chocolate holiday bark with amaretti cookies and espresso

This dark chocolate holiday bark is studded with crunchy amaretti cookies, hazelnuts, dried tart cherries, roasted espresso beans and flaky salt. It’s rich, roasty, sweet- tart and so perfect for Christmas.

The holidays are such a busy time. I always dream of baking up a gorgeous array of Christmas cookies, wrapping them in elegant twine and packaging them in a sweet little box to give to friends and family. But come the second week of December, the reality of my available time and energy dampens those dreams. If all goes well, I end up scraping together some kind of random pantry gift in the midst of hectic travel plans and errands (there’s usually a cross country move thrown in there, too). It’s less than ideal, and always more stressful than it needs to be.

So in an effort to keep the homemade gift simple, yet still as stunning and memorable as those cookie boxes, I’ve been drawn to chocolate barks. They’re incredibly easy to make: 1 bowl, a few items from your pantry, and less than 20 minutes of time. Yet the range of flavors, textures and colors is just as festive as a holiday cookie box. 

The flavor combinations for chocolate bark are truly endless– especially when you start to involve crunchy cookie crumbles. I love the airy crunch, rich flavor and elegance of true amaretti cookies. Sometimes they can be tricky to hunt down, but the bark wouldn’t be nearly as special without them. 

The combination of smooth dark chocolate, fragrant amaretti and crunchy espresso beans is just so perfect for the holiday season. I top the bark off with roasted hazelnuts, dried tart cherries and a generous sprinkling of flaky salt. The result is a creamy, crunchy dark chocolate holiday bark that you’ll be so excited to share. 

pantry substitutes for this holiday bark

The beauty of chocolate bark is that it’s a quick holiday gift that you can throw together at the last minute. If you don’t have the exact ingredients in your pantry, don’t sweat it. Here are some substitutes you can use:

• Dried tart cherries→ substitute dried cranberries, dried apricots, or dried sweet cherries
• Hazelnuts→ substitute almonds, macadamia nuts, pine nuts or cashews
• Amaretti cookies→ almond biscotti (or any crunchy almond cookie)
• Coffee beans→ no real substitute here (though chocolate covered espresso beans would be delicious if you have them)

how to customize your own holiday bark:

The fun part of chocolate bark is mixing and matching different flavors and textures. For the best ratio, stick with about 1 cup of toppings for 12 oz of chocolate.

here is list of holiday bark toppings to get you thinking:

• Dried fruit (cherries, cranberries, apricot, pear, figs)
• Freeze dried fruit (strawberries, raspberries, bananas, mangoes)
• Nuts (pecans, walnuts, almonds, macadamia nuts, hazelnuts, pine nuts, cashews, pistachios, peanuts, brazil nuts)
• Seeds (pepitas, sesame seeds, sunflower seeds, quinoa, hemp seeds)
• Cookies (shortbread, gingerbread, biscotti, speculaas, vanilla wafers, graham crackers)
• Crystallized ginger
• Coconut flakes
• Candied orange peels
• Marshmallows

Also, think about chocolate types: bittersweet, semisweet, milk, white, or caramelized white. Or a swirly combination!

how to temper chocolate: shortcut method and full method

shortcut method

In the recipe, I give a quick shortcut method to gently melt the chocolate and keep it in temper. This requires starting with chocolate that is in temper (it should look smooth and shiny, not dull, streaked, blotchy or coated in a whitish bloom).

To do it successfully, you can’t let the chocolate get too hot during melting and you must stir in a portion of unmelted chocolate to “seed” the crystal structure of the chocolate and encourage the temper.

In my opinion, it works well enough for a quick holiday chocolate bark recipe. And no thermometer or fussy melting and cooling is required. 

full method

If you want to make sure the chocolate is fully tempered, follow the guidelines below. Correctly tempered chocolate will be shiny, snappy, less likely to melt on your fingers and prone to maintaining all of these qualities for a long time.

• Gently heat 2/3 of chocolate, stirring constantly, until it reaches 115°F
  • use a double boiler with hot, but not boiling, water or a microwave for 30 second intervals at 50% power
  • if using a double boiler, be careful not to get any water in the chocolate and thoroughly dry the bottom of the chocolate bowl when removing it from the heat
• Remove from heat and add remaining 1/3 of chocolate in a few additions, stirring constantly and letting it melt before adding more
• Cool chocolate to 82°F
• Gently reheat to 88°F to 91°F
• Test the temper: Pour a small amount on parchment paper, it should cool within 5 minutes.
  • The chocolate will be shiny, snappy and smooth if in temper.
    • Proceed with holiday bark recipe: pour onto prepared baking sheet and sprinkle with toppings.
  • The chocolate will be streaky, dull, pliable and will melt easily on your fingers if it’s not in temper. Repeat the tempering process from the beginning.

related recipes:

chocolate covered marshmallow speculoos cookies

chocolate dipped almond cookies (pain d’amande)

old fashioned chocolate fudge

dark chocolate truffles with cocoa powder

Try this white chocolate peppermint chex by Paula at Call me PMc for another fun Christmas treat!

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