How on earth is it December 21? It is baffling to me how quickly this year has flown by, and now Christmas is just around the corner! Are you ready? Gifts bought? Cards written?
If you’re a little behind the curve on your holiday shopping, have no fear—I’ve got the perfect gift that only requires a few simple materials and ingredients to make: DIY Christmas Bark. You provide the ingredients, the instructions, and the cute jar, and your gift recipients have everything they need to make a delicious chocolate bark for the holidays.
Here, I’ll show you the basic instructions, plus three different variations:
How to Do It
Scrounge your apartment for any mason jars (I just can’t help myself!) or glass containers with a lid that looks cute enough to wrap up. I found these adorable labels online that you can print out, so I used them for the gift tags and wrote instructions for making the bark on the back.
Speaking of instructions, chocolate bark is insanely easy to make. Here are the steps to write on your gift tags:
- Melt chocolate using the microwave or a double boiler.
- Pour onto a parchment-lined baking sheet and smooth into an even, thin layer.
- Roughly chop the ________ and sprinkle over the melted chocolate (insert whatever ingredient you are using here, unless you’re making the s’mores bark—you wouldn’t want to decapitate any Teddy Grahams now, would you?).
- Let cool in the refrigerator, then break into pieces.
Just in case you need to see the final product, I whipped up a few batches of the bark. I know, I know—it’s a tough job, but someone has to do it.
Read on for a few suggestions of different combinations for your DIY chocolate bark gifts—the sky is the limit though, so just use whatever ingredients sound good to you!
Oh, and by the way—I didn’t give measurements because it all depends on the container you use, but if you buy one 12-ounce bag of chocolate chips for each gift, you’ll have more than enough. And, extra chocolate chips lying around the house is never a bad thing.
S’mores Bark
- Chocolate chips
- Honey Teddy Grahams
- Mini marshmallows
Layer the chocolate chips on the bottom of the jar, then follow with the Teddy Grahams (try to face them outwards, it’s cuter that way) and the marshmallows. Finish with a layer of Teddy Grahams. I cut a piece of tissue into a square and placed it on top of the lid before screwing the cap on. Then I tied some string around the top and attached a label with instructions.
Pistachio & Cherry Bark
- Chocolate chips
- Pistachios
- Dried cherries
I put the pistachios and dried cherries in one small mason jar and the chocolate chips in another, then tied them together using a gold and green bow. Don’t forget your gift tag with instructions!
Red & Green Holiday Bark
- Mini chocolate chips
- Red and green chocolates (like M&M’s or Cadbury’s chocolates with a crisp sugar shell)
I used an empty Straus cream bottle (clean, of course) and poured mini chocolate chips about 3/4 of the way up, and then the red and green chocolates the rest of the way. Top with a festive bow and tie a ribbon around the neck with a gift tag.
There are so many more amazing homemade gifts online—here are some more of my favorites:
- Bacon Jam by Spoon Fork Bacon
- Christmas Crack by What’s Gaby Cooking
- Gingerbread Cookie Mix by Food For My Family
- Flavored Popcorn by A Beautiful Mess
- Toffee Blondies by Baked Bree
Happy Holidays everyone!
Photos courtesy of Niki Lowry.
