Dark Chocolate Bark with Strawberries and Pistachios

Homemade vegan dark chocolate bark couldn’t be any easier to make. It’s easy to customize with your favorite ingredients and makes for a lovely DIY gift or easy dessert! Our favorite version is made with freeze-dried strawberries, pistachios, toasted coconut and a sprinkle of salt and sugar blend. 

This post is sponsored by Woodward Corner Market. All opinions are our own. 

We’re so excited for this month’s collaboration with our favorite Woodward Corner Market because it involves everyone’s favorite ingredient: chocolate! Homemade vegan chocolate bark is pretty much impossible to mess up, and you can customize it to your hearts’ content. 

This month, we’re featuring a locally-made salt and sugar blend from High 5 Salts. High 5 Salts makes delicious, creative salt blends that really elevate the flavors of just about any dish. We loved using their Sweet Sass Sugar Blend in this chocolate bark. It added the perfect salty/sweet finish! 

If you live in the area and haven’t yet visited the new Woodward Corner Market in Royal Oak, get there ASAP! We have been loving the store and have already found so many great local products that we hadn’t seen before. They’re really doing things right, and the store itself makes for such a nice shopping experience! 

We’ll be doing a demo at Woodward Corner at the end of the month to show how we make this chocolate bark. Stay tuned for more details! In the meantime, check out the two other local products we’ve featured this year:

• Chai Chia Pudding with Teffola Granola
• Quinoa Vegetable Salad with Maple Cashews

Now back to the recipe...

How to make homemade chocolate bark

Homemade vegan dark chocolate bark is truly so easy to make! Here’s what you’ll need:

Chocolate (of course!). 

High quality dark chocolate is the most important ingredient. We typically opt for something around the 72-80% range, so it’s not too dark. But feel free to go darker if you prefer! If you’re vegan or dairy free, be sure to read the label to check for dairy. 

We typically use a bar of chocolate and chop it into small chunks with a sharp knife. You can also use chocolate chips if desired. 

To melt dark chocolate for bark, you can either use a double boiler or (the much easier option), a microwave. To prevent burning, microwave in 20 second intervals, stirring well between each interval, until fully melted. 

We often stir in about 1 tablespoon of coconut oil, which helps loosen up the chocolate and makes it easier to pour. It’s an optional step, but definitely helps! 

Parchment paper + a pan 

It’s essential to use parchment paper when making chocolate bark unless you want to deal with a total mess! We line a quarter size sheet pan with parchment paper, pour in the chocolate and spread into an even layer using a flat spatula. 

If you don’t have a small enough baking sheet, you could also make these into little chocolate bark cups. To do so, line a muffin tin with paper tins and pour in about a half-inch of chocolate. Top as desired. The perfect little chocolate bites! 

You could also use a silicon chocolate mold or just about any kind of shallow container with edges. As long as it’s lined with parchment paper, it will be easy to remove. 

Add-ins

Here’s where it gets fun! The whole point of chocolate bark is to load it up with delicious toppings. We try to opt for something sweet, something crunchy and something salty. 

In this case, we used freeze-dried strawberries, chopped pistachios, toasted coconut and finished with a sprinkle of Sweet Sass sugar/salt blend! 

It’s best to mix in about half of the ingredients directly into the chocolate and use the rest as topping. This way, you get plenty of flavor in each bite! 

Ideas for add-ins

There are SO many options, but here are a few of our favorite combinations! 

• PB & J: peanuts and freeze-dried raspberries
• Tropical: dried mango, banana chips, toasted coconut
• Rocky road: marshmallows, chopped walnuts
• Trail Mix: raisins or dried cherries, peanuts, pumpkin seeds and pretzels
• Fancy: Pistachios and crushed rose petals

Chocolate + salt = better tasting chocolate!

We finish just about all of our chocolate recipes with a sprinkle of salt. Salt is a flavor enhancer that actually brings out sweetness. 

A sprinkle of salt makes chocolate taste even better (crazy, I know!), which is why you often see a pinch of salt as an ingredient in dessert recipes. I also love the texture it adds. Flaky salt does wonders on these chocolate-dipped figs!  

We loved using the High 5 Salts Sweet Sass blend on this bark. It’s the perfect combo of salty & sweet! It’s also delicious sprinkled on fruit and even in savory applications. 

You can check out the full range of salt products here. They’ll add so much more flavor to your meals! 

Chocolate dessert recipes you might like

• Vegan Chocolate Pie
• Classic Chocolate Cupcakes
• Salted Dark Chocolate Mousse
• Chocolate Hazelnut Tahini Brownies
• Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups

If you make this strawberry pistachio dark chocolate bark, we’d love for you to leave a comment and rating below! We also love to see your creations on Instagram – tag us at @crowded_kitchen so we can see what you’ve been cooking.

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