Super simple chocolate bark swirled with pink white chocolate and lots of candy hearts.
Today’s chocolate bark came purely from my need to combine sprinkles and candy hearts. The pink swirls are a bonus. All we’re really doing is combining semi-sweet chocolate and white chocolate. We’ll add some pink candy melts to the white chocolate to create that cotton candy pink shade. We’ll swirl it, we’ll top it, we’ll eat it with our sweethearts. Or alone with a bottle of wine… either way, it’s great!
I’m no stranger to chocolate barks. I have at least 4 bark “recipes” in Sally’s Candy Addiction. I put the term recipes in quotes because bark is essentially just melted chocolate with stuff added. It’s the easiest candy you’ll ever make. AND it makes a ton! Not to mention… it’s pretty. That’s why I love making bark around the holidays, showers, parties, etc. (Btw how cute would today’s bark be for a baby shower? You could do it with blue candy melts too! Maybe leave off the candy hearts and add more sprinkles. Oh my gosh, your dessert would be adorable.)
The bottom layer of today’s bark is semi-sweet chocolate. Can I tell you something? I’m a bit of a chocolate bark snob. By this, I mean… you need to use really, really fantastic quality chocolate in your barks. All you’re eating is chocolate, so you might as well make it a quality kind, right? They taste the best! I personally love making chocolate bark with either Ghirardelli chocolate bars or Lindt chocolate bars. You can find both in the baking aisle. Trader Joe’s pound plus bars are great for it too. Whatever you do, don’t use chocolate chips. Because of their stabilizers, chocolate chips do not melt properly for this. Great for chocolate chip cookies, but not so great when we need smooth, melted chocolate like in this recipe.
Swirled on top is that festive pink layer. The pink layer is made from 6 ounces of pure white chocolate and 2 ounces of pink candy melts—basically the same way we make mint chocolate swirl bark. As an alternative, you can use 8 ounces of white chocolate with a drop of red food coloring.
Swirling is really easy. After swirling, top the bark with a ridiculous amount of candy hearts with the best sayings in the bag. Then top it all with a waterfall of heart-shaped sprinkles. I got the heart shaped sprinkles from Target, but the others I used here are from Sweetapolita.
Is this a Valentine’s Day explosion or what?
More Valentine’s Day Treats:
- Valentine’s Day Cookies
- Valentine’s Day Cupcakes
- Small Chocolate Cake (6 Inch)
- Sparkle Sweetheart Cookies & Peanut Butter Sweetheart Cookies
- White Chocolate Red Velvet Cookies
See even more Valentine’s Day dessert recipes.
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Sweetheart Swirl Valentine’s Day Bark
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 0 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour
- Yield: 1 pound
- Category: Candy
- Method: No Bake
- Cuisine: American
Description
An easy recipe for Valentine’s Day sweetheart swirl bark filled with pure chocolate, pink swirls, festive sprinkles, and lots of conversation hearts!
Ingredients
- 6 ounces (170g) white chocolate, coarsely chopped*
- 2 ounces (about 1/2 cup) pink candy melts*
- 8 ounces (226g) semi-sweet chocolate, coarsely chopped*
- candy hearts and sprinkles for topping
Instructions
- Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat. Set aside.
- Melt the white chocolate and pink candy melts together. Use a double boiler or microwave. If using microwave, stir the chocolate every 20 seconds to help avoid seizing. Set aside.
- Melt the semi-sweet chocolate. Pour onto prepared baking sheet and spread out into a large rectangle. Drizzle the white chocolate mixture on top. Use a toothpick or knife to swirl the layers together. Decorate the top of the bark with candy hearts and sprinkles.
- Allow the chocolate to set uncovered at room temperature or in the refrigerator. (Usually takes about 45 minutes in the refrigerator.) Once hardened, break into pieces as large or as small as you want.
- Store bark in an airtight container at room temperature in a cool, dry place for up to 1 week or in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks.
Notes
- Freezing Instructions: For longer storage, freeze for up to 2 months and thaw overnight in the refrigerator.
- Special Tools (affiliate link): Baking Sheet | Silicone Baking Mat or Parchment Paper | Double Boiler or Glass Mixing Bowl
- Chocolate: Do not use chocolate chips or morsels. Pure chocolate is best for easy melting and best taste. I like Ghirardelli, Baker’s, Lindt, or Trader Joe’s pound plus bars.
- Candy Melts: Instead of pink candy melts, use 8 ounces of white chocolate and 1 drop of red food coloring.
Lovely, but make life easy for yourself: I used (very high quality) chocolate chips and layered them with the candy melts on the silicone sheet — 10 minutes in the oven (still warm from the cake I’d just baked) and I could swirl them together.
Easy and fun. I also make this for Halloween with candy corns and orange candy melts.
Hi– Looking forward to making this for my college-boy. Two questions: Will it stay firm enough through shipping? (Ohio to Minnesota, so no warm weather risks) and would it work with dark chocolate instead? TIA…
Hi Anne! Yes and yes. This is an excellent homemade candy to ship in the cooler months. You can use dark chocolate.
Hi Sally,
I love how pretty, yet simple to make, bark is! I want to make a memorial day/4th of July-inspired bark for my fiancee’s office. I plan to use plain white chocolate for the base and then red- and blue-colored white chocolate or candy melts for the swirls, topped off with R/W/B nonparreils. My question is do you think swirling with two colors might cause them to bleed into each other?Would using tinted white chocolate VS colored candy melts make a difference in preventing this? I certainly don’t want purple in there! lol
I don’t think the colors will bleed at all– colored candy melts may cut that risk altogether though. 🙂
Hi Lisa,
Same here! I made the bark yesterday as well and mine is a little soft too. Still delicious but not at all as I expected…texture-wise.
Sally, any insight into how we can perfect it for next time?
Crystal– it’s the white chocolate. White chocolate will never have that crisp “snap” that regular chocolate has! I hope you still enjoy it!
Made this yesterday for VDay family surprises. It came out a little soft but super delicious. It is supposed to be hard when set right? Any ideas why it might be soft?
Hi Lisa! It’s the white chocolate. White chocolate will never have that crisp “snap” that regular chocolate has!
Hello! First, I want to say that I am a huge fan of yours!! I love everything in your cookbooks and your website!! It’s so pretty, and fun to read. I have learned a LOT about baking from reading your blog. I just have a question about the chocolate bark recipes. I am a huge chocolate fan as well, especially milk chocolate. So, finally my question is this:
Is it just a matter of taste when you use semi-sweet chocolate for the base layer in your bark recipes? I bought the “Lindt” semi-sweet baking bar and followed the instructions to a tee. Unfortunatley, I didn’t like it. 🙁 I found it to be too bitter. I couldn’t find milk chocolate baking bars anyways. So, am I doing something wrong, or is it just a matter of my taste buds? I feel kind of bad telling you I didn’t like the bark, but I really want to know if I’m doing something wrong. ( I love everything else though!) Thanks so much for everything!!
Patti, don’t feel bad! Chocolate is all personal preference. I love super dark chocolate and you prefer milk chocolate. Totally fine! For milk chocolate, try using Baker’s brand German Chocolate Baking Bars– also in the baking aisle. I believe the box is green. It’s much sweeter.
So happy to hear you love my blog and that you’ve learned a lot from it, too!
Made this with my kids last night- so easy, fun, and delicious!! We bagged it in small clear cello bags for them to give to their classmates. Thanks!!!!
Hi Sally, love the looks of this “recipe”! I was wondering, could you tell me why you didn’t temper the chocolate?
Tempering is obviously OK! I didn’t for this recipe because I know simply melting the chocolate is easier for my readers. 🙂