so for those of you who don't know me i'm michelle tan with mountain on paleo and today i'm gonna show you how to make my cocoa nutty dark bark which is the simplest candy that you can make for people with a paleo not really oh my god not on paleo read my journal message yes I I read all of these if I'm paying attention to the screen um so I had a few questions already one of the big questions is is this a paleo treat and the answer is no because there really is no such thing as a paleo treat but I do eat chocolate on occasion um probably more frequently than just occasionally um and I think this is a super easy treat to make for your friends um and it's tasty and it doesn't have a bunch of junk in there and so someone had asked what kind of chocolate I use I link to the chocolates that I use on my blog so I do have a post on nom nom paleo calm but what I'm using today is I have this 70% green and black dark chocolate and the reason why I'm using 70% because to people who don't normally paleo so it can't be super dark like if I were making it for myself I would totally use 85% or 91% because I like it less sweet what is the brand this is green and black I also like ultra eco I think Theo's makes great chocolate Maddock ass makes great chocolate you want to find something that's like Fairtrade and you know sourced from you know non-slave chocolates farm so I've already cut up a whole bunch here so in my recipe I put on some toasted unsweetened coconut flakes and I just toasted this my toaster oven over there give me 100 degrees I like to put it on affection because that way the hot air circulates if you don't have a convection I've been 300 is fine just toast it for five minutes this takes about four minutes um so you cut off like a minute and you like it so that it's nice and toasty on the edges you see that and coconut can burn in just a second so you do have to make sure that you're keeping an eye on it I have a quarter cup cranberries I just have this bigger bear stuff they have these organic dried cranberries it does have a little sugar in it but I'm not sad about it because we are making chocolate and it has sugar in it already I can also cook coconut flakes in a pan on so yes you could totally do that um I have burned it before though so you do have to watch it carefully I actually saw an America's Test Kitchen that you can toast coconut in the microwave I've never tried it but they said that it's a good alternative and you don't burn it and then I also have half a cup toasted and salted macadamia nuts and the key is I like these salted I know a lot of people may not like or thank you why why would you put salty nuts on it and it's because it tastes really good like the contrast the tangy cranberries the sweet chocolate and the salty nuts and you know crunchy coconut flakes is perfect so one of the tips again the step by step recipe is on my blog but I wanted to different squares I actually don't break it up in these squares because I don't think that it melts as well what I do I don't know if you guys can do this but I just cut it on the diagonal and I just make you really then I flip it and I do the other alright here is all my chocolate it's all shaved I'm gonna I love it because it also has like you know inches on the bottom I don't know if you guys can see that so whenever I'm doing a recipe I need to figure out how big my my chunks I just use this bowl scraper the scraper will scrape it right into your bowl and you have two choices on how you want to melt the chocolate you can melt it in the microwave I know some of you don't have microwaves or you don't like microwave I think microwaves are okay and they're perfectly fine for stuff like melting chocolate so I can tell you both ways you can do it alright so scooped up all the chocolate and it put it in a glass bowl because you want something that is either microwave safe or heat safe because you can either do it on a double well would this be considered dairy-free for those allergies uh I think so this is dairy free chocolate um and I don't have any other dairies in there so yes I'm not using milk chocolate I'm using dark chocolate and the chocolate I'm using has no dairy far as I know it doesn't but it does have soy lecithin so if you guys are against it away then you probably shouldn't pick this brand um and so the way that I melted I'm gonna show you really quick so right behind me I had with simmering water and you don't want the water to actually like reach up and touch the bottom of your bowl that you just slowly melt your chocolate or that like a double boiler or you can that's really fast Holly do you want to say hello to people while I microwave so they don't think it's boring no and then when I take it out I'm going to stir it really well yes it is much easier and faster and you don't have to wash next pot and so now I did that as a prop and now I have to wash that later which is kind of a pain um but basically this is the hardest part is just melting the chocolate and chopping it the way I did to show you guys before but otherwise the super simple rusty okay so the first 30 seconds doesn't really do too much um you can see the bottom is melted how sweet is it so this is a 70% a pound of 70% chocolate and that's because I'm gifting this to other people who are not paleo and 70% is as high as I can go with most people okay so I'm gonna stir this a little bit it's not super melted