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This easy White Chocolate Holiday Bark Recipe is made with white candy coating (white chocolate bark) and a festive fruit and nut blend. It’s a quick and easy Holiday Bark Recipe, that once packaged in a festivebox or tray, makes a perfect coworker or neighbor holiday gift!
Easy White Chocolate Holiday Bark Recipe
One of my favorite sweet treats is Almond bark. You can use it in so many different ways, I always keep it on hand since it stores so well.
As I was grocery shopping last week, I stumbled across a package of mixed nuts with cranberries and raisins.
The color combination was so pretty with the red cranberries and green tinted pumpkin seeds and pistachios that I had to put a package in my cart. After a trip down the baking aisle, I knew exactly what I would make with it…
Holiday Bark!
White Chocolate Holiday Bark Recipe
What is Almond Bark anyway?
Almond bark is a chocolate-like confection made with vegetable fats instead of cocoa butter and with coloring and flavors added.
Almond Bark can be bought in blocks, or round discs (the round disks are often packaged as “candy coating” and comes in so many flavors and color varieties) either online or in your grocery store baking section.
Why Use Almond Bark Instead of Chocolate
The reason you might wish to use Chocolate Almond bark over a regular bar or baking chocolate is because the almond bark melts like a dream, requires no tempering and tastes so yummy. (I say it “melts like a dream”, but if you are melting it in the microwave, you still need to keep an eye on it and stir every 15 to 30 seconds to avoid burning.)
If you have never used White Chocolate Almond Bark, it looks like this (sometimes the package says white almond bark other times it is called white bark or candy coating:)
Making candy bark is so easy and is one of my favorite holiday treats to give to our neighbors and coworkers.
How to Make Holiday Bark
To make this Holiday Bark Candy, it really only takes a few minutes and TWO ingredients!
The basic ingredients you need to make this holiday treat is either Chocolate Bark orWhite Chocolate Almond Bark, (your preference) plus whatever mix-ins you like.
Simply spread you mix-ins over the bottom of a baking sheet, melt your bark and spread over the pan. Once cooled, you can break up the bark into pieces.
What Mix-ins Can I Add to Bark Candy?
Peppermint chips(these chips plus the white chocolate bark is my 2nd favorite combo)
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Author:Jamie Sanders
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Description
This easy white chocolate holiday bark is made with white candy coating and a festive fruit and nut blend. Quick and easy for a holiday treat! (and perfect for gift giving.)
Ingredients
Scale
1 Package of White Candy Coating (use as much as you want, the whole package makes quite a bit)
+/- 3 cups of your mixings (chopped nuts, dried fruit, candy, broken pretzels.)
wax paper
Instructions
Cover a large cookie sheet with wax paper. Spread half of your mixings over the wax paper. Place candy coating in a microwave container and melt according to the directions on the package.
Pour the melted chocolate over the mixings on the cookie sheet, spreading with spatula if needed to coat as evenly as possible. Sprinkle remaining mixings over the candy while it is still wet. (Try to press the mixings in just a bit so they will stick once the candy hardens. Let the candy sit for 20 to 30 minutes to harden.
Gently break bark into small pieces.
Store in an airtight container.
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About the AuthorJamie Sanders is a wife and mom of 2, located in the heart of Texas. She founded Scattered Thoughts of a Crafty Mom in 2011 as a place to share creative ideas and family friendly recipes. Her work has been featured on Martha Stewart, Woman’s World, HuffPost, TODAY, Pioneer Woman, HGTV, CNET, Good Housekeeping, Yahoo, Oprah Daily, and Redbook, plus many other publications. To date, she had given away just under a million free pdf sewing patterns.
In conclusion, white chocolate and almond bark are popular treats with different flavors and textures. White chocolate is made from cocoa butter, sugar, milk solids, and vanilla. In contrast, almond bark is made from sugar or corn syrup, vegetable oil or shortening, almonds or other nuts, and flavorings.
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.
Make sure to reheat and clean off knife blade between each cut in order to keep the chocolate bark edges clean. Store the chocolate bark in an airtight container, at room temperature, for up to 2 weeks.
It's worth noting that white almond bark, is often used as a substitute for white chocolate. While white chocolate is made with a blend of cocoa butter, sugar, and milk solids, white almond bark uses vegetable oil and other ingredients to achieve a similar appearance and smooth texture.
The bark made with bar white chocolate had a soft, truffle-like consistency, while the bark made with white chips had the proper firm snap. The explanation for the difference can be found on the ingredient label. True white chocolate, almost always sold in bar form, contains cocoa butter.
Making candy this beautiful is a lot easier than it looks. You can tint the chocolate to match your party theme or holiday. This technique works great when making cake pops too.
Chill in the refrigerator until firm, at least 2 hours. Break the bark into 1- to 2-inch pieces. Store in a cool, dry place, stacked between layers of foil or parchment in an airtight container. The bark will keep, tightly sealed in your pantry, for up to a week.
Vanilla Chips or Candy Melts: Vanilla-flavoured chips or candy melts can substitute white chocolate in some baking applications. While they do not have the same cocoa butter base, they offer a sweet, vanilla flavour that can complement many recipes.
That's because your chocolate wasn't tempered. Tempered chocolate sets at room temperature and has a snap just like a chocolate bar you buy from the store.
And while candy melts are great for cake pops, in a recipe like this, you'll really taste the difference between actual chocolate and candy melts. I recommend Ghirardelli, Guittard, or Baker's brand bars of chocolate when making bark.
To thin melted chocolate, add a small amount of neutral oil, like vegetable oil or cocoa butter, stirring gently until it reaches the desired consistency. Melt slowly to avoid overheating, and keep water out to prevent the chocolate from seizing.
Dark chocolate, with its higher cacao content, can be good to eat for as long as three years past the best before. Due to their high milk contents, milk and white chocolates might not last as long as dark, but their longevity is still nothing to sniff at — you can expect to get another 8 months or so out of it.
Can you eat expired chocolate? While consuming expired chocolate isn't necessarily harmful, it may not taste as fresh or flavorful as it once did. In most cases, chocolate past its expiration date is still safe to eat, provided it has been stored properly and shows no signs of spoilage.
Can I freeze white chocolate to extend its shelf life in summer? While it's possible to temporarily freeze white chocolate to prevent further melting, it's not recommended to do so regularly. Temperature changes can affect its quality and texture.
What's white chocolate? Actually it isn't even chocolate because it does not contain cocoa particles. It is just cocoa butter mixed with sugar, often with a little vanilla added for flavoring.
What is white chocolate? White chocolate is made of cocoa butter that comes from the cocoa bean, which all chocolate is made from. It is known by its pale ivory color and buttery, milky sweet taste.
White chocolate is made from the butter of cacao beans. After the beans are harvested, they are processed further into cocoa butter (the fat component), chocolate liquor (the liquid component that contains not less than 50% nor more than 60% by weight of cocoa fat), and cocoa solids (the nonfat part of the cacao bean).
Almond bark (also known as vanilla flavored candy coating) is a chocolate-like confection made with vegetable fats instead of cocoa butter and with coloring and flavors added. It can be bought in packages, blocks, or round discs where candy and baking supplies are sold.
Introduction: My name is Arielle Torp, I am a comfortable, kind, zealous, lovely, jolly, colorful, adventurous person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
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