Chocolate Bark 5 Ways: An Easy, Edible Holiday Gift

Mix and match flavors for surprising twists on this classic holiday treat, like matcha green tea bark and s'mores bark.

Photo by: Jason Kisner

Jason Kisner

By: Kelly Smith Trimble

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If it's been a while since you've made chocolate bark, here's a refresher. For newbies, get ready to be astounded at how easy this is.

Start with chocolate pieces — you can use squares or chips in either dark, milk or white chocolate. Melt using a double boiler method, which just means you melt the chocolate in a bowl set over a pan of simmering water. (This helps avoid burning.)

Pour out the melted chocolate on a pan lined with parchment paper. (Note: Wax paper is not a substitute for parchment. A friend recently made this honest mistake and ruined a batch.) Smooth with a spatula.

Quickly add toppings of your choice. (See ideas below, but feel free to make up your own combos.) Place in the refrigerator to cool for 30 minutes or so. Remove and break into pieces, or let sit for a minute and try cutting into squares. (Note from experience: You may get a few nice squares and then just say forget it and break up the rest.)

Watch this video to see how it's done.

Chocolate Bark 5 Ways 00:59

Mix and match these five chocolate bark recipes for tasty holiday treats.

To come up with these five versions, I tested several and had our team of HGTV editors vote. Matcha was the surprise hit! If you love this trendy green tea powder, you have to try it. (Note: Match can be very expensive. If you have a Trader Joe's nearby, check there first for an affordable option.) If you're more of a traditionalist, try S'mores, Samoa or Dark & Stormy (named after my favorite ginger cocktail). But my personal favorite is The Rudolph because it's an original recipe that just came to me while wandering the aisles of the grocery store. Plus, it's a twist on the traditional peppermint bark that's so popular during the holidays.

5 Fun Flavor Combos

For each of the recipes, start with the chocolate (12-ounce bag of chocolate chips) and add the amount of each topping that works for you. The exception is the Matcha, where you need to add about a tablespoon of green tea powder at the end of the chocolate melting before you spread onto the pan lined with parchment. This trick of adding flavoring in while you're melting could inform new flavor combinations that you come up with (mint extract, anyone?).