/salty combo. The 72% dark chocolate is\u00a0more complex – a hint of\u00a0bitterness, a tiny bit sweet, a little salty, still a lot crunchy. I honestly can’t decide which I like better. You’ll just have to try them both, too.<\/p>\n

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Beautiful, salted dark chocolate pumpkin seed bark chunks of happiness and love. Happy fall, y’all!<\/p>\nPrint<\/a>

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