Flowery Prose.

Hopefully you dehydrated some sour cherries while they were in season in the event that this exact occasion might pop up later* but if you didn’t and you have to scramble, I suppose dried cranberries that you (gasp!) purchased at a grocery store will suffice. (Next year, dehydrate those sour cherries!). Grab a baking sheet and throw a piece of parchment paper on it, then spread out the dried fruit in a single layer.

Measure the chocolate chips into a microwave-safe bowl. Microwave them in 20 second increments, stirring after each session until the chips have smoothly, silkily melted.

Pour the melted chocolate over the dried cherries on the baking sheet. Spread the mixture out so the chocolate/fruit layer is even and about 1 cm thick.

Find that sliver of space that isn’t crammed with other stuff in your fridge and chuck the baking sheet inside. Wait an hour, minimum, before taking the chocolate bark out and breaking it into elegantly imperfect pieces. Take several pics using different filters and post them up to Instagram before eating all of it in one sitting. I mean, no. Don’t eat the equivalent of an entire bag of white chocolate chips on your own. This is the season for giving, after all.

*Shameless cookbook plug: The Little Prairie Book of Berries has a goodly number of sweet and savoury sour cherry recipes in it. And … it gives instructions for successfully dehydrating fruit. Plus, to be utterly truthful, it’s an amazing stocking stuffer. I did use the word “shameless.”