Dark Chocolate Bark with Pomegranate, Sea Salt, & Chocolate Cookie Crumbs

Happy Valentine's Day. I've been on a bit of a pomegranate kick lately. And to be honest I planned on making chocolate bark over the holidays but got too busy. It was my first time making bark and I was surprised at how easy it was. The whole process only takes about 15 minutes and there's a good chance you already have the ingredients on hand. It makes a great gift, snack to sneak into the movies, or perfect simple Valentine's treat. 

Dark Chocolate Bark with Pomegranate, Sea Salt, & Chocolate Cookie Crumbs 

1 pound dark chocolate, roughly chopped (I used 58% cocoa) 
1/4 cup coconut oil 
1.5 cups pomegranate arils (from about 2 medium pomegranates) 
1/2 cup chocolate cookies, crumbled (I used Trader Joe's Joe Joes) 
1 scant teaspoon chunky sea salt 

Prep the toppings. Fill a large bowl with cold water. Slice pomegranates in half then submerge in water. Remove the pomegranate arils from the pith. The arils will fall to the bottom of the bowl and the pith will rise to the top. Skim the pith from the top and drain the water. Lay pomegranate arils on a paper towel and pat to dry. Crumble the cookies into rough chunks. Roughly chop the chocolate. 

Line a baking sheet with a silicone baking mat or parchment paper. Heat the chocolate in the bowl of a double boiler over simmering water until melted. Remove from heat and stir in coconut oil until completely combined. Stir in half of the pomegranate arils, the pour the chocolate mixture into the baking sheet, allowing it to spread out until it's about 1/4 inch thick. Sprinkle with remaining arils, cookie crumbs, and sea salt. Refrigerate for 30 minutes, then crack the bark into pieces and enjoy. Keeps in the fridge. 

Notes: 

• I was a little unsure about adding the cookies so I only added them to half of the bark. I can report, the cookies were definitely a good idea. 
• Feel free to get creative when it comes to the toppings.  

Angel Food Cake with Dark Chocolate Whipped Cream & Pomegranate Syrup

Right now my life consists of grad school interviews (!!!!) and angel food cake. Both of which I'm super excited about. It looks like we'll be going to Chicago, Boston, and San Francisco (twice) over the next three weeks. My bank account is empty, my carbon footprint is huge, and my heart is full. We'll see what happens. 

On another note, it's almost Valentine's Day, a silly holiday if I do say so myself. I've never been much of a fan, until I clicked through my favorite food blogs earlier this morning and got super inspired. I'm debating between a simple pasta dish with mascarpone, hazelnuts, spinach and homemade pasta, or going big on a french theme with french onion soup (did you know you can make it without beef broth?) salad, and creme brûlée. Classic. Either way there will be angel food cake. 

You see, angel food cake is my husband's favorite, ever. Whenever I ask him what he wants for his birthday/first night home after a long trip away/anniversary the answer is always angel food cake. Being the crazy that I am, I refuse to buy the stuff, which in honestly way easier and not far off from the homemade version. You see, angel food cake is finicky. We're talking borderline french macaron finicky. So finicky I almost resisted posting it. So finicky it needs a special pan (I tried it in a bundt once to save money and it was disastrous), perfectly room-temperature egg whites, and an upside down cooling strategy. So finicky that my attempts to simplify and adapt an already perfect recipe failed miserably. So this recipe is from Alton Brown. Follow the directions exactly and you will be fine. Don't adapt, don't skip anything, or you will waste a dozen eggs. Yeah, I know it's a lot, but you can and should totally make ice cream with the yolks. 

Angel food cake is most traditionally served with whipped cream and strawberries. But alas it's February and I wish I could scream at every supermarket in the country right now to "STOP TRYING TO MAKE OUT-OF-SEASON STRAWBERRIES DURING VALENTINE'S DAY A THING". There is nothing romantic about over-priced, imported, tasteless out of season fruit. Just wait until Spring people, it will be worth it. In effort to replace the strawberries, and in keeping the the whole red v-day theme, I went with a sweet pomegranate syrup instead. And I made a dark chocolate whipped cream which is literally icing on an already fantastic cake, because chocolate is already a good idea. 

