Our Best Bark Recipes for the Holidays (2024)

FAQs

What is Christmas bark made of? ›

This festive Christmas Bark is easy and delicious! Layers of graham crackers, brown sugar toffee, peanut butter, and chocolate make this an addictive holiday treat. Print Pin Save.

Stored in an airtight container in the fridge the homemade chocolate bark recipe will stay good for 2-3 weeks. If you decide to leave the chocolate bark out at room temperature it will last for about 5 days. Therefore, I definitely recommend storing it in the fridge to extend the bark's shelf life.

How To Store Peppermint Bark. Peppermint bark will keep for weeks if stored in an airtight container at room temperature. This makes it a great gift idea around the holidays—make a big batch at the beginning of December and grab what you need for easy gifts for teachers, neighbors, and friends.

Most chocolatiers and candymakers recommend tempering chocolate for bark because it gives chocolate a beautifully glossy finish and a satisfying, clean snap when broken. It also sets up more quickly and keeps longer at room temperature.

It depends on your preference! If you really love mint, want your peppermint bark to have some heft, or plan to gift it to loved ones, Williams Sonoma is your best bet. If texture or price are the most important factors for you, Costco wins by a landslide.

Discovered by Laura Lamb at Costco Hot Finds, the Kirkland Signature Peppermint Bark has made its triumphant return to the bakery department and fans have been sounding the alarm upon its arrival.

Brush the wood with preservative if you can't submerge it.

Instead of submerging it, lay the wood on a large plastic tarp and dip a paintbrush into wood preservative. Brush it over the surface of the wood and the bark on the sides. Keep brushing on the preservative until the wood doesn't absorb it anymore.

Although bark mulch and wood chippings won't go bad in a short space of time, they will decompose over time as it is a natural product. If you want to store a bulk bag of bark mulch for an upcoming project, you need to make sure it's kept in a cool and dry place as this will help prevent mould and insects.

Bark is a cheap, abundant and lightweight medium. It is full of carbon rich cellulose and this is food for saprophytic soil fungi. In certain conditions, bark-based potting mixes these fungi can fill the mix with masses of white fungal threads, just like woodchip. The mix looks and smells mouldy.

The name "bark" or "candy bark" doesn't exactly explain itself, does it? Barks like this peppermint bark are called that because of the way the chocolate candy breaks into craggy pieces that resemble the layers and borders of tree bark. Also, many barks are made with dark chocolates, so the color is similar, too.

How to make bark that doesn't melt? ›

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.

Homemade chocolate bark will last in an airtight container for 2-3 weeks. I recommend storing it in the fridge to ensure that the chocolate doesn't melt! Storing for longer? Wrap the chocolate bark tightly in a couple layers of plastic wrap and keep it in the freezer for up to 6 months.

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.

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.

It's always best to use chocolate products rich in cocoa butter. We prefer to use craft melting chocolate like our TCHO chocolate discs for baking. The good news is, you can always use dark chocolate or milk chocolate discs for your candy molds. If you're a fan, you can also use white chocolate.

Bark chippings are usually made from the bark or white wood of a spruce or pine tree, shredded and chopped up into small pieces; it is then graded into various qualities such as a British Standard Play Fall Material (BSEN1177) and standard garden bark.

Christmas Crack is a sweet and salty treat made with saltine crackers covered with toffee, baked, and then topped with semi-sweet chocolate. Sometimes called saltine cracker toffee, it is as easy to make as it is addicting, so watch out! I love to serve it with other Christmas cookies on a Dessert Charcuterie Board.

However, a tree's armor, called bark, is not made of heavy metal. Its outer layer, which we see, is composed of dead cells that become filled with a corklike substance and air. The inner bark, called Phloem, contains living cells and transports food from the leaves to other parts of the tree, including the roots.

Chemical composition

Bark tissues make up by weight between 10 and 20% of woody vascular plants and consists of various biopolymers, tannins, lignin, suberin and polysaccharides.