Oregon Transplant: Pomegranate Pistachio Bark

Friday, November 27, 2015

Pomegranate Pistachio Bark

Happy day after Thanksgiving!

Did everyone have a great holiday? Eat a lot of turkey? Watch a lot of football? Drink a lot of mimosa's and chow down on Mom's Family Famous Clam Dip? Just me? Ok :-)

We had a great holiday around here! Everyone pitched in to bring different dishes, so my stress level was low. The turkey cooked in 3 hours and 15 minutes, instead of the 5 hours we planned on (one of my fears was that the bird wouldn't cook in time, or that people would eat raw turkey). We were pleased with that one. The Pecan Pie turned out just like the one I practiced on. Twas' a good day.

Really and truly, my only qualm was that I didn't take pictures. D'oh! I take that back, I set up the tripod before people came and I got a picture of the hubby, me, and the dogs-

Love those puppies :-) I truly am the worst photographer ever though. Haha.

So in the meantime, let's talk about candy. Easy, delicious, glorious candy.

This is one of the easiest candies to make. Bark in general is super-easy to make. The concept is that you simply melt vanilla or chocolate candy (I went with vanilla), pour it onto a cookie sheet covered with parchment paper and, sprinkle your chosen additions on top of the melted candy. Pop the cookie sheet in the fridge for 45 minutes, and voila! Crack the candy into a bunch of random pieces, and devour. I chose to sprinkle pistachios, pretzels, dark chocolate, and pomegranate arils over the melted vanilla candy.

Have you ever worked with pomegranate? It looks like an intimidating fruit, but it's definitely not. With them being in season right now, they are super-cheap. Truly. Those little pre-packaged 6 oz cups of pre-harvested pomegranate arils were $4.99 at the grocery store, yet I bought 3 whole pomegranates for $5. And let me tell you, 1 pomegranate gives you about 12 oz of arils. I am not exaggerating, that is a fact.

A no-brainer right? Right. I mean, jeez. How do they get away with selling those little cups for $5? I do not get it. I got 5 times the arils for the same price.

At any rate, let's look at this fruit-

I learned on the internet that the easiest way to break into a pomegranate is to score the top, and then-CRACK! whack the pomegranate on the counter. It will break open into quarters, and all you have to do is harvest the arils from the inside.

Yuuuuuuummmmmmmmmm. Good stress relief too, whacking that fruit on the counter :-)

The hubby was amazed by these little red jewels. I, myself, had a childhood run-in with pomegranates so I knew I loved the fruit. My mom's first cousin lives in Las Vegas, and has a pomegranate tree in her yard. Lucky. When we used to visit as kids, one of my brother and I's favorite things was to go out in the backyard, pick out our own little fruit, and devour it. When I was a kid and pomegranates were new to me, I was so jealous that we didn't have our own pomegranate tree. I was hooked.

Indeed, I completely devoured any leftover arils I had when I was done with the candy. The pomegranate seeds were gone even faster than this candy!

All right. To completely change the subject-

Anyone venturing out for Black Friday today? I certainly am not! Or the hubby. In fact, the niece and our oldest nephew are spending the night with us tonight. The niece asked me if we could make strawberry ice cream together tonight. Awww! Melt my heart. I told her of course we could make strawberry ice cream.

So, you know what the hubby and I will be up to tonight! Most likely up to our eyeballs in strawberry ice cream while watching Christmas movies. Haha.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Ingredients (makes 1-11x13 pan of bark):

1- 16 oz package of vanilla melting candy
1/3 cup pretzels, roughly chopped
1/3 cup pistachios, roughly chopped
1/3 cup dark chocolate, roughly chopped
1/3 cup pomegranate arils

Directions:

1. Line an 11x13 pan or a large cookie sheet with parchment paper. Set aside.
2. Melt candy according to package directions. When melted, pour into parchment covered pan or onto cookie sheet.
3. Immediately sprinkle all toppings evenly over the melted candy.
4. Place pan or cookie sheet in the fridge. Allow candy to set for 30-45 minutes. Remove from the fridge, and crack candy into random pieces. Due to the pomegranate arils, I recommending keeping this candy in the fridge in an airtight container. Leftover candy is good for 4-5 days.

Printable Recipe