This Christmas Chocolate Bark recipe takes just a few minutes to make and needs only milk chocolate and white chocolate as the main ingredients, plus your favorite combination of pretzels, festive-colored candy, nuts, and sprinkles.
Making holiday candy bark at home is so simple and easy, especially in the microwave when no stovetop or oven is needed!
Homemade Chocolate Bark for Christmas
Our Christmas Chocolate Bark recipe could be the easiest holiday treat ever!
You can assemble your Christmas bark in minutes by placing mini pretzels between layers of milk chocolate and white chocolate and dressing it up with red and green M&Ms, crushed peppermint pieces, peanuts, holiday sprinkles, or your favorite festive food and edible decorations.
Candy bark recipes can be customized in tons of different ways; once you melt chocolate and spread it on a cookie sheet, have fun cleaning out your pantry with an assortment of sweet and salty crumbles and crumbs.
Christmas candy bark is perfect for a holiday DIY gift or placing on party platters and trays of sweet treats.
Why We Love This Christmas Candy Bark Recipe
- Quick and easy to make.
- Uses simple kitchen staple ingredients.
- Candy Bark recipes are the best because there are no rules or requirements for decorating your bark dessert.
- Fun for kids to customize by using their favorite sweet and savory toppings.
- Perfect sweet treat for Christmas parties, dessert platters, or packaging in bags for gifts.
More Easy Christmas Treats Recipes
Ingredients
- Milk chocolate chips
- Mini pretzel twists
- White chocolate chips
- Red and green M&Ms: You can also use mini M&Ms, peanut M&Ms, or peanut butter M&Ms.
- Red and green candy canes: If you can’t find any red and green candy canes, use regular candy canes or even peppermint candy.
- Salted peanuts
- Festive sprinkles (optional garnish)
Substitutions and Additions
- Choose Your Chocolate: Feel free to make your bark with dark chocolate chips, milk chocolate chips, or semi sweet chocolate chips. You can also swap the white chocolate chips for almond bark or high quality white candy melts as well.
- Pick Your Pretzel: You can swap the pretzel twists for pretzel sticks or waffle pretzels. If you use pretzel sticks, you will need to get creative with the design you create in the chocolate. Waffle pretzels will essentially be the same as twists.
- Use Another Nut: Feel free to use salted cashews, walnuts, almonds, pistachios, pecans, or macadamia nuts if you prefer.
- Other Tasty Toppings: Bark is a blank canvas for showcasing your creativity. You can top your chocolate bark with dried cranberries, an assortment of crushed candy, marshmallows, sprinkles, or any of your favorites.
Recommended Tools
- Half-sheet baking pan (18×13 inches)
- Two microwaveable bowls
- Spatula
See Full Recipe Card Below
Jump to RecipeHow to Make Christmas Chocolate Bark
- Melt The Milk Chocolate: Microwave the milk chocolate chips in increments of 15 seconds until completely melted and pourable, stirring between intervals. Spread it evenly over the sheet pan.
- Press On The Pretzels: Press the pretzels into the top of the melted chocolate, placing them close together without touching. Place in the freezer to set for 15 minutes.
Pro Tip: You can use pretzel pieces to fill in gaps. Do not press the pretzels in too far–the chocolate shouldn’t cover the pretzel completely. - Melt The White Chocolate: Microwave the white chocolate chips in increments of 15 seconds, stirring in between intervals, until the chocolate is shiny, melted, and pourable. Spread the white chocolate over the chilled milk chocolate and pretzel layer.
- Decorate: Quickly top your white chocolate layer with candy, peanuts, and sprinkles. Place in the refrigerator for an hour or until set.
- Serve: Break the bark into pieces and happily hand it out to your loved ones! Enjoy!
Tips for Making Chocolate Bark
- Depending on how small or large the pieces of bark are broken into, the servings can easily be adjusted.
- Make sure to leave an overhang (extra parchment paper) when preparing the baking sheet so that you can easily lift the hardened chocolate out of it. It is helpful to crease where the bottom of the pan meets the edges for a defined shape.
- I like to buy the Christmas special M&M bags for this recipe, but if you can’t find any, you can fish the red and green M&Ms out of your normal M&M bags.
- Make sure you have everything ready ahead of time otherwise the chocolate will set before you add the toppings (especially with the white chocolate). Because you are putting the white chocolate over an already cold chocolate and pretzel layer, it will cool and set pretty quickly. Your M&Ms, peanuts, and candy canes need to go on right away.
How to Store Chocolate Bark
This bark is best stored in the refrigerator or at room temperature. If you store it in the freezer, the M&Ms will crack and the candy canes will liquefy.
