This dark chocolate bark recipe has sweet swirls of caramel and lots of lightly salted almonds!  It is the perfect salty/sweet treat!

Two more days until Christmas!  My kids say this in an excited voice while my voice is riddled with panic!  I’m not ready.  I have a whole lot of wrapping to do but cannot find a kid-free time to do the wrapping.  I have a house to clean, a menu to plan, then I have to go buy the food on the menu, laundry to finish, cookies to bake and lastly, I need to figure out if there are any last minute gifts to buy.  There are ALWAYS last minute gifts to buy!

I’m terrible about last minute gifts.  Each year I think I’m doing good then all of the sudden I find myself scrambling.  I’m either buying one more gift for the kids because gifts aren’t even, or I forgot to get a little something for the mailman who tirelessly delivers my gifts to the door. Or perhaps there is a coach, a friend, a neighbor or a co-worker who deserves a little gift this time of year.  You know, a little gift just to say thank you.  When you are this last minute, homemade gifts come in handy!

One of my favorite, simple homemade gifts to make is chocolate bark.  In comes together quickly and can be made with almost anything you have on hand.  I’ve made Samoa cookie bark with shortbread cookies and coconut; bark made with sugar cookies, chocolate bark with M & M’s and peppermint patty chocolate bark.  All these recipes have different ingredients, but the basic method is the same.

This dark chocolate bark starts with, well dark chocolate that is melted until smooth then spread into a thin layer on a baking sheet.  I melted caramels and swirled those into the dark chocolate then delicately pressed almonds into the bark.  After an hour in the fridge, the bark is ready to break into pieces, packed into tins and passed out as gifts!

Anyone would be happy to receive this dark chocolate bark recipe as a gift, whether it’s last minute or not!

Bark Tips

Use good quality chocolate, this will help the flavor and the melting process.

You can use a double broiler or the microwave to melt your chocolate; just be sure to stop and stir often if you are using the microwave, chocolate burns easily.

Press an toppings (like the almonds) gently into the chocolate before the chocolate is set, you don’t want any pieces falling off! Pretzels, candy chocolate pieces, cashews, or cookies would also work well with this bark.

Caramel Almond Dark Chocolate Bark

Yield: 16

Prep Time: 1 hour 10 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour 10 minutes

Rich dark chocolate with a sweet swirl of caramel and salted almonds!

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Ingredients

• 2 12 oz bags dark chocolate chips
• 6 oz caramels, unwrapped
• 1 tablespoon milk
• 1/2 cup coarsely chopped Lightly Salted Blue Diamond Almonds

Instructions

1. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper, set aside.
2. Melt chocolate in a bowl; stir until smooth. Pour melted chocolate onto prepared baking sheet and set aside.
3. In a separate bowl, combine caramels and milk. Microwave in 30-second intervals until melted and smooth. Drizzle caramel over chocolate and swirl using a knife or an off-set spatula. Carefully press almond pieces onto chocolate.
4. Place bark in the refrigerator until set.
5. Break into pieces and store in an airtight container.

Nutrition Information

Yield 16 Serving Size 1
Amount Per Serving Calories 274 Total Fat 14g Saturated Fat 8g Trans Fat 0g Unsaturated Fat 5g Cholesterol 4mg Sodium 37mg Carbohydrates 34g Fiber 3g Sugar 27g Protein 3g