Halloween bark with shortcrust pastry and caramel
Crispy base made from leftover cookie dough, caramel and dark chocolate
Hello foodies,
does this sound familiar? After baking cookies, there's a piece of light shortcrust pastry here, a piece of dark one there, and simply not enough for a new tray of cookies. After our Halloween Spitzbuben and the Shortbread cookies with a frame, exactly these leftovers were left over. And from them, our absolute favourite treat was born: the Halloween bark!
The dough becomes the crispy base, topped with caramel, dark chocolate and everything you can find in Halloween decorations. Because light and dark leftovers come together, the base turns out beautifully marbled. At the end, the slab is simply broken into pieces, the more irregular the better!
The quantities are for a whole tray, so 400 g of dough. If you have fewer leftovers, simply set the quantity selector to half a tray. And no leftovers? No problem, the homemade shortcrust pastry recipe is right here too.
Ingredients
Base
Shortcrust pastry to make yourself (if no leftovers)
Decoration
Step by step
Base
Put the dough scraps together
Take your shortcrust pastry scraps, light, dark or both. For a marbled pattern, place light and dark pieces alternately next to each other and press them together briefly. Please don't knead, or the colours will blur!
No scraps? Then cream the shortcrust pastry as you would for our Shortbread cookies with a frame: beat butter, sugar, salt and vanilla until fluffy, add the egg gradually, briefly work in the flour and chill for an hour. For the dark dough, knead the cocoa powder into half of it.
Bourbon vanilla seeds, 5 g
Swiss white flour, 1 kg
Cocoa powder, 1 kg
Roll out and bake
Preheat the oven to 190 °C fan. Roll the dough out directly on baking paper: 3 mm for a fine, crisp base or 5 mm if you prefer it a little more tender. Slide the paper onto the baking tray.
Bake the base for 8 to 9 minutes (3 mm) or 10 to 11 minutes (5 mm) and let it cool completely on the tray.
Beechwood dough sticks, 6 pieces (3/5/10 mm)
Baking paper sheets, 25 pieces
Topping
Spread the caramel
Spread the Caramel cream with the angled spatula in a thin, even layer over the cooled base.
Creamy caramel
Stainless steel angled spatula
Pour over the chocolate
Temper the dark couverture, pour it over the caramel and smooth it with the angled spatula until everything is nicely covered.
Stainless steel angled spatula
White couverture drops 500 g
Milk couverture drops 500 g
Dark couverture drops 500 g
Decorate creepily
Now you need to work quickly while the chocolate is still liquid: sprinkle the Halloween sprinkles over it, place bloody candy eyes and other candy decorations on top, and finish with two pinches of fleur de sel. The salt really brings out the flavour of the caramel!
Bloody candy eyes halloween decoration
Halloween sugar decoration spooky, 8 pieces
Sugar decorations pumpkin, zombie, mummy and hat
Orange/black/white sprinkles
Sugar decoration "Pumpkin" - 6 pcs
Sprinkle decor halloween mix 4 in 1, 100 g
Sugar decoration halloween 55 g
Halloween sugar decoration spooky pumpkins, 8 pieces
Let it set and break
Let the chocolate set, in the fridge this takes about 15 minutes. Then break the slab into pieces by hand or cut it with a large knife. The more irregular, the better!
Halloween bark
Ingredients
Base
Shortcrust pastry to make yourself (if no leftovers)
Topping
Decoration
Method
- Dough: Press the leftover pastry together (or make shortcrust pastry and chill for 1 hr).
- Bake: Roll out to 3 to 5 mm thick on baking paper, bake for 8 to 11 min at 190 °C convection, then let cool.
- Caramel: Spread the caramel cream thinly over the base.
- Chocolate: Pour over tempered dark couverture and smooth it out.
- Decorate: Immediately scatter sprinkles, candy eyes and fleur de sel on top.
- Break: Let set in the fridge for approx. 15 min, then break into pieces.
Nutritional values per 100 g
Storage & shelf life
Everything for this recipe
Recommended by our bakery team, in exactly the sizes this recipe was tested with.
Ingredients
Swiss white flour, 1 kg
Cocoa powder, 1 kg
Bourbon vanilla seeds, 5 g
Creamy caramel
Bloody candy eyes sugar decoration for Halloween
Halloween spooky sugar decoration, 8 pieces
White couverture drops 500 g
Milk couverture drops 500 g
Dark couverture drops 500 g
Sugar decorations pumpkin, zombie, mummy and hat
Orange/black/white sprinkles
Sugar decoration "Pumpkin" - 6 pcs
Sprinkle decor Halloween mix 4 in 1, 100 g
Sugar decoration Halloween 55 g
Halloween sugar decor Spooky pumpkins, 8 pcs
Accessories
Beech wood dough rolling pins, 6 pieces (3/5/10 mm)
Baking paper sheets, 25 pieces
Stainless steel angled spatula
Delivery in 1 to 2 working days · Free shipping from CHF 100
To make sure it turns out perfectly
Leftover dough keeps well wrapped for a few days in the fridge or several weeks in the freezer. That way, enough builds up over time for a whole tray.
Only have a small piece of dough left? Then try our Halloween biscuits with a chocolate coating, which need just 95 g of dough.
Packed in a transparent bag with a bow, the Halloween bark makes the perfect little gift for a Halloween party. And nobody will guess it was made from leftovers!
Frequently asked questions
Yes, only tempered couverture sets firm, shines and breaks cleanly. Untempered couverture stays soft, sticks to your fingers and turns grey.
Of course! Dark couverture is a lovely contrast to the sweet caramel, but with milk or white couverture the bark tastes just as good, only a little sweeter.
So that you can also bake the bark as its own recipe. The quantities are for 400 g of dough, which is a whole baking tray. If you have less leftover dough, set the quantity selector to half a tray, and the caramel and chocolate will adjust automatically.
Print recipe
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