This is something you can whip up when you need to prepare a holiday themed dessert using what you likely/may have at hand. The main characters are dark chocolate, pomegranate arils, mint leaves, and shelled pistachios. They come together in less than an hour into a festive and not-too-sweet treat. Because pomegranate arils remain largely uncooked, when you bite into a finished piece, it carries an unexpectedly refreshing texture. The idea is to combine red and green colors on dark chocolate, so feel free to substitute any of the ingredients as long as you like eating them.
I happen to adore pomegranates and grab them whenever I go grocery shopping in season. And, in my super geeky way, I enjoy separating arils one by one from the pods by hand. There are much quicker tricks shared by Cooks Illustrated and other resources, which you can find it here. If do not have access to whole pomegranates, you can use packaged ones, and in that case, I recommend you lightly rinse them and remove damaged/moldy arils. If you don’t care for pomegranate seeds, or don’t care of them, you can use dried cranberries, cherries, jujube, etc.
I happen to adore pomegranates and grab them whenever I go grocery shopping in season. And, in my super geeky way, I enjoy separating arils one by one from the pods by hand. There are much quicker tricks shared by Cooks Illustrated and other resources, which you can find it here. If do not have access to whole pomegranates, you can use packaged ones, and in that case, I recommend you lightly rinse them and remove damaged/moldy arils. If you don’t care for pomegranate seeds, or don’t care of them, you can use dried cranberries, cherries, jujube, etc.
As for nuts, I also happen to love pistachios and think they go well together with pomegranate (and they are green!), but you can skip them or can use chopped almonds, walnuts, or your favorite nuts. The ones I used are in-shell and lightly salted. If you are using the ones without salt, I recommend adding a pinch (1/4-teaspoon or less) salt into the mix.
To keep the fresh green color, I do highly recommend using fresh mint leaves. It’s easier if you can just pluck small top leaves. You can also tear apart larger leaves into smaller pieces. I don’t recommend chopping them with a knife because the edges may turn rusty.
As for chocolate, you can use all dark, or mix of dark & milk, depending on your preference. It works best if you use European or other high quality chocolate bars (Lindt, Ghirardelli, etc.). If you are in a rush and have chocolate chips at hand, you can certainly go with them! What’s very important, and I learned a hard way, in melting chocolate in a double-boiler (or bain-marie) is not to let simmering water touch the bottom of bowl with chocolate, and not to let even a drop of water into chocolate. I do not have a real double-boiler so doing my best with a heat resistant bowl and a tad smaller pan. There are many resources for properly melting chocolate like this.
I made this as a bark because it makes the process less messy. You , can also use cupcake liners or silicone molds as long as you don’t make them too thick. Break in whatever shape you want and enjoy!
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