Christmas Chocolate Bark: Gift-able Ornament (Vegan Friendly)

This Christmas Chocolate Bark doubles as an edible ornament! Dark chocolate is melted, set in molds, then topped with chopped nuts and dried fruit. Tie a string around the disks, and you’ve got a beautiful ornament and gift!

The holidays are the perfect time of year to experiment in the kitchen! I love making the traditional vegan Christmas cookies, and vegan peppermint bark, but sometimes I like to mix things up!

This year I invested in one of these silicone ornament molds. They are super affordable, and absolutely perfect for making homemade gifts for your friends, neighbors, teachers, and family.

You can make your own scented disks, soaps, or chocolates!

I decided to make a Christmas Chocolate Bark but used these molds to make them into gift-able ornaments.

Of course you can always skip the molds, and simply melt your chocolate and place in a parchment lined 8×8 inch pan. But I thought this would be a fun and cheery twist!

Why you’ll love this Christmas Chocolate Bark…

• Easy to make.
• Only three simple ingredients needed
• Delicious and beautiful!
• Make for the perfect homemade holiday gift!

Ingredients

• Dairy-Free Chocolate Chips-I like the Enjoy Life brand. They are dairy-free and free of other allergens. You will need a total of 2 cups of chocolate chips. Reserve 3 tablespoons of the chocolate chips before melting. You’ll use the reserved chocolate to melt later and help the pistachios and cranberries stick to the disks.
• Pistachios-You’ll need shelled pistachios which you will chop.
• Dried Cranberries-You can use either sweetened or unsweetened cranberries.

Tools and Equipment

• Silicon Ornament Mold-In order to get those nice clean edges, and the perfect hole for your string, you’ll need these molds, or something similar. They are super useful around the holiday season for creating many homemade holiday gifts!
• String-You’ll use this to create the ornament! I like the red and white holiday string. It makes for a festive look! I didn’t have any on hand at the time, so I used white string instead.

How to Make Christmas Chocolate Bark – Step by Step

Step 1: Reserve 3 tablespoons of the 2 cups of chocolate chips. Melt the rest using the double boiler method. Pour your chocolate into the molds. Place in the freezer for 30 minutes to firm up.

Step 2: Pop chocolate out of molds and place on a parchment lined tray.

Step 3: Chop fruit and nuts. Mix together on a plate or shallow bowl.

Step 4: Melt the remaining 3 tablespoons of chocolate. Dip the chocolate disks into the chocolate and dip into the nut and fruit mix. Let set for 20 minutes.

Step 5: Attach the string and hang on your tree, give as a gift or enjoy!

Top Tips for Making Chocolate Molds

• Slowly melt the chocolate. I like to use the double boiler method.
• If you’d rather microwave the chocolate to melt, that’s okay too, just microwave in 30 second increments stirring in between on 50% power.
• Make sure you use silicone molds. This makes it very easy for the chocolates to pop out without breaking or making a mess!

How do you melt chocolate using the double boiler method?

• Bring a saucepan filled with two inches of water to a boil.
• Reduce heat, and set a glass bowl with chocolate chips on top, making sure the bowl covers the rim of the saucepan, but does not touch the water. You want the bowl tightly fitted across the top of the saucepan so that the steam does not escape. The steam will slowly and gently melt the chocolate chips.
• Stir until completely melted.

Variations

• No silicone molds? No problem! You won’t be able to create the cute ornament look, but you can still make delicious vegan chocolate bark by melting our chocolate, and pouring it into an 8×8 inch pan lined with parchment paper. Sprinkle the pistachios and cranberries over top, place in the freezer for 30 minutes. Allow to come to room temperature, then break into smaller pieces.
• Try different nuts? If you don’t have or like pistachios, use your favorite nuts instead! Chopped peanuts, slivered almond, chopped pecans, walnuts, or cashews would all work well!
• Try different dried fruit? Dried cherries, apricots, and blueberries would be delicious with this chocolate bark!

How do you package this as a gift?

I suggest using a festive holiday string to string your ornament. Then place in a clear treat bag, tie with the same string, and attach a cute holiday gift tag! I love this set of holiday string that comes with snowflake gift tags!

How to Store and Keep

If using as an ornament keep away from the fire place for obvious reasons! You don’t want a melted chocolate mess all over your tree and floor! I suggest hanging it on your tree in a cool place (maybe next to a window!)

If making these as gifts, wrap in individual bags, as suggested above and store at room temperature. You can also freeze them for longer shelf life!

They will keep for 7 days (or longer) at room temperature, and 2-3 months in the freezer!

Check out these other Christmas gift-ables!

• Strawberry Chia Jam
• Vegan Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies
• No-Bake Snowball Cookies
• Chocolate Coconut Date Balls

If you’ve tried this recipe for Christmas Chocolate Bark, please rate it and let me know how it turned out. You can also follow me on Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest for more plant-based family recipes your whole family will enjoy!