Real Recipes From Real Home Cooks ®

almond craisin bark

Recipe by
Amanda Villarreal
Grand Rapids, MI

This bark is so delicious and is extremely easy to put together. It is a perfect addition to a holiday basket or display. I used this bark in the sweets display at my wedding, and it was a huge hit! The orange extract and the light salt of the almonds along with the sweet chocolate and tart craisins has a ton of variety in flavor and texture. I have never measured the amount of craisins and almonds I use. I just eyeball it to my own taste.

prep time 10 Min
cook time 30 Min
method No-Cook or Other

Ingredients For almond craisin bark

  • 1 lb
    white chocolate discs (i always use ghiardelli..discs, not chips)
  • To taste
    whole almonds. roasted & chopped
  • To taste
    dried cranberries (craisins)
  • 1 tsp
    orange extract

How To Make almond craisin bark

  • 1
    Prepare a half sheet pan by lining it with parchment paper. (Half sheet pan is 18 by 13 inches)
  • 2
    Roast and chop almonds to desired size. Roasting really brings out the flavor in the almonds. You can even lightly salt them if you enjoy a salty and sweet flavor profile. If almonds are bought pre-roasted, disregard the roasting and just chop * to roast almonds- spread almonds on a sheet pan and drizzle with a tiny bit of oil. Toss the almonds around until evenly coated. Brown in an oven at 350 degrees until lightly browned. This is a fairly quick process, so keep an eye on them. If they brown too much they will taste bitter. Take almonds out of oven and sprinkle with salt immediately (optional). Cool before using.
  • 3
    Melt chocolate. I use my Wilton chocolate pro..you can also do this over a double boiler or in the microwave. Microwave- heat chocolate at 30 second intervals in a glass bowl. Scrape bowl and stir chocolate between each interval. White chocolate burns very easily, so make sure to not do more than 30 seconds at a time.
  • 4
    Once chocolate is melted, combine it with half of the almonds and cranberries and all of the orange extract. Spread onto prepared pan. Top with remaining almonds and craisins. Allow to cool for at least thirty minutes.
  • 5
    Once this is completely cool and hardened you can break the bark into pieces. I like to break it into a variety of sizes with jagged edges. It looks more rustic that way. Store bark in an airtight container at room temperature for several weeks. Enjoy!
  • 6
    This method can be used to make a wide variety of barks. You could do dark chocolate instead of white, pistachios instead of almonds, etc. I have made all kinds of barks in the same way but I just substituted the ingredients mixed in. Cookies and cream bark with chopped Oreos is always a hit as well as salted carmel pretzel bark (chopped pretzels and chunks of carmel) Be creative and have fun with it!
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