Sea Salt Trail Mix Chocolate Bark

This sweet and salty holiday treat is simple to make, but looks so elegant. Make this Trail Mix Chocolate Bark in under 15 minutes with just a few simple ingredients to serve at a holiday party or to give away as a gift. It’s customizable and pretty darn delicious.

Trail Mix Chocolate Bark Recipe

If you are looking for the easiest holiday gift or dessert to serve, you’ve found it with this Sea Salt Trail Mix Bark! This chocolate bark is not only delicious, but it looks stunning and it is dead-simple to make. Making bark at home requires nothing more than melting and spreading chocolate, then topping it with the different flavor additions. For this Trail Mix Bark, we’ve topped it with nuts, dried fruit, shredded coconut and sea salt. The added salt is not to be missed, it makes this bark sweet and savory and just plain addicting.

How to Make Trail Mix Chocolate Bark

1. First line a sheet pan with parchment paper so the bark comes off easily.
2. Then, melt the chocolate. We prefer to use a double-boiler method, but you can use the microwave if you really want to, just make sure not to overheat the chocolate.
3. Next pour out chocolate and lightly spread into a rectangle onto parchment paper. Make it as thick or as thin as you want it. We preferred to spread it to a rough 11″ x 16″ rectangle.
4. Then, add your desired toppings. Go ahead and choose what you either have on hand or what flavor combination you like. For a festive look we made ours with red cranberries, green pistachios and white coconut. After you’ve topped it, let it sit at room temperature for a few hours or place in the freezer for about 5 minutes until bark hardens.
5. Break into pieces and either wrap up to give away as gifts, or store for serving later.

Topping Options

Given that this is a trail mix bark, we topped it with all our favorite trail mix ingredients, including nuts, dried fruit and coconut. Here are some options that will work well for this bark:

• Dried Blueberries
• Dried Cranberries
• Dried Cherries
• Raisins (Golden or Thompson)
• Dried Pineapple
• Almonds (Whole or Sliced)
• Pistachios
• Peanuts
• Shredded Coconut
• Granola Clusters
• Pepitas
• Sunflower Seeds

Tips for Working with Chocolate

• Use a medium to good quality chocolate, especially if you are using chocolate chips. While we love that this is an affordable gift option, using low quality chocolate with a lot of additives to it will shine through negatively in the final product. This is especially true if you are using chocolate chips, which are manufactured with added ingredients to hold their shape. Look for chocolate or chocolate chips with only a few ingredients for the best bark. It doesn’t have to be the most expensive chocolate, but shoot for the mid range brands such as Ghiradelli, Trader Joe’s, 365 Brand, or Guittard, at a minimum. We also love Enjoy Life for dairy-free chocolate.
• Make sure all utensils are clean and dry. Water and chocolate do not mix! Even a small addition of chocolate to water can make it break, which would mean gritty chocolate. Make sure your bowls and utensils are clean and dry.
• Melt chocolate in a double boiler. We suggest melting chocolate over a double-boiler because it’s the most gentle way to melt it. Most people don’t have a double boiler at home, so make up your own by placing a heat proof bowl over a simmering pot of water. Just make sure that the bowl is not touching the water. Alternatively you could melt the chocolate in the microwave at 20 second intervals, whisking in between until it’s fully melted.

Storing Chocolate Bark

Bark can be stored at room temperature, just so long as the room temperature isn’t above 70 degrees. If you need to store in the refrigerator make sure it is is in an air-tight container to avoid the chocolate pick up any smells or moisture.

Check out these other edible gifts:

• Maple Kettle Corn
• Dark Chocolate Almond Butter Cups
• Cherry, Coconut and Chocolate Granola
• Strawberry Chia Seed Jam

If you like this chocolate recipe, check out these others:

• The BEST Gluten-Free Chocolate Cake Recipe
• Chocolate Matzo Crack: 3 Ways (Gluten-Free!)
• Sea Salt Frozen Hot Chocolate
• Gingerbread Chocolate Chip Muffins

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