My 1st attempt at Mexican Chocolate Bark

I spent the entire day wrapping and packing dozens of jars of my canned goods to ship out to family for the Christmas holiday. Included were several items made from my homegrown peppers - Salsa, Zucchini Relish, Cranberry Jalapeno (Serrano) Jelly, and Habanero Gold Jelly. I really wanted to include some sort of dessert that had peppers in it, and did a lot of research online. I ended up combining three different recipes for chile chocolate bark.

Here is what I ended up with:

Mexican Chocolate Bark (Bonnie's Version)

12 oz. dark chocolate chips
1/2 cup roasted, salted pistachios
1/4 cup roasted, salted pepitos
1 tspn of instant coffee granules
1 Tbsp cinnamon
1 tspn + of dried ground chile peppers, hot
1 tspn of dried ground chile peppers, mild

Melted the chips in a double boiler, stirred everything else in, spread onto a wax paper covered baking sheet, and placed in freezer until set. Then, just broke apart like a peanut brittle. Stored in refrigerator.

I made two batches. One came out hotter than the other, even though I did everything the same. Go figure. Both were pretty tasty, and a bit addictive. Probably a good thing it got packaged up, or I would have eaten way too much! Curious to see what the family thinks about chocolate with a kick

 

[The Hot Pepper]

Sounds pretty good. Try pulverizing espresso beans instead of instant coffee. Mexican chocolate, as a name though, is misleading, since it is a type of chocolate from Mexico.

 

[highalt]

Great suggestion about the espresso beans. I'll have to give that a try next time.

I was afraid if I called it Chile Chocolate Bark it would scare off some of the more spice-phobic family members. By calling it Mexican Chocolate Bark, it hints at whats in it, but doesn't spell it out. I want them to at least try a bite of it.

 

[highalt]

Well, I guess calling it Mexican Chocolate Bark didn't give away the secret ingredient. My sister, and one of her sons, guessed it had wasabi in it!
Couldn't really tell if they liked it, or just found it intriguing ...

 

[The Hot Pepper]

 

[geeme]

Chocolate and spice = WIN!

 

[highalt]

I'm kind of wishing I hadn't shipped both batches out of town. Trying to come up with an excuse to make some more.
Hmmm ... wonder how it would go over at a church potluck?

 

[mygrassisblue]

Thank You for sharing your recipe ! As far as church potluck ,sounds like something from Prairie Home Companion !

 

[drowningcreek]

Add a tiny sprinkle (according to taste preferences) of chili powder to a mug hot chocolate. Just the right amount for a warming kick. From what I understand this concoction was very popular among the Native peoples of Mexico and South America, even sometimes called the "Food of the Gods".

 

[highalt]

Yeah, Drowningcreek, I'd like to try the chile powder in hot chocolate ... IF we ever get some winter weather. My husband asked me last night if I wanted some hot chocolate, but when it's warm enough to go outside without a coat, and there's no snow on the ground, I'm just not in the mood for it. This has been the mildest winter we've had since I moved here over 10 years ago!

I may wait until Valentine's to make another batch of the chocolate bark. I tried a thumbprint cookie a while back that used Habanero Gold Jelly, but it was really more of a cheese biscuit, which I didn't really think went with the jelly. For my next pepper enhanced dessert, I'm going to use a regular thumbprint jam cookie recipe that uses more of a butter cookie dough.

 

[Rymerpt]

I make fudge and put about 1/2t of Chocolate scorpian pepper powder in a double batch. Just the right amout of heat.

 

[7potquezada]

Sounds pretty good. Try pulverizing espresso beans instead of instant coffee. Mexican chocolate, as a name though, is misleading, since it is a type of chocolate from Mexico.

Dude, check out the "Mayan Mocha" from Peets coffee if you have a location near you. It's pretty good, nice mexican hot chocolate flavored mocha with dried red pepper powder. (wish it was more peppery though.) You catch the pepper more once it's going down though.
 
Come to think of it, sounds like something one could make on their own lol.