State of Wonder and Chocolate Bark

The bark at the center of Ann Patchett's State of Wonder is a lot more mysterious and powerful than my simple chocolate, fruit and nut bark above.  The book is  sort of a female version of the classic Joseph Conrad Heart of Darkness story.  A single, childless forty year old woman who works for a pharmaceutical company, Dr. Marina Singh,  is asked to travel deep into the Amazon to try to track down her old professor, Annick Swenson, who has shut herself off from the rest of the world doing research concerning the powerful effects of an Amazonian tree bark.  This book was immediately compelling to me, after all, I also am a single, childless, though not yet! forty year old woman who works for a pharmaceutical company.  But here's the kicker - what is so amazing about this tree bark Dr. Swenson is studying ? The village women who munch on it every day in the Amazon -   they are able to have babies into their seventies.  Yeah, that grabbed my attention pretty quick, and I was drawn into the story just as Dr. Singh was irresistibly drawn into the jungle to find Dr. Swenson and see if this bark really had such miraculous effects.  I read the book a couple of months ago, and had some trouble with my first version of this bark.  It is OK that it took so long for me to try it out again, since this chocolate bark is a great holiday hostess gift or solution to an addition to a cookie swap when you don't have the time or inclination to turn on the oven.  More about the fascinating story and simple bark after the jump.

Dr. Marina Singh seems like an unwise choice for her employer, Vogel Pharmaceuticals, to send on a mission to the Amazon to bring back a brilliant, mercurial scientist and to find answers to the mysterious death of her lab partner, Anders Eckman.  Marina is quiet, steady and seems tied to the Minnesota suburb where she lives.  In Marina, Patchett creates a reluctant heroine.  And as readers we venture with Marina, with trepidation, deep into the jungle in order to find the answers surrounding Anders death.  Marina is distraught when she learns from the president of the company, Mr. Fox, that her lab partner and friend Anders has died a few months after being sent by the company to the Amazon to bring back Dr. Swenson, but she is not anxious to follow in his footsteps.  Dr. Swenson sends a cursory letter to the company informing them of Anders death, without disclosing the cause or circumstances of this event.   Marina is left with the task of breaking the news to Anders' wife, Karen and his young sons.  When she hears the news, Karen is convinced that Anders is not really dead, and implores Marina to go to the Amazon and find Anders and bring him home - dead or alive.  Mr. Fox also needs Marina to go to the Amazon to find out the status of Dr. Swenson's research and to bring back some news to the company's board.  It has been funding Dr. Swenson's research for years and Dr. Swenson - clearly a cold and difficult woman - has rebuffed any attempts of the company to accelerate the research or even get a report of where it stands.  Faced with the pleas of Mr. Fox and Karen, Marina has no choice but to go.  Unfortunately, there are other things that make it especially difficult for Marina to make the trip  - first is her previous relationship with Dr. Swenson, who supervised her during residency.  Marina was originally planning on practicing in Dr. Swenson's field - obstetric.  Dr. Swenson was a tough but inspiring teacher, but after Marina made a big mistake during her residency, she dropped out of the program and decided to become a research scientist instead of practicing physician.  She is wary of Dr. Swenson, who was brutal to her when she was a student.  Also, in order to travel to the Amazon, Marina must take anti-malarial medication, which gives her severe nightmares.  Throughout the book Patchett weaves in Marina's nightmares - all are slight variations of a recurring dream she has had since she was a child, involving visits to India with her father.  When she was a child she also had to take this anti-malarial medication before she traveled to India with her father, and these dreams have been haunting her ever since.  In this state - scared and exhausted, she must travel deep into the jungle - to an unknown location by the way - to find Dr. Swenson.  She spends weeks stuck in a jungle town waiting on Dr. Swenson to come to town to get supplies - Marina has no way to reach her.  Eventually Dr. Swenson shows up, along with a young boy named Easter, and Marina convinces the Dr. to let her come back to the village with her where Dr. Swenson lives amongst and studies the Lakashi tribe. Patchett creates a vivid picture of the jungle - from the greenery and mud to the constant swarm of insects.  Marina eventually settles in to the life of the scientists who live with the Lakashi, she becomes attached to the child Dr. Swenson adopted, Easter, and she even starts chewing on the magical bark that keeps the Lakashi so fertile - and healthy.  But Marina cannot truly settle in, because she finds no answers to her questions about Anders death and no answers to give to her employer about when Dr. Swenson's research will be completed.  As Marina gets to know Dr. Swenson better, she becomes more human but also more disturbing. In the end Marina must confront Dr. Swenson in order move the story and herself out of the jungle.  The book is suspenseful on multiple levels - what happened to Anders? What happened between Dr. Swenson and Marina? What is Dr. Swenson hiding? Does the bark really work? What are the real motives of the drug company and Mr. Fox?  What was Easter's relationship with Anders?  I found myself transfixed by all of these open questions - this is a real page turner from multiple angles. 

Chocolate Bark
My first attempt at this bark failed on a looks basis alone - the chocolate was cloudy and sort of grey.  This is because I didn't properly temper the chocolate.  I followed directions given by Barefoot Contessa, who has this recipe in a couple of her books I think, but either the recipe was off or, more likely, I didn't follow it right.  When you make chocolate candy, you can't just melt the chocolate and cool it and voila you will have a pretty truffle.  In order for chocolate to have a nice gloss and a good snap when you bite into it, it needs to be tempered - which basically means it needs to be the right temperature before it cools and sets.  Rather than follow a specific recipe for my second try, I just trolled the internet reading all I could about tempering and decided in what appears to be a simple method, and I did it without a chocolate thermometer, since I don't have one.  This second try, as you can see from the pics, came out really well.  There are so many variations of this bark that you can attempt (pretzels and peanuts? crushed candy canes?) - I went here with classic nut and fruit since it seemed the most fitting for the magic Lakashi bark from State of Wonder.  I am sorry to report that this bark does not have any fertility effects, but it is delicious and great for the holidays.  Since I did not use a chocolate thermometer, my directions below are just based on feel generally, not precise.  You can easily find precise chocolate tempering advice on the internets if you want to make sure you get it right.

Ingredients
About 17 ounces chopped chocolate - mixture of bittersweet and semisweet would be good.
1/3 to 1/2 cup each of assorted nuts and dried fruit - I used pistachio, cashew (roasted and salted), chopped apricots, dried cranberries.

Directions:

1.  Cover a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
2. Take 12 ounces of chocolate and put in a heat tolerant bowl.
3. In a small sauce pan, bring a few inches of water to a simmer.
4. Place the bowl with the chocolate over the summering water - careful so that the simmering water doesn't touch the chocolate bowl - and stirring often, slowly melt the chocolate.
5. When the chocolate is melted, take it off the heat, and a third at a time, add the remaining 5 ounces of chocolate. 
6. When you add the cold chocolate to the warm, stir vigorously to melt the chocolate.  This is actually cooling the temp of the chocolate down.
7. Add the two remaining portions of the chocolate, one at a time and stir vigorously to incorporate into the melted chocolate, this may take a few minutes.
8. Spread the melted chocolate, with a rubber or offset spatula, onto the parchment covered baking sheet and generally shape it into a rectangle. 
9. Add the chopped fruit and nuts and press them slightly into the chocolate.
10. Let cool for a 2 - 4 hours at room temperature and break into pieces. 
11. Store in an airtight container.