Ingredients:
- 6 ounces (about 2 1/2 cups) coarsely chopped gingerbread cookies
- 1 pound semi-sweet chocolate
- 4 ounces white chocolate
Preparation:
1. Line a baking sheet with foil.
2. Coarsely chop the semi-sweet chocolate. If you will be storing the bark at room temperature, you should temper the chocolate by following these instructions. Tempering is a special melting process that helps the chocolate stay shiny and hard, and prevents it from getting soft at room temperature. If you will be storing the bark in the refrigerator, this step can be skipped.
3. If you're not tempering the chocolate, melt it instead: place it in a large microwave-safe bowl and microwave it in 30-second increments, stirring after every 30 seconds. Microwave until it is melted and smooth.
4. Add most of the chopped cookies to the melted chocolate, reserving a few tablespoons of cookies to use as decoration.
5. Scrape the chocolate out onto the baking sheet and spread it into a thin layer. It does not need to extend all the way to the sides of the sheet.
6. Coarsely chop the white chocolate, and melt it in a small bowl in the microwave. Place the melted white chocolate in a plastic bag with the corner cut off, and drizzle it over the chocolate bark.
7. Crumble the remaining chopped cookies over the bark. Refrigerate the bark until the chocolate is firm, then break it into small pieces by hand.
8. Store Gingerbread Bark in an airtight container at room temperature (if tempered) or in the refrigerator (if not tempered) for up to two weeks. The chocolate will last longer than that, but the cookies will start to get stale eventually.
