Tis the season! Christmas is right around the corner, and that always means holiday get togethers, gift exchanges, and baked goods.
For us, that also always means lots of sickness! Unfortunately, my kids got a particularly nasty bout of colds right around the time I agreed to participate in a cookie exchange with family.
All of this turned into me forgetting until the last possible minute that I needed to make cookies! Ah!
Enter this tasty Christmas Bark. I put a tropical twist on it using some candied fruit I got from Paradise Fruit Company, specifically the cherry and pineapple mix.
Throw that delicious mix in with some macadamia nuts, and you have an easy and yummy Tropical Christmas Bark!
For this Tropical Christmas Bark, I used white chocolate chips, a small bag of dry roasted macadamia nuts, and about half of a container of the fruit mix. Feel free to use more of everything!
I considered using food dye to make it a bit more festive, but with sick kids running around, I was trying to move fast! No time for fancy color swirls!
The nice thing about the fruit mix I used is that it managed to look festive all on its own! The fruit was a mix of green and red, with a little bit of yellow from the pineapple thrown in. Beautiful!
First, I prepped all of my ingredients. I started by measuring out about 16 ounces of the white chocolate chips in a microwave safe bowl. Though I used chips, you’re welcome to use a baking bar or something similar.
Then I roughly chopping the macadamia nuts. I tried to make them relatively small, but I wasn’t too pressed to make them even. There were definitely still some larger pieces!
I also didn’t roast them ahead of time, since they were dry roasted, but you can if you want! Just keep an eye on them so they don’t burn. I can’t imagine any Christmas Bark could redeem burnt macadamia nuts!
After that, I roughly chopped the cherries and pineapple as well. Super sticky, but it’s worth it. Candied fruit can become overwhelming sometimes, and smaller bites are better.
Once I had all of those ingredients chopped up, I moved on to melting the white chocolate. In 30 second increments, I microwaved the bowl of chips on high. After each 30 seconds, I either swirled the bowl around (at first) or stirred the chips to mix up the melted and not melted chocolate.
After it was all melted and smooth, I moved the bowl over to a pan I had already laid out that had been prepped with a sheet of parchment paper. I poured the white chocolate out on the parchment paper and smoothed it out into a rectangle.
Next, I sprinkled the macadamia nuts out as evenly as possible on top of the chocolate.
Then I followed that with the candied fruit and patted everything down to make sure the chocolate had a good hold of it.
With all of the toppings already on, this simple Tropical Christmas Bark was ready to harden in the refrigerator! Place the pan with the bark in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours, until it hardens.
Then comes the fun part – breaking the bark! Snap it into pieces. The size is your preference, but I had a variety of sizes, with them all small enough to fit in a tin.
I then took a pretty Christmas tin and placed all of the pieces inside. Ta-da! Cookie (close enough!) exchange taken care of!
And who doesn’t like white chocolate with a bit of tropical deliciousness? Yum!
Tropical Christmas Bark
Put an easy twist on the simple-to-make chocolate bark for a tasty, tropical Christmas treat!
Ingredients
- 16 oz white chocolate chips
- 2 oz macadamia nuts
- 4 oz cherry pineapple candied fruit mix
Instructions
- Prepare a cookie sheet by placing a sheet of parchment paper on it
- Measure out 16 oz of white chocolate chips in a microwave safe bowl
- Roughly chop the macadamia nuts and the candied fruit mix
- Place the bowl of white chocolate chips in the microwave on high for 30 seconds
- Stir the bowl of white chocolate chips after the 30 seconds and place back in the microwave for another 30 seconds
- Repeat this process until the white chocolate chips are melted and smooth
- Once melted, scrape the white chocolate onto the parchment paper and spread into a rectangle
- Sprinkle the macadamia nuts and candied fruit on top of the white chocolate
- Gently press the pieces of nuts and fruit into the white chocolate
- Put the cookie sheet into the refrigerator for at least 2 hours
- After the white chocolate has hardened, remove it from the refrigerator
- Break the white chocolate into pieces
- Place the pieces into a tin
- Delight someone with a tasty Christmas treat!
Notes
Feel free to use a variation of the white chocolate, such as a white chocolate baking bar.
You could also use milk chocolate or dark chocolate!
The macadamia nuts could be toasted in the oven, but take care not to burn them.
If you'd like to make it even more tropical, add shredded coconut!
For an extra Christmas-y feel, swirl green and red food coloring into the white chocolate before adding the toppings!
Sarah is the founder of Baking Kneads, LLC, a blog sharing guides, tips, and recipes for those learning how to bake. Growing up as the daughter of a baker, she spent much of her childhood learning the basics in a local bakery.