5 Tips for the Best — and Easiest — Chocolate Bark for Your Holiday Gifting and Snacking (2024)

FAQs

What brand of chocolate is best for bark? ›

Use quality chocolate.

For bark-making, use the best chocolate within your budget, either in bars or discs meant for melting and baking. Valrhona, Callebaut, Scharffen Berger, Guittard, and Ghirardelli are all good options.

Little gift bags are perfect for packaging up chocolate bark and you can buy the cellophane bags at craft or dollar stores everywhere (I tie the cellophane ones with ribbon).

If you're not, let the chocolate cool at room temperature for 2 to 4 hours, until completely hardened. Once the chocolate is completely hardened, use your hands to break it into about 25 pieces. Serve immediately, or cover and store at room temperature for up to 1 week.

Storage. Store chocolate bark at room temperature in an airtight container, or the refrigerator. But serve it at room temperature, especially any with dried fruit.

However, if your chocolate hasn't set, there are a few reasons why this could be. It could be that your room temperature is too high. If the temperature is over 68 F, this can cause problems. The ideal setting temperature is between 65 and 68 degrees Fahrenheit.

To keep your chocolate bark from melting, a proper tempering process is necessary. Tempering is a process where the chocolate is brought to certain temperatures, which essentially optimizes the form of the cocoa butter fat crystals and keeps it stable.

First, the chocolate needs to be wrapped in something cushy, like bubble wrap (which we hope always gets reused and recycled), to give it protection for the inevitable bumps and bruises the package will endure in transit. Second, the bubble-wrapped chocolate must go in a stiff cardboard box.

Keeping the edge of the handle anchored on the cutting surface (for best control), use a rocking motion to chop. Now this won't work if you're chopping a very thick chocolate bar (think Trader Joe's mega-bars), but for wafers, discs, or thinner break-apart bars, a controlled rock is the way to go.

There's no hard and fast rule for knowing if your chocolate is fresh. In fact, the shelf life of chocolate depends on a few factors, namely the type and quality of the chocolate, and how it's stored. The good news is that as long as it looks, smells, and tastes normal, it's generally safe to eat.

You can freeze peppermint bark for up to six months. Arrange the pieces in a single layer on a baking sheet, flash freeze for a few hours or up to overnight, then transfer the pieces to a zip-top bag or freezer-safe container.

Why is my Christmas bark soft? ›

Why is My Chocolate Bark Soft? First of all, don't add anything to the chocolate, such as oil or shortening. This makes the chocolate structure too malleable for bark.

Above: Because chocolate bark is usually jagged, irregularly shaped pieces, I think glassine bags (shown) or a small box work best for packaging.

If you melt the chocolate and work with it without tempering, it will take a long time to set up, will not be shiny, and won't snap; rather, it may be flexible, dull and brittle.

The white appearance is due to a process known as 'blooming' - either 'fat bloom'. This occurs when the cocoa butter in the chocolate separates and rises to the surface due to temperature fluctuations, or 'sugar bloom', which happens when the sugar in the chocolate absorbs moisture and then crystallises on the surface.

Almond bark and white chocolate have a sweet flavor but differ in taste and texture. White chocolate is creamy and smooth with a mild sweetness, while almond bark has a crunchy texture due to almonds adding an extra layer of sweetness.

This chocolate bark is not to be confused with blocks of confectionery coating (compound chocolate made using vegetable oils instead of cocoa butter) that is sold as Almond Bark, Candi Quik, or Candy Coating which many people call chocolate bark.