Cape Cod Potato Chip Bark Recipe

Potato Chips Drowning in Chocolate

Cape Cod Potato Chip Bark popped into my head on the way home from work one cold, dark rainy Cape Cod evening.  (What is it about shorter days and dropping temperatures that makes me crave chocolatey confections?)  The night before I was inspired to make Cape Cod S'mores Bark and I knew from the reception it had received that a sequel was in order.  But how do you top S'mores Bark?  And that's when it hit me, chocolate covered potato chips!

Love at First Bite

I first tasted chocolate covered potato chips about 10 years ago at a food show Joe and I attended.  The two of us had to be asked to leave the booth.  Never before had we experienced such an unearthly combination of salty and sweet.  And we had to be careful not to experience it again too soon.  The fact that potato chips aren't allowed in our house 362 days a year didn't give me pause as I headed on towards our neighborhood grocery store for the only chips worthy of what I was planning, our island's very own Cape Cod Potato Chips.

Just 2 ingredients, a half sheet pan, and a piece of parchment paper

If you've never made chocolate bark before, the most dangerous part to consider is how is easy it is to make, because you may start making bark morning, noon, and night.  Once you've decided on your potato chips, choose your favorite chocolate for melting.  After indulging in milk chocolate in our S'mores bark the night before, I decided our potato chips would be complemented by a luscious dark chocolate.  I happened to have Dark Chocolate Candy Melts on hand which are perfect for making bark because they are ideally suited to melting.  You can use chocolate bars or chips, too.  In fact, chocolate bars are super for making bark.  If you use chocolate chips, you may want to add a little shortening to make it smoother.

Melt over a double boiler

Before you get melting, it's important to prepare your potato chips.  I poured out about 1/3 of the bag for crushing into small pieces.  Use cellophane or a baggie to keep your hands from getting greasy.  Also make sure you have a sheet pan lined with parchment paper waiting in the wings.  I found that a quarter sized sheet pan (9" x 13") was the perfect size for this recipe.

Now you're ready to start melting.  I like melting my chocolate using a double boiler made from a stainless steel bowl sitting on top of a simmering pot.  It's more hands-on than using a microwave and there's less mystery or risk of wrecking the chocolate.  Plus, I love stirring and inhaling chocolate.  Once your chocolate is melted, mix in your crushed potato chips and thoroughly coat them.

Then spread the coated chocolate-potato chip mixture into your parchment-lined sheet pan.  At this point I decided I wanted to add another layer of chocolate because I planned on sprinkling more chips on top and it looked like they needed a little more to sink into.  So it was back to the double boiler with another cup of chocolate melts.

Spread your next layer of chocolate and then sprinkle with more crushed chips.  Push the chip-chips into your top layer, then head for the refrigerator.  In less than 1/2 and hour, your bark is ready to break apart into servings.  I chose to slice my bark into small pieces so that I could put them in little cups to give out to customers during our Christmas Open House.

You can leave your bark in an air-tight container for several days, but most likely it won't last that long!  For a printable, easy-to-follow recipe click HERE.