Once the chocolate has completely set, break it into pieces and place it into an airtight container. If you decide to keep it at room temperature, it will last 9-10 days. The refrigerator will keep it fresh and delicious for about 3 weeks.
If you eventually decide it needs to be stored longer, you can put it in the freezer for 6-7 months but be aware of the expected changes as noted above.
- To Store: Store your bark in an airtight container. It will stay fresh at room temperature for 9-10 days or in the refrigerator for about 3 weeks.
- To Freeze: Candy bark can be stored in the freezer for 6-7 months in a freezer-safe container.
More Chocolate Bark Recipes
Christmas Chocolate Bark
Serves — 20
Christmas Chocolate Bark is the easiest way to create custom colorful candy all dressed up for the holiday. Use your favorite festive sweet or savory snacks to decorate this delicious dessert.
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 3 minutes
Chill Time 1 hour 15 minutes
Total Time 1 hour 33 minutes
Ingredients
- 12 ounces package milk chocolate chips
- 80-90 mini pretzel twists
- 24 ounces (2 12-ounce) bags white chocolate chips
- ½ cup red and green M&Ms
- ½ cup roughly crushed red and green candy canes 6 large candy canes
- ½ cup salted peanuts chopped
- Festive sprinkles optional garnish
Instructions
- Line a half sheet baking pan with parchment paper and set aside.
- Microwave the milk chocolate chips in a medium sized microwave safe bowl in increments of 15 seconds until completely melted and pourable. Be sure to stir the chocolate in between intervals. This will generally take about 5-6 heating and stirring cycles.
- Pour the chocolate onto the sheet pan. Spread it evenly over the sheet pan using a spatula.
- Gently press the mini pretzel twists, flat side down, into the top of the melted chocolate, placing the pretzels as close together as possible without touching. You can use pretzel pieces to fill in gaps. Do not press the pretzels in too far–the chocolate shouldn’t cover the pretzel completely.
- Place the sheet pan into the freezer to chill for about 15 minutes or until the chocolate has set.
- When there are about 5 minutes left of chill time for the chocolate, melt the white chocolate chips in another microwaveable bowl. Use the same method as the milk chocolate chips: microwave the white chocolate in increments of 15 seconds, stirring in between intervals. This will take about 5 or 6 cycles, or until the chocolate is shiny, melted, and pourable.
- Carefully pour and spread the white chocolate over the chilled milk chocolate and pretzel layer. This may require some extra care since you will have nooks and crannies from the pretzels to fill.
- Quickly top your white chocolate layer with red and green M&Ms, crushed red and green candy canes, salted peanuts, and festive sprinkles, optional.
- Place sheet pan in the refrigerator for an hour or until chocolate has firmly set. Once ready, break the bark into pieces and happily hand it out to your loved ones.
Jenn’s Notes
Storage:
- To Store: Store your bark in an airtight container. It will stay fresh at room temperature for 9-10 days or in the refrigerator for about 3 weeks.
- To Freeze: Candy bark can be stored in the freezer for 6-7 months in a freezer-safe container.
- Make sure you have everything ready ahead of time. The chocolate needs to be melted and used at the right time, so all the other ingredients need to be ready to go, otherwise the chocolate will set before you can add anything. This is especially true with the white chocolate. Because you are putting the white chocolate over an already cold chocolate and pretzel layer, it will cool and set pretty quickly. Your M&Ms, peanuts, and candy canes need to go on right away.
- If you don’t get your candy or pretzels onto your melted chocolate soon enough, it’s not the end of the world! Simply put your sheet pan of chocolate into a heated oven (try around 300 degrees Fahrenheit) for 2-3 minutes. Your chocolate should melt just enough for your candy decorations to stick.
- You may also need help from someone else when you are spreading your chocolate over the parchment paper. As you try to evenly spread your chocolate, your parchment paper may move back and forth, ruining all of your efforts. To avoid this, have someone else hold down the edges of the parchment paper as you spread your chocolate. Or, weigh down the edges of parchment paper with something heavy.
- Melting chocolate can be really tricky, especially in the microwave. However, I have found that melting it in increments of 15 seconds is a pretty fool-proof method of not overheating it. Make sure you stir it every time, otherwise the chocolate will heat unevenly. And if your chocolate is nearly perfect, but it needs just a tiny bit more time, try 5 or 10 seconds instead of the full 15.
Nutrition Info
Calories: 408kcal | Carbohydrates: 55g | Protein: 6g | Fat: 19g | Saturated Fat: 11g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 4g | Trans Fat: 0.01g | Cholesterol: 8mg | Sodium: 348mg | Potassium: 228mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 34g | Vitamin A: 22IU | Vitamin C: 1mg | Calcium: 96mg | Iron: 1mg
