Crunchy Seed Bark With Tortillas and Chocolate
This crunchy seed bark is enhanced with crunched up tortilla chips and spices like cumin and chili, then made sweet with honey and a dark chocolate drizzle. The flavors are salty, sweet, savory, and spicy, along with being crunchy of course, and I think you’ll find it super satisfying (and fun!) to eat.
This seed bark style recipe is unique from others in that it combines the classic seed bark ingredients of seeds and honey (or maple syrup), and often expected chocolate, with more unusual ingredients. Broken up tortilla chips, cumin seeds, ground cumin and chili powder add in spicy and savory notes that give the bark more dimension. If you leave out the chocolate, you’ve got a great “tortilla pepita crisp” that tops my Charred Vegetable Chili, or you could serve alongside a Mexican meal as a side/snack/app. With the chocolate, as written, it is a welcome departure from your typical chocolate drizzled seed bark.
Is it a bark, a snap, a crisp, a brittle? I’m not sure but it’s crunchy, salty, sweet, savory, and spicy
RECIPE RECAP:
~ This funky, crunchy bark is all the things, because I started with your run of the mill pumpkin and sesame seeds, added Mexican recipe ingredients like cumin, tortilla chips, and chili powder, then added chocolate, which melds well with all those adjectives mentioned above for something deliciously different. It’s a multi flavor experience!
~Plan of attack:
1. crunch up the tortilla chips. 2. mix and bake. 3. melt chocolate and drizzle over cooled bark.
Ingredient notes
Most of the ingredients are nothing unusual, found in your pantry, but here are a few notes:
- Chocolate: any dark chocolate 70% or greater works here to lend just enough bitterness against the slightly sweet bark. 1/2 of a typical 3 oz bar is more than enough to drizzle, with room for adjustment to the amount of chocolate.
- Coconut oil: melted in with chocolate for smooth consistency and that “magic shell” type finished gloss, but you can skip it if you don’t have it, and the melted chocolate will still drizzle from a spoon over the bark.
- Seeds: all seeds should be raw (untoasted), so that they don’t get overly brown when baked.
- Cumin: both cumin seeds and ground cumin are used. If you don’t love cumin as much as I do, feel free to leave one or the other (or both) out, but it’s the cumin and chili powder that give this bark “spicy Mexican chocolate” vibes.
- Honey: maple syrup would work, as well.
- Tortilla chips: these add a delightful crunch to the seed bark. Any type will do.
Substitutes summary: using all ingredients as the recipe is written produces the unique Mexican chocolate flavor vibes I was after, but leave out cumin if you don’t prefer that, sub maple syrup for honey, and use any type of dark chocolate.
Step-by-step instructions
- Measure all the dry ingredients into a bowl, and crunching up 12-15 tortilla chips into bite size pieces that vary in size.
- Drizzle 1 tbsp of olive oil over ingredients, mix with fork, then use the same oil coated spoon to drizzle 2 tbsp of honey over the mixture, so the honey slips off the spoon easily.
- Use a fork to carefully and lightly mix/fold the ingredients to fully incorporate the honey without breaking up the tortilla chips anymore.
- Spread the mixture onto a parchment lined sheet pan and gently press into a uniform slab about 1/4″ thick (the thinner the better).
- Bake at 325 for approximately 30 minutes until golden, remove and let fully cool (you can use the fridge to cool it down in about 10 minutes if in a rush).
- Break the crisp up into uneven pieces.
- I find it’s easier to do this before drizzling with chocolate, so you don’t have to handle and potentially smoosh/smudge the chocolate after it is set.
- Break up the dark chocolate, add a little coconut oil, and melt it in a small dish in the microwave in 1 or 2, 20-30 second bursts, until it melts and stirs smoothly.
- Drizzle the melted chocolate over the bark, and place in fridge for 10 minutes until it sets and the coconut oil helps the chocolate form a silky smooth shell. Then pick up chocolate covered bark pieces and store in baggy or container and store at room temperature.
- I just did this batch on a wooden board, but doing it on top of a piece of parchment would make for easier clean up.
Above: close up of the bark before the chocolate drizzle shows the wonderful texture of the bark, and the size of the broken up tortilla chips.
Nutritional highlights: The chocolate and variety of seeds in this seed bark snack add substantial potassium, magnesium, calcium and fiber, making it a nutrient dense snack, without too much sugar.
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Crunchy Seed Bark With Tortillas and Chocolate
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Start CookingKitchen Tools
- 1 sheet pan
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup crumbled tortilla chips (about 12 chips)
- 1/3 cup raw pumpkin seeds
- 2 tbsp raw sesame seeds
- 2 tbsp cumin seeds
- 1/4 tsp ground cumin
- 1/4 tsp chili powder (or 1/2 tsp if you like it spicy)
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 2 tbsp honey (can sub maple syrup )
- 1.5 oz dark chocolate (70% or darker)
- 1 tsp coconut oil
- 1/2 tsp flaky sea salt (ok to sub normal sea salt)
Instructions:
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.
Make tortilla seed bark
- Crumble tortilla chips into small pieces (similar to a pumpkin seed size, but the pieces can vary a bit in size, and some can be a bit larger). Either place in plastic bag and roll with rolling pin or break chips up by hand.
- Place 3/4 cup crumbled tortilla chips , 1/3 cup raw pumpkin seeds, 2 tbsp raw sesame seeds, 2 tbsp cumin seeds, 1/4 tsp ground cumin, 1/4 tsp chili powder in bowl and toss to mix thoroughly.
- Drizzle 1 tbsp olive oil over the mixture and mix in gently with a fork or other too, being careful not to break up the tortilla chips more.
- Carefully drizzle 2 tbsp honey over seeds, using the oil coated measuring spoon to help the honey release more easily, then use fork to carefully incorporate the honey into the mixture. This doen't take long, but take care to distribute the honey evenly without pulverizing the tortilla chips anymore.
- Line a sheet pan with parchment and lay the coated seeds/tortillas out, pressing with fork and fingers lightly to get a uniform slab. Don't stress over this process, it will all stick together and does not have to look perfect.
- Sprinkle the slab with the 1/2 tsp flaky sea salt.
- Bake for approximately 30 minutes, then leave to completely cool. The honey must completely cool in order for the crunchy texture to take form (warm honey = soft texture). You can refrigerate it for 10 min to speed process along if needed.
- Break the tortilla pepita crisp up into different size pieces.
Make chocolate drizzle to complete bark
- Break up 1.5 oz dark chocolate and place in small, microwavable dish, with 1 tsp coconut oil. Heat in 1-3 bursts of 20-30 seconds, and stir until smooth, once melted.
- Place pieces of seed and tortilla bark on parchment and use spoon to drizzle the melted chocolate across the pieces. See note.
- Place tray of drizzled bark in fridge for just 10 min to allow the chocolate to firm up. Sprinkle with flaky sea salt (it seems to melt if you sprinkle it on before the chocolate hardens). Enjoy.
- Store in airtight container but no need to refrigerate. The chocolate doesn't melt at room temperature.
