1. Coarsely chop the pistachios and combine them in a bowl with the salt and dried cranberries. I’ve used Himalayan salt here, but you can also use other kinds. Remove the biggest pieces if you’re using coarse salt.

2. Make a mold for the chocolate board, following the instructions on the facing page. If you want to make more than one piece, you’ll have to make several molds. You can use the same piece of real wood for more than one mold.

3. Follow the instructions for tempering chocolate (below). Use more or less chocolate depending on the size and number of boards you plan to make. You can use any type of chocolate you prefer.

Mold For Chocolate Board

1 Find an old wooden board with a lot of texture. Maybe you have an old wooden fence? In that case, you can bring the aluminum foil outside and make the mold right there.

2 Place a piece of aluminum foil over the board.

3 Use your thumb to rub the foil well into the texture of the wood.

4 Lift the foil and turn the other side up.

5 Temper the chocolate (instructions below). Gently spread the liquid chocolate over your mold, to a thickness of approximately ¼ inch.

6 Immediately sprinkle the pistachio-cranberry mixture on top.

7 Let the chocolate harden at room temperature before you turn it over and remove the foil. Store the chocolate boards at room temperature.

Tempering Chocolate

For your chocolate not to melt at the first touch, and also to stay glossy and hard, you have to temper it. Professionals often use a method called tabling the chocolate. The method I describe here is easier to accomplish in a small kitchen. It’s well worth your time to spend a few minutes learning how to temper chocolate. It will be useful. And it will make your work with chocolate so much more fun, because you will get beautiful and durable results. The tempering only takes about 15 minutes.

You’ll need a saucepan for the water, a stainless steel bowl (or double boiler), a candy thermometer, a rubber spatula, a knife—and the chocolate you’re going to temper. The stainless steel bowl must have a larger circumference than the saucepan so that it hangs on the edge of the saucepan. The bowl must not touch the hot water.

1. Finely chop the chocolate.

2. Put ⅓ of the chocolate in a small bowl and the remaining ⅔ in the stainless steel bowl.

3. Put some water in the saucepan, making sure the water doesn’t reach the stainless steel bowl, which will be placed above it later. Place the saucepan with water on the stove and bring the water almost to the boiling point. Remove the saucepan from the burner and place the stainless steel bowl over the water. Whatever you do, make sure you don’t get water in the chocolate, or it will become lumpy. Remember that steam is water too! Gently stir with a thermometer. You don’t want to stir in a lot of air. When the chocolate reaches temperature 1, remove the bowl from the saucepan.

4. Add the remaining ⅓ of the chocolate to the bowl and fold it in with a rubber spatula.

5. When the chocolate has melted, switch to the thermometer again instead of the spatula. Gently stir until the chocolate reaches temperature 2.

6. Put the bowl back on the saucepan. Now the chocolate is to be warmed back up to temperature 3. This will happen quickly. When it has reached the proper temperature, remove the bowl from the heat.

7. The chocolate is now ready to be used. Save any leftover chocolate; it can be used again. You can either temper it again or use it in a cake.

DARK CHOCOLATE

temperature 1 125˚F

temperature 2 82˚F

temperature 3 88˚F

MILK CHOCOLATE

temperature 1 113˚F

temperature 2 81˚F

temperature 3 86˚F

WHITE CHOCOLATE

temperature 1 113˚F

temperature 2 79˚F

temperature 3 84˚F

Variation: Only your imagination limits what you can put on the back of the “wood.” You can use pieces of caramel, potato chips, pink peppercorns, marshmallows, M&M’s, or any kind of nuts, dried fruits or berries.

Excerpted with permission from Bakeland: Nordic Treats Inspired by Nature by Marit Hovland, foreword by Trine Hahnemann (Greystone Books, 2018).