Angel Food Cake with Dark Chocolate Whipped Cream & Pomegranate Syrup 
Cake recipe by Alton Brown 

For the cake: 
1 3/4 cup cane sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup cake flour
12 large egg whites, room temperature
1/3 cup warm water
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1.5 teaspoons cream of tartar 

For the whipped cream: 
4 ounces dark chocolate, roughly chopped
2 cups heavy cream
pinch of salt 
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

For the Pomegranate syrup
1.5 cups pomegranate juice (about 3 pomegranates - see notes) + a handful of arils for serving
1/3 cup cane sugar    

Make the whipped cream. Place chocolate in a medium bowl. In a small saucepan heat heavy cream to a soft boil. Remove from heat and pour over chocolate. Let sit for a minute, then stir until completely incorporated. Cover and refrigerate for at least two hours. Once cool, use a hand mixer with a whisk attachment and whip until it becomes whipped cream.  

Make the cake. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Pulse sugar in a food processor or blender for about 2 minutes until finely ground. Reserve 1/2 of the sugar. Whisk the other 1/2 of the sugar with cake flour, and salt. Combine egg whites, water, vanilla, and cream of tarter in a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment. Whisk on medium high, slowly incorporating the remaining half of the sugar, until medium peaks form and the whisk forms grooves in the egg whites. Using a fine mesh strainer sprinkle about 1/5 of the flour mixture onto the egg whites. Being mindful you don't de-flat the egg whites, gently fold in the flour, sweeping the spatula from the bottom of the bowl to the top, turning the bowl as you go. Repeat four more times until all of the flour is incorporated. Try to do this step quickly. Pour batter into an angel food cake pan, take a sharp knife and pierce it into the batter, drawing a circle (martha stewart taught me this gets rid of air bubbles), then use a spatula to lightly even out the top. Cook for 45-50 minutes until the top is lightly brown and a skewer comes out clean. 

To cool, invert upside down over a bottle for at least an hour. I'm not kidding. See photo. Once cooled take a butter knife and glide it between the cake and the edges and center of the pan. I also had luck with a little shaking and smacking. Trust, it will come out. 

Make the pomegranate syrup. Combine juice and sugar in a small saucepan, bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer. Stir occasionally until juice has thickened and reduced by half, about 30-40 minutes. 

Serve the cake with whipped cream, pomegranate syrup and a small handful of pomegranate arils. Cake keeps for about 5 days covered at room temperature. 

Notes:

• Wanting to save time by not blending the sugar in a food processor, and thinking powdered sugar is basically the same thing? We think alike. And I tried it. It doesn't come out as well, I suspect because powdered sugar actually has some anti-clumping additive that must mess with the egg whites. 
• Feel bad about tossing all those egg yolks? Save them and make ice cream! 
• Here's a fantastic article with pictures for juicing your own pomegranates. All you need is a blender/food processor and a fine mesh strainer. If you don't have time, Pom pomegranate juice works, it's just more expensive. 

Dark Chocolate Cranberry Crumble Cake

The week before Christmas is insane. Dealing with the flurry and excitement of family traditions and obligations, spending too much on gifts and stressing over what to buy people, rushing to get christmas cards out all while trying to relax and enjoy a season that is supposed to be magical seems somewhat impossible. We hosted Thanksgiving this year, a holiday potluck with almost twenty people two weeks later, had a friend from out of town visit last weekend, and I'm currently neck-deep in grad school applications, and honestly this year we are just over it. My plans for homemade butternut squash ravioli on christmas eve are going to turn into Indian food take out. And I'm ok with it. 

