Boo!! Now that we’re into spooky season I’m so excited to be making and baking up the spookiest recipes. I had so much fun with these! The one thing I always keep in mind when creating spooktastically fun desserts is the difficulty level. I’m no professional when it comes to decorating sweets. So instead of sharing a recipe that will potentially leave you in tears (I’ve been there), I try to keep them easy. I can’t think of an easier recipe than a chocolate bark, so making this spooky was the best idea! I kept the ingredients simple: chocolate, peanut butter, butter, and sugar. And maybe some white chocolate pretzels if you want to go that extra mile. You can really do what you want here. Use my base bark recipe, then decorate however you please. Just be sure to have fun!
Here are the steps!
Step 1: make the peanut butter pumpkins If you’ve ever made peanut butter balls you can make these pumpkins. They’re made with peanut butter, butter, and powdered sugar. Beat the ingredients together, then roll the dough into little balls. These are your pumpkins. Next, I used broken cinnamon sticks for stems, but small pretzel sticks work perfectly too (plus, they’ll taste yummy). Then I like to draw stems with a little melted chocolate. Nothing fancy! Step 2: the chocolate bark I love using super dark chocolate for this. I used 12 ounces of 70% dark and then 12 ounces of unsweetened chocolate. Then I melted the two together and poured half of the chocolate on a parchment-lined cookie sheet. Next, take the remaining peanut butter (about 1 cup) and begin dolloping it over the chocolate. Keep the dollops to 1-2 teaspoons. Now take the remaining melted chocolate and pour it directly over the mounds of peanut butter. Don’t stress about making this perfect. Just gently spread the chocolate out. Step 3: decorate When the peanut butter pumpkins are firm, you can place them directly onto the melted chocolate. Then chill the bark until it’s fully set. Honestly, it’s best if you can let everything really chill overnight, but 30 minutes in the freezer does the trick too. My biggest piece of advice is to make sure to keep the chocolate bark away from the sun, it will melt quickly! For decorating, I made mini pretzel ghosts using pretzel twists and white chocolate. These are the easiest, and so fun to make. You really can’t mess them up. I arranged the ghosts in between the pumpkins and then chilled the bark for a few hours. Once chilled, I then sprinkled over some black sanding sugar to make everything sparkle, yet still feel spooky. The secret to success with this chocolate bark is to not stress about making it perfect. The more imperfect the spookier – and that’s a GOOD thing. Yes, the awesome thing about Halloween treats is that the more imperfect they look, the better. It’s all about that spooky vibe, so embrace the imperfections here. No one pumpkin or ghost should look like another. You can pack them up and take them to the school Halloween party. Or serve them up at your adult-filled Halloween bash. Looking for other Halloween cookies? Here are my favorites: Chewy Brown Sugar Peanut Butter Spider Cookies Enchanted Graveyard Pomegranate Punch “I put a Spell on You” Poison Apple Martini Black Widow Peanut Butter Bars Hocus Pocus Spellbook Brownies Spooky Halloween Pretzels Milk Chocolate Stuffed Jack-O’-Lantern Cookies Black Cat Pumpkin Cupcakes Roly Poly Pumpkin Cookies BOO! Chocolate Peanut Butter Bars Lastly, if you make this Haunted Chocolate Peanut Butter Bark, be sure to leave a comment and/or give this recipe a rating! Above all, I love to hear from you guys and always do my best to respond to each and every comment. And of course, if you do make this recipe, don’t forget to tag me on Instagram! Looking through the photos of recipes you all have made is my favorite!
