On Tue, 09 Dec 2003 02:16:00 -0000,
(Alex Rast) wrote:

(Frogleg) wrote :

On Sun, 07 Dec 2003 22:18:05 -0800, Marilyn
wrote:

my mind are white chocolate and pistachios. Does anyone have a good
(but easy) recipe that includes one or both?

Looks like white chocolate 'bark' is simplicity itself. Melt
chocolate, add nuts, pour onto a wax-paper-covered baking sheet and
spread out. Cool. Break into pieces.

Not *quite* so simple, chocolate has to be "tempered", and white chocolate
is especially sensitive. You have to melt very slowly, then follow the
tempering instructions I and many other individuals have given many times
(esp. on rec.food.chocolate - easy to find in DejaNews), then dump in the
pistachios. Make sure they're unsalted, too: salted pistachios in bark are
pretty sick.

Yes, some recipes *do* include tempering the chocolate for a more
professional result, but I'm guessing the book group won't be
over-critical, and simply melting carefully and cooling should provide
acceptable results. As for salted pistachios, there are many
sweet/salty combinations of flavors that are far from "pretty sick".
There are, for example, many peanut brittle recipes that call for
salted peanuts. I *would* try to rub off as much of the pistachio
skins as possible, which will remove a lot of the salt.