Chocolate Almond Bark and Chocolate Raspberry Bark!

This is one of my new favourites, not just for Christmas but for any time of year really.  A coworker brought these in one day and it was one of those things where you ate one peice, and it was good.  But then there was no stopping you after that first bite, you had to keep eating more and more!!  These have been called many different things,  but I decided to go with 'Bark' for the sake of this post.  I have also revised this recipe a bit to suit my own tastes - but its truly up to you, make changes as you go!

Chocolate Almond Bark

Ingredients: 

1 sleeve of graham crackers 

1 cup butter (preferably no substitutions)

1 cup brown sugar (you may want to use less of this if you aren't fond of how sweet these are)

2 cups milk chocolate chips

Crushed almonds to taste

Method:

Preheat your oven to 350F.  Line a 10" x 15" lipped pan (or any size you can fit those crackers in flat) with heavy duty foil.  Take your crackers and line them in the pan in a single layer with the edges touching.  If you have some spaces at the edges of the pan, you can break some crackers to make more fit.

In a saucepan, combine the butter and sugar and bring to a boil.  Stir constantly with a wire whisk for 2 minutes.  The mixture should gradually thicken.  Be careful that it does not burn.  Now you can carefully pour the sauce over the graham crackers making sure you have spread it evenly.  Throw your crackers and sauce into the oven for about 10-12 minutes or until the surface of the sauce begins to bubble.

Remove and sprinkle chocolate chips evenly over top.  You can return the pan to the oven for another minute so that the chips melt.  Remove the pan again and spread the chocolate with a knife or spatula.  Now you can pour your ground almond pieces over top.  Chill until chocolate and toffee has set and your ready to eat!!

Raspberry Chocolate Bark

Ingredients:
1 sleeve of graham crackers
1 cup butter (preferably no substitutions)
1 cup brown sugar (you may want to use less of this if you aren't fond of how sweet these are)
2 cups milk chocolate chips
1 small package of raspberries
Grated coconut to taste

Method:
This is the same recipe as above only you will be adding pureed raspberries at the same time as you add the chocolate chips (albeit just before).

The above picture is what your pureed raspberries should look like when you spread them on AFTER baking the toffee and crackers for 10-12 minutes.  Now for the chocolate.

At this point you can add some grated coconut over top and chill!

One small note for these is when you break them up for serving, they can be broken into random pieces or 'shards'.  Don't expect the individual crackers to come out nice and clean, because they won't!

Hope you enjoy this little recipe!