Transfer Sheets

It wouldn't be Christmas without chocolate bark, right? 

Every year, I make at least one batch of bark. I like to try different inclusions and toppings (though I'm not sure anything will ever top the milk chocolate potato chip bark from a few years ago). As I thought about the bark for this year, I was focussed on using up some leftover gingerbread. I've always tried to be creative to avoid food waste, but in these days of inflation and shrinkflation, "waste not, want not" hits a little different. Have you seen the price of butter and sugar lately? I digress...

And so I blitzed up 75 grams of gingerbread (which was baked to more of a gingersnap texture) and added it to 400 grams of tempered dark chocolate. The result? Eight bags of gingersnap bark for giving this season. 

But I did make one deviation from my normal method. You see, with all of this reading I've been doing, I was reminded of transfer sheets -- plastic sheets decorated with cocoa butter. Using a transfer sheet was one of many decorating options in my professional chocolatier program years ago and so when I bought my school supplies, I ordered three from Golda's Kitchen in Ontario (which sadly no longer exists). I used one sheet (gold swirls) when capping one of the bonbons in my assignments. I used another (hearts) pre-pandemic on some Valentine's chocolate bark topped with cinnamon hearts. Long forgotten in storage, there was one remaining sheet. I pulled it out and spread the tempered chocolate on it. 

The result?

My gingersnap bark may look like any standard chocolate bark from the top, but the bottom is covered in tiny snowflakes. Sort of the "business in the front, party in the back" of the chocolate world.

One day, I hope to have custom transfer sheets with my name on them like Kate Weiser for capping my confections. 

Until then, what's your favourite flavour of bark this time of year?