This easy recipe from Ina Garten is my must-have gift this season: it’s delicious

I would have made Ina Garten’s French Chocolate Bark even if the directions said, “Sprinkle with small pieces of paper and flavored erasers.” The Ina hype is real. Everything is going better than I imagined, with less effort than expected. And while the terminology “French” and “bark” is a bit biased, the part where you microwave the chocolate tells me that this one is just right for me.

This recipe is one of Garten’s favorite host gifts. It’s especially great for people who have everything, who appreciate homemade gifts, who love chocolate, who love fruit, who… OK, the thing is, it blows a boring bottle of Beaujolais.

Why I love Ina Garten’s Chocolate Bark

But first, I made a batch for myself. Maybe it’s because my mother encouraged my sisters and me to gift things we’d like to have ourselves, but I figured I should do a dress rehearsal before hitting the road with my Chocolate Party solo tour. Non-spoiler alert: this is quintessential Contessa.

Friends who received the shreds of whatever passed my kitchen counter agreed, raving about the high-quality flavor of the chocolate (Ina’s suggestion to use “really good” chocolate is a liberating conundrum – and fair). And the crunchy, granulated sugar coating on the ginger is even more festive. Every inch is a perfect bite.

How I Make Ina Garten’s French Chocolate Bark

To start, Ina bakes us roasted and salted cashew nuts, giving them a toasted, slightly “off-cashew” color. While they cool, you chop the chocolate, which gave a Michelin star vibe, because who cuts chocolate before you eat it? (Professional chefs. Not me.) I also gave myself a little pat on the back for going through the whole recipe before starting, because not all the chocolate is microwave safe at once (half of the sour chocolate -soft is incorporated later).

Make sure you have drawn your rectangle guide on your parchment paper before preparing your chocolate. The microwave in my lo-fi apartment has the heating power of an Easy-Bake oven, but it still melts chocolate in five 30-second increments. And although I couldn’t find semi-sweet chocolate in bar form, the pieces melted really well. (“Is it easy?”)

After spreading the melted chocolate on your parchment (I spent way too much time trying to create semi-sweet beach waves), you can finally add all the good stuff to your bark. There’s an order to this: candied ginger then cashews, cherries, apricots and raisins, which clearly reveals Ina’s not-so-secret hierarchy of dried fruits. The chocolate started to harden as I dot my dessert canvas, so work quickly and make sure each piece is encrusted with soft chocolate. (Anything that isn’t will fall later.)

Allowing two hours of rest to fully harden the chocolate, simply cut the bark and wrap it. Is tying each bundle with a “Barefoot Contessa” printed ribbon a bit much? Yeah. I don’t think so either.

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