Maraschino cherry and rose white chocolate bark

If you’ve come here for a healthy, light dessert recipe then I’m sorry to announce that today you’ve come to the wrong place. In fact, I suggest that you stop reading this blog post immediately to avoid disappointment. If, on the other hand, you’ve come here looking for an indulgent and different treat to mark a special occasion, then please do read on!

Those of you who have followed me for a while will know that Beloved Kitchen is a blog that focusses on healthy gluten free and vegetarian recipes made with whole food ingredients. Although my main focus is on healthy food, from time to time I like to share something a little bit indulgent, often for special occasions (like Valentine’s Day!) My food philosophy is to eat really well most of the time, allowing for little indulgences every once in a while. I generally like to play by the 80/20 rule – eat really well 80% of the time, with some wiggle room for special occasions or when I simply just feel like eating chocolate. I truly believe that healthy eating is a lifestyle, not just a short-lived diet, so that means it needs to be sustainable. Plus, life is just too short not to eat maraschino cherry and rose white chocolate bark!

The inspiration for this recipe came from a truffle-making party I attended over the winter holidays. Each attendee had to make different liqueur-flavoured truffle fillings before the party, and then we spent an afternoon making hundreds of truffles. One of the flavours my sister and I brought to the party was maraschino cherry milk chocolate. I loved the flavour of it, and thought it would pair really nicely with white chocolate. I wanted to avoid food colouring for this recipe, so to tint the maraschino liqueur I combined a handful of thawed frozen cherries to it and passed it through a sieve. And because it’s almost Valentine’s Day, I couldn’t resist topping the bark with some gorgeous dried rose petals!

This white chocolate bark comes together in no time and is super simple to make with only a handful of ingredients. So if you’re still looking for a special dessert to make for your Valentine’s dinner, you want to make a sweet treat for a friend or you just simply feel like eating some white chocolate bark, this is the recipe for you! With that, I wish you all a very lovely Valentine’s Day tomorrow!

-xo KA

Maraschino cherry and rose white chocolate bark {gluten free}

This white chocolate bark comes together in no time with only a handful of ingredients, and is just the thing for white chocolate fans. Make sure to select good quality white chocolate because it’s the star of this recipe. When blending the white chocolate with the cherry liqueur, don’t despair if it starts to seize up – just keep adding the liqueur bit by bit until you get a pourable, glossy consistency.

Ingredients:

• 2 tbsp maraschino liqueur (I used Luxardo)

• 5 pitted frozen cherries, thawed

• 200 g good-quality white chocolate, chopped (I used Lindt)

• 1/8 tsp vanilla bean powder

• 1 tbsp dried rose petals

Method:

Line a baking tray with parchment paper or a re-usable silicone mat and set aside.

In a small bowl, combine the maraschino liqueur and the cherries and lightly mash up the mixture with the back of a spoon to tint the liqueur. Strain the liquid through a fine mesh sieve and set aside. The liqueur should be a deep dark cherry colour.

Next melt the chocolate – you can either use a bain marie or a microwave for this step. For the bain marie method: place a heatproof glass bowl over a pot of boiling water. Add the chocolate to the bowl and stir until the chocolate is melted and shiny. For the microwave method: place the chopped chocolate in a microwave-safe bowl. Microwave the chocolate at 30 second intervals, stirring each time, until the chocolate is melted and shiny. Once the chocolate is melted, stir in the vanilla bean powder and set aside.

Pour a generous 3/4 of the melted chocolate onto the prepared parchment paper or silicone mat in a rectangular shape. Spread out the chocolate using a spatula to the thickness desired – my rectangle measured about 20 x 13 cm.

Add the tinted maraschino liqueur to the remaining melted white chocolate one tbsp at a time. At first the chocolate might seize up (i.e. get a bit pasty/clumpy), but just keep adding maraschino liqueur bit by bit until you get to a smooth and pourable texture. Drizzle the pink chocolate mixture in relatively thin vertical and horizontal lines on top of the melted white rectangle (you may not need to use all of the pink chocolate). Using the tip of a knife, lightly swirl around the chocolate to make patterns as desired, working in figure-8 motions. Once you are happy with the pattern, top with some dried rose petals as garnish.

Place the baking tray in the fridge for at least 1 hour. When you’re ready to serve the bark, break it up into uneven pieces using your hands. The bark is best stored in an air-tight container in the fridge or freezer until ready to serve.

Makes 10-12 pieces of bark.