about melting chocolate is you never want to get water in there because it'll seize up so you just have to be careful not to get water in there you have to make sure it doesn't burn you just cut it up in Nice shards and you should be set I already have a baking pan set aside with some icing on top and then once everything is melted I'll just pour it on top and I will use a spatula to make it all smooth and then we just put the topping on and then we work for it and I'm breaking it up into 30-second intervals because you really can because the microwave doesn't really heat evenly you can totally burn parts of it and a little bit really does go from this day to life all melted by the next time okay so I only stove yes so that is the problem with microwaving chocolate is you could potentially burn it because every microwave has different you know wattages and the older ones are different from the new ones I missed the first part I am making yeah I can actually read your comment I am making my cocoa nutty dark bark that I put on the blog just now well thank you and actually it's super messy and I've put all the messy stuff on the floor where you guys can't see it and that is my you know my pressure cooker little piggy for dinner okay just keep stirring it almost done so normally I'd use 30 seconds times three and then I will do another 15 seconds and then I'll just do a lot of stirring afterwards and it should melt I love melted chocolate you like it all I don't know he doesn't like 70% it's too and it's actually too sweet for me I like I remember when I just think 65% was um too dark but now I like like 85 and 90% okay so I'm gonna just do it for 15 more seconds in terms of toppings the one that the three toppings I'm putting on this one are my favorite your bagel bacon burgers oh thank you that is one of our favorite recipes um I love toasted coconut salty macadamia nuts and cranberries but I don't like people don't like coconut or they like almonds so you can make some majid however you like and it'll work out so I'm gonna take but there is there's like the peppermint bark 35% knew it was delicious thank you did you do the slow cooker or the pressure cooker because I almost only do the pressure cooker version now because it's so dang easy and so fast and I think the texture is better just shredded coconut work also uh yes I think it's hard to buy unsweetened shredded coconut and it's hard to toast it so if you don't care that it won't be toasted or you can toaster you just have to be careful that you don't burn it and it's easier to burn I'm not supposed to bring a dessert for Christmas is here but I think though make this anyway you totally should bulk up here need to get the instant pot yet the ants the pot is amazing we use it like several times a day that might be a little unusual for most folks but I have to do a lot of recipe testing Twitter just had someone sweet that's great and that's where that's where I got almost everything like I bought my cranberries of Trader Joe's I bought my a meanness of Trader Joe's the baked coconut flakes I didn't get there I about this let's do organic coconut flakes Oh what is your job this is my job I used to be a drug dealer so was 30 times 3 and then I did an additional 15 seconds all laughing but it really was a drug dealer professionally I was drug dealer and I dealt drugs in the middle the night I did that for 12 years all right now I do pour it right into right onto the parchment and I like to kind of form it into like a rectangle but again you're gonna break this up and kind of uneven chunks so if it's not perfect it doesn't matter you see this and again as I said before this is super easy and super it's super easy and super customizable so you can customize the with the kind of chocolate you use you can use you know higher cacao chocolate you can use lower cacao chocolate you can top it with whatever you bonds and the reason why you see so many bark recipes all over the place is because it's so dang easy like you just saw right here so you just use a rubber spatula I don't know like between 1/8 and 1/4 inch it is the easier it will be for you to break if you have it to thicken parts you'll have to break out a knife to cut up your bark and I remember when I was a kid and my mom my mom is a really good Baker and she still is really good Baker every time she would use her spatula to like there's something very soothing and meditative that's probably why I'm not stopping all right that's good so you want to just use a rubber spatula you can use an offset spatula that's even better but then I'd have to wash something else and so I'm just gonna need to use the same rubber silicone spatula that I was using before the chocolate I'm not like you must spoon as my kids things I think it's my fav lat surface of melted chocolate my chest in the way you work and your kids crack me up did you hear that someone likes you better on the podcast why would you smash it alright so this I'm Justin now you just put the the toppings I like to put the coconut flakes on top I mean if you're gifting someone you know you want to make sure that you have like the nice make of coconut flakes and not the stuff at the very bottom that's all powdery because it looks prettier but I think the people I'm gifting this to don't really care put it on top and if there are some that aren't actually in the top plate you just kind of push it down