Chocolate covered strawberries are a Valentine’s classic for a reason. They’re so good! But it’s always struck me as bad timing based on how difficult it is to find a decent strawberry in New York in February. That’s why I came up with a recipe for Swirled Chocolate Strawberry Bark.
I wanted to have a real strawberry flavor in the chocolate bark. Artificial strawberry has it’s place and it’s in those strawberry hard candies that Grandmas always have. When I’m not walking down memory lane I’ll go for the real thing.
Turns out it wasn’t that hard to get the strawberry flavor into the chocolate! I used the freeze-dried fruit technique from my recipe for Blueberry Lemon Fudge.
This time I used freeze-dried strawberries from Aldi’s. They were with the regular food so hopefully it’s not one of the awesome seasonal items that disappear forever after a week.
Freeze-dried strawberries have a very strange texture. They turn to powder very easily, if you don’t want to pull out the food processor you can easily push the strawberries through a metal sieve.
Unlike the blueberries they are a very uniform pinky-red color. The food processor does make things very dust so take care not to inhale a cloud of strawberry dust!
I went high-class with Ghiradelli melting wafers but this recipe will also work with almond bark or candy melts. You need two colors, white to mix the strawberries into and dark to make the base.
The darker the better, it will give you a stronger contrast with the strawberry and just look prettier.
The strawberries do make the chocolate thicker and they add a bit of texture so it’s not as smooth as a 100% chocolate candy but you shouldn’t let that stop you! Swirled desserts are so pretty and really easy.
For me the hard part is knowing when to stop swirling! You won’t mess up the flavor but you can swirl it so much you end up with one muddy looking pinkish-brown blob.
I made mine fairly thick, it’s about 1/4 inch thick in most places, so I recommend breaking it up into smaller pieces than you would with a thinner bark. It’s very rich and it has a lot of flavor so you don’t need a lot at all.
The biggest tip I can give you is to be prepared before you start melting things. If your house isn’t freezing you’ll have some time to play but I like to be cautious.
Have your counter covered with parchment and your measuring cups and off set spatula ready to go and you strawberries ground up and sifted.
Chocolate melts are pretty forgiving but you can ‘burn’ them if you heat them too much, you’ll know what happened if it gets very thick and chunky. You can usually save it by throwing in a little coconut oil and stirring until it’s smooth.
Whatever you do, don’t let any water get into the chocolate or it will seize up and it’s ruined.
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Chocolate Strawberry Bark
Ingredients
Instructions
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Sarah says
This looks like it would be perfect for Valentine’s Day! Sounds easy too!
Nicole @What She Ate says
I’ve always thought that was strange too that strawberries and chocolate are so popular for Valentine’s when strawberries aren’t even in season. Lol. Looks like you figured out the trick. This looks awesome!
Catherine Brown says
This is gorgeous! What a fantastic idea too. I love the freeze dried stawberries so much more than the dehydrated ones. I bet finely chopped toasted pistachios would be lovely here too. 😉
fiona says
These are gorgeous and sound so decadent! I totally know what you mean about finding something amazing at Aldi and then the next week it’s gone – the worst feeling! Hopefully these are there when you go back
Yvonne says
These are so pretty and I love how easy to make they are. A perfect gift for that someone special.
Guadalupe says
These chocolate strawberry dessert not only looks tasty! but also delicious 🙂
Gloria @ Homemade & Yummy says
Well isn’t this a fun treat. I think it would be perfect to give and receive for Valentine’s Day…..so much better than bought treats.
Elle says
Saving this quick and easy bark for Valentine’s Day! I love chocolate covered strawberries so I think it’d be a huge hit!
Jen says
Wow, these came out gorgeous Alecia. Very creative. I keep hearing about freeze dried fruits but haven’t played around with them yet.
Carmen says
Wow! This is genius! I was recently thinking the same thing about chocolate covered strawberries for Valentine’s Day. What a great way to solve the problem.
Elizabeth | The Recipe Revival says
I love chocolate and strawberry together! It sounds like an easy dessert idea for Valentines Day!
Lathiya says
These looks amazing..I loved the color and swirl pattern.. Strawberry and Chocolate are awesome combo
Karyl | Karyl's Kulinary Krusade says
Oh this bark looks so delicious! I’ve never tried freeze-dried strawberries, but I also don’t bake very often. I would, however, devour this bark in record time… 🙂
Samantha H. says
This would be so fun for Valentine’s day! I love freeze dried strawberries for Valentine’s desserts. They’re SUCH a gorgeous color. I bet this would be good with raspberries as well.
Rezel Kealoha says
Ohh. this reminds me that I want to make some bark for valentines day! Yours is so pretty. Love the deep red color of it!
Tiffany Alexandria says
These are so pretty! I love how you’re using REAL strawberries instead of fake artificial flavoring 🙁 It’s just not the same. I’m sending this to my bf so he can make it for me 😉
Stephanie says
This does look insanely easy! I want to make it for Valentine’s Day 🙂
Sara says
These are so perfect for a Valentine’s Day dessert!! So pretty and SO simple. Sign me up!! Can’t wait to try this recipe!
April says
Strawberry bark sounds so simple and delicious! I wish I could try this out but for some reason, my stomach doesn’t like strawberry and chocolate combo. I wonder what it would taste like using cherries instead. Have you tried this with cherries?
Alecia says
You can try it with any freeze-dried fruit! The technique would be the same
Jennifer says
I can’t get over how gorgeous these look. What a fun treat for Valentine’s Day!
Rachel @ i love my disorganized life says
I’ll have to make this for my granddaughters. They love strawberry anything!
Megan @ MegUnprocessed says
These look tasty! Love that combo and color!
Laura says
This bark looks delicious!