Recipes
Cookies and cream bark
60 minutes, plus chilling time Preparation time
15 minutes Cooking time
10 Serves
Ingredients
Cookie crumb
120 g unsalted butter
65 g brown sugar
50 g whole egg
200 g plain flour
35 g Dutch processed cocoa powder
¼ tsp salt
Plain flour, for dusting
Cookies and cream bark
80 g cookie crumb, from above
Pinch of salt flakes
280 g good-quality white chocolate
Method
Cookie crumb
- Place the butter and brown sugar into the bowl of a freestanding mixer fitted with a paddle attachment and beat until smooth.
- Once there are no lumps of butter remaining, add the egg and mix to combine.
- In a separate bowl, combine the flour, cocoa powder, and salt.
- Add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture and mix until it just comes together as a dough.
- Press the dough into an even, flat rectangle, wrap it in plastic wrap and chill in the fridge for 1 hour.
- Preheat the oven on Fan Plus at 150°C.
- On a lightly floured workbench, roll out the chilled dough to approximately 4 mm in thickness.
- Cut the dough into 50 mm x 50 mm squares and transfer them onto a lined baking tray.
- Bake in the preheated oven for 15 minutes.
- Allow to cool completely at room temperature, then roughly chop into small pieces.
Cookies and cream bark
- Evenly divide the cookie crumbs between two bowls, then mix the salt through one of them.
- Temper the chocolate by placing it into a saucepan over medium-low heat, induction setting 2. Stir continuously until you have 50% solids and 50% liquid. Then, transfer the semi-melted chocolate into a heat-proof plastic bowl and stir vigorously until the solids have completely melted.
- Mix the combined cookie crumbs and salt through the tempered chocolate, then quickly pour it onto a lined tray and spread it out.
- Before it sets, sprinkle the second portion of cookie crumbs over the surface and gently press it into the chocolate.
- Allow to set at room temperature before breaking into pieces.
Hints and tips
- The cookie crumb can be made in advance and stored in an airtight container.
- The cookie crumb recipe makes more biscuit than required for the bark but is difficult to make with smaller quantities.
- Any remaining biscuits can be eaten as is, sprinkled over ice cream, or sandwiched with ganache.
- You can substitute the cookie crumb with an equal weight of crushed store-bought cookies if desired.
Applicance Functions
Kirsten Tibballs
Kirsten Tibballs, proclaimed by MasterChef Australia as ‘the Queen of Chocolate’, is one of Australia’s most celebrated and internationally respected pastry chefs and chocolatiers.
With a desire to pass on her knowledge to other passionate food lovers and professional pastry chefs, Kirsten established Savour Chocolate & Patisserie School in 2002 in Brunswick, Melbourne. Savour creates an opportunity for students to learn from and work alongside their award-winning chefs. It boasts a state of the art kitchen and hosts a number of renowned international pastry chefs each year.