So we ventured into the world of candy this holiday season and discovered some interesting things about chocolate in the process. We had a recipe for chocolate bark that I happened to make for a picnic we had last summer. I loved it because it literally took 5 minutes to make and there was no cooking involved whatsoever (there is a reason it’s Kevin’s Kitchen and not Lynda’s!). We often take recipes we find in other places and try to lighten them up. For this one we thought perhaps using unsweetened baking chocolate and then maybe adding Stevia to it would bring the sugar and calories down but the Stevia would add sweetness to the bitter chocolate. Wrong! When we put the recipe into a nutrition calculator we discovered that unsweetened chocolate has 40% more calories, fat and sugar than bittersweet or semisweet chocolate! So we used bittersweet chocolate for this recipe. We made bark and cups with this easy no-cook recipe. Pack these in a cookie tin and give them to neighbors and friends this holiday season. No cooking, no wrapping, inexpensive and you can keep your youthful figure too. Perfect!
Cherry Blueberry Christmas Chocolate
Ingredients
10 oz(s), bittersweet Chocolate Chips
¼ cup Dried Cherries
¼ cup Dried Blueberries
½ cup Crispy rice cereal
12 pieces (16g), Sugar Free Peppermint Hard Candy, crushed
How to make it!
Place chocolate chips in a microwave safe bowl. Microwave on High 1 minute and stir. Microwave on High for another 30 seconds. Stir in the dried cherries, blueberries and crispy rice cereal.
Bark
Cover a baking sheet with parchment paper. Pour chocolate mixture out onto the parchment and spread to about ¼” thick. Sprinkle the crushed hard peppermint candy pieces over the top of the chocolate. Place in the refrigerator and chill for 10 minutes or until firm. Break into 12 pieces.
Mini Cups
Place paper liners in mini muffin tin cups. Pour chocolate mixture into each cup and sprinkle peppermint pieces over each. Place in the refrigerator and chill for 10 minutes or until firm.
Kevin’s Tip – We like the cups for easy portion control, but make sure you thaw them a little or they can be hard to eat.
Serving Size: 1 of 12 pieces or 1 mini cup
Fat 7g | Calories 153| Carbs 25g | Protein 2g | Fiber 0g