I've been projecting my exhaustion on my students this week by attempting to gift them with the 10-minute savasana, a rare gem in modern yoga classes and the ultimate christmas gift. It's something we could ALL use. Unfortunately I haven't been to a yoga class in over a month and I'm started to feel it big time. 

But seriously, my husband has never been a big fan of Christmas, he's always been all about Thanksgiving - gratitude, celebrating with family and friends, opening your doors to everyone, and being thankful for what you have, no gifts necessary. And I'm started to think he's onto something, because really who needs to collect more junk? We don't. I'm trying to embrace this by making edible gifts and gifting simple practical things. When my brother told me he wanted glass storage containers for food, preferably used, for christmas I about hugged him through the phone. Have I mentioned my brother pretty much lives off the grid? We have become our conservative consumerist parents' nightmare. My mom called me the other day stressing over whether to make ham, prime rib, or salmon for christmas dinner. I honestly don't know what kind of answer she expected from her vegetarian daughter but all she got was a big laugh. I say all of this being totally guilty myself. I worry about giving people the perfect gift, I stress about getting christmas cards out to the people we care about in time, and I've been obsessing over a holiday Pinterest board for weeks. 

So I'm posting this cake. Then signing off. Attempting to relax and take a break from standing over the stove. Let someone else cook for me, give grad school applications a break, and snuggle with my husband and my puppy. I hope you take some time to do the same. Maybe even go big and give yourself a 10 minute savasana. Then, if you have time, make this cake. It's simple, christmas-y and delicious. Rich dark chocolate and bright sour juicy cranberries become best friends and play beautifully together under the buttery pecan crumble sun. 

I am so tired. Can you tell? Over and out. Happy holidays. Merry Christmas. Be well, my friends. 

Dark Chocolate Cranberry Crumble Cake
Makes 1 large 9-inch cake
Adapted by Smitten Kitchen  

For the cake: 
2 cups minus 1 tbsp all purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp sea salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
4 tbsp unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup cane sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
zest of 1 lemon
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup whole milk
8.5 ounces, or 2 heaping cups, fresh cranberries
7oz dark chocolate, roughly chopped 

For the crumble: 
5 tbsp all purpose flour
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 cup chopped pecans
pinch of salt
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, cubed and cold

Heat oven to 375. Butter and lightly flour a 9" cake pan then line base with parchment paper.

In a medium bowl whisk together flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg. In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream together the softened butter, sugars and zest until light and fluffy - around 5 minutes at full speed. Add in the egg and vanilla and mix until combined. With the mixer on low, pour in 1/3 of the flour mixture and beat until incorporated, follow with 1/2 of the milk, 1/3 of the flour, the other 1/2 of the milk, and finally the last 1/3 of flour beating until incorporated between each addition. Remove bowl from the mixer and stir in cranberries and chocolate until evenly distributed- because the batter is super thick, I found using a wooden spoon worked much easier than a rubber spatula. Pour the batter into the prepared cake pan and smooth over the top. 

Make the crumble. In a small bowl whisk together flour, sugar, cinnamon, pecans and salt. Using your hands or a pastry blender cut the butter into the flour mixture until it resembled chunky sand - there should still be small bits of butter. Sprinkle the crumble over the cake and cook for 40-50 minutes until the crumble is golden brown and a toothpick comes out clean. Let cool, flip to remove from cake pan and serve. 

Notes:

We left it at room temperature and like Deb says, it does get more moist the longer it's out. It was devoured within 36 hours, but she claims it will keep for up to 3 days at room temperature, after that pop it in the fridge. 

December 2015 update: I tried it with Trader Joe's Gluten-Free flour and it was tasty but the cake didn't hold together when cut. The lack of gluten made things really fall apart. 

Photography - our awesome neighbor came over the night I baked this and let me play with his camera. Needless to say it was far superior to my current camera which is an iphone...So if you're wondering why some of these photos look better than any I've ever posted that's why!