says no we don't you're real you're a real boy right Holly that is coconut I'm gonna put in these salted macadamia nuts and these I like have like there's a whole one but I'm just not gonna break out a knife for that but the Habs I think fit really well they're really pretty and I I just stop them all over the place just throwing them and then sometimes if you throw up and they like get all brown and I think it looks prettier if it's the toppings were just on top okay cannot see all your comments so if you see me you like looking down and I miss your question and you really want to ask me make sure my hands were so looking so lean I am not that lean but thank you um I'm working with my trainer once a week and like today I went to the gym my big goal is to get an unassisted pull and I have an unassisted chin up but I kind of jellyfish at the very top so it's not I don't think it's an actual chin up but I'm working on it and then eventually I'll have it with the overhand grip and that is my goal by tomorrow yes oh and the way I figured out how I would be motivated to keep on you know trying to get my pullet is that I came up with a negative consequence and I learned that from Steve cams new book you know if nerd Fitness he said the only way that really that you'll be motivated to actually reach a bowl is you have a bad consequence that will happen if you don't do it and so I figured one out and I've been practicing cuz I don't want to tap in I need people to work and medical studies honey and lemon Oh is someone sick I'm assuming that's why those comments are so I'm just gonna then I dotted with cranberries cherries are also great apricot is a traditional french fried apricot is a traditional topping for french chocolate bark I like to drop this yeah pistachios and dried cranberries I think are a great combination I really like um coconut and macadamia nuts how long does the chocolate stay melted for um depends how cold your house is um but it you know it's still totally melted I some people they'll harden in about two hours depending on how how cold your house is I pop this in the fridge for 30 minutes to harden completely before I break it and then I actually I have one that I'll show you that I made yesterday and I just kept it in the fridge alright so here it is again the proportions are 1 cup of toasted coconut flakes 1/2 cup of macadamia nuts and then like a quarter cup of dried cranberries here is the finished product this isn't what I made yesterday and so you can either just break it up with your hand and if you do that just make sure your hands are covered by the person you don't want all your fingerprints on here unless you're eating it yourself and then nobody cares I have not mailed them before just because I'm never sure if it'll melt or you know sometimes especially during the Christmas season you know thanks get jostled around I'm trying to send a package to a little girl in the UK and I was supposed to have gotten there by December 4th but when I was looking at the tracking it went from like the Scoob area to LA and I guess on a plane to the UK and then instead of going in like you know a mail van or whatever in the UK it went back on a plane to Portland and so now it's back to LA and it's floaty thing okay again so if that's what happens with that little package I would hate to see what would happen to the candy you're sending okay so basically I just kind of stick a knife and jagged pieces whatever you want to do now I'm just using the same knife that I cut the chocolate with so I don't have to wash another one I basically just and about 1 pound I think will make about 4 generous gifts give them you give your friend the whole pound if you want and so this is all ready I'll show you guys it's delicious it's easy and you can package it here I'll show you how I attacked it this these are some these are called little Baker bags you can buy I went to one on my blog post they're lined inside Henry actually created some really cool stickers that you guys can print out does this need to be refrigerated yes I think so because like right now I think it's around 65 inch or 70 and it's already kind of melty so I refrigerated I'm eating it myself I will put it in like a sealed container and I'll refrigerate it for up to a week means I'm going to distribute like right after I'm done and then I will tell my friends put them in the fridge if they don't eat them Suvir here are two labels and you can download and print from my site they say nom nom Coco nutty dark bark and so this one is the one you use if you actually use the labels that are the two and a half inch circles because it's printed a little bit over so that you know for sure run read all the way to the edge but if you're just gonna print them out and cut them out yourself then this is the one you should use and it's clearly labeled as such in my post so just you know there are two different labels depending on how you're gonna cut them out and that is it um super easy peasy and you should totally make these for your friends so I hope you guys have a happy Wednesday any last questions before I sign off No thank you for the hearts and that adios people .
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Watch how I make Nom Nom Coco-Nutty Dark Bark while I answer viewers' questions on a Periscope video.
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Video by Michelle Tam & Henry Fong