This no-bake, super-fast chocolate peanut butter bark will be the one to make all summer long! The freezer not only gives the perfect texture, but makes this bark cold enough to cool you down on even the hottest summer day. 

THE INGREDIENTS: 

Semisweet Chocolate Chips: Here comes the “chocolate” in our chocolate peanut butter! Since we have plenty of peanut flavor coming through in our other ingredients, we believe it is best to have more chocolate chips than peanut butter chips. If you don’t have semisweet chocolate chips on hand, know you can use any variety-even white chocolate chips! Not only that, but you don’t have to use chocolate chips at all. If you have baking chocolate bars, that also makes the perfect substitution. Although most bark recipes say to avoid chocolate chips at all cost, we have a technique down that ensures we still get a crisp bark-so don’t worry! 

Peanut Butter Chips: Instead of melted peanut butter, we like to swirl in melted peanut butter chips into our bark. Peanut butter chips are imitating chocolate chips, so they have the necessary add-ins to solidify like chocolate chips do, as well. What we are saying is: If you use melted peanut butter as a substitute, you’re not guaranteed that it will set correctly in the freezer. If peanut butter is all you have on hand, though, try adding ½ a cup of peanut butter to the chocolate chips and melting them together before spreading them on the tray.  You won’t have the cool swirl effect, but you’ll have chocolate peanut butter! 

Peanut Butter: With peanut butter chips, why have peanut butter as well? Because we like to double down on flavor, simple as that! Peanut butter starts us off as one of our toppings. Large dollops of peanut butter stay relatively soft, even when frozen. Combined with the hardened candy bark on the bottom, you get a bite reminiscent of a peanut butter ball. Although we do dollops all around the bark, you can also fill a ziploc with some peanut butter, cut the corner, and draw thin or thick lines across your bark. We don’t recommend trying to smear the peanut butter across the bark because it will just mix into the chocolate. If you wait until it is set, however, you can then just brush on some peanut butter with a butter knife! 

Chocolate Peanut Butter Candy: A bark absolutely CALLS for candy. Reese’s, another chocolate peanut butter candy, chocolate covered peanuts, or even leftover peanut butter balls make great options. To avoid too large of a bite, we recommend cutting any large candy you use into bite size pieces. Feel free to reduce or increase the amount of candy to your liking. 

Peanuts: Every single ingredient in this recipe has sugar (unless you use sugar free peanut butter, of course). That sweet on sweet on sweet can get overwhelming, so salted peanuts give you the relief you need and actually help you appreciate the peanut butter chocolate flavors even more. If you don’t have peanuts on hand or want a slightly fancier bark, feel free to replace this with mixed nuts or whatever kind of nut you have on hand. The key is something savory! If you don’t want nuts, you could even replace this with some pretzels to still get that salty flair. Of everything, nuts are the most likely to fall off the bark. After adding them, you may want to press them into the chocolate slightly so they stick. 

KEY INFORMATION: 

Can You Use Chocolate Chips in Candy Bark? While most recipes say NO, we believe our method means YES, you can! By using melted chocolate chips, you’re sacrificing a bark that can set at room temperature or quickly in the fridge. However, by setting your bark in the freezer it will still get as crisp as you want. 

How Thick Should Candy Bark Be? Frankly, there is a lot of wiggle room here. When you spread the chocolate on a 9×13 baking sheet, you’ll probably cover most but not all of the surface. You can look at our photo on the top of a page for reference on how much that is! By doing so, your bark should be around ¼ inch thick. That’s a bit over half a centimeter, for those used to the metric system. Any thinner than that and your bark will get too delicate, breaking so easily that it might be frustrating. You can go thicker than that, though, for a harder and more candy-bar like bite. Just keep in mind that the thicker your bark is, the more time it will need to set. 

How Do You Melt Chocolate Chips/Peanut Butter Chips in the Microwave? It’s easier than you think! Add your chocolate or peanut butter chips to a microwave-safe bowl. Then, microwave for 30 second intervals, stirring between each interval. Although tedious, please put in the work to prevent any burnt chips! You’ll also want to ensure not to overcook the chocolate chips or add oil to the bowl. When there are still a few chocolate chip lumps left, it is better to just stir them until they melt. If you add oil or butter to the bowl, thinking it will give a better flavor, don’t! This fat will cause the chocolate to seize into those dreaded and large lumps that you can’t spread at all. 

How Do You Make Swirls With a Toothpick? Although it seems so fancy, it doesn’t take much skill at all! Once your chocolate layer is already down, add dots (large or small) of melted peanut butter chips throughout your bark. Consistency is not key here, just have fun. From there, you can move a toothpick in horizontal or vertical lines through your bark. This will spread the peanut butter chip dots and give them that swirl appearance. 

Can You Let Candy Bark Set At Room Temperature? In the Fridge? Although some recipes set at room temperature, this is one recipe that cannot. The bark will set partially, but stay too soft to enjoy. In terms of the fridge, it sets better but stays just a little too soft. With our experimenting, it may have finally gotten hard enough after 3+ hours in the fridge, but who has time for that? For a consistent crunch, set the candy bark in the fridge until hardened enough to break up. From there, freeze those things! We like to set them in the fridge and break them up first because, personally, our freezer is too small for a whole baking sheet to go into. You can put the whole sheet into the freezer if it fits to save a step. 

Why Don’t My Toppings Stick to Candy Bark? Your toppings aren’t sticking because they aren’t pressed enough into the chocolate and peanut butter chip layer before it hardens. In this recipe, nuts are the most susceptible to falling off. To avoid this, press down your toppings a little after you are done arranging them on your bark. 

What Other Toppings Can I Add to Candy Bark? Just about any candy can be added, but don’t let the term candy bark fool you! You can add dried fruit, granola, crumbled up cookies, pretzels, crunchy cereal, swirls of jam, or even crushed up potato chips! You can get a real kitchen sink kind of bark going on here. 

What Goes with Chocolate Peanut Butter Bark? You mean you don’t just devour it straight from the freezer? Don’t worry, we like to do stuff with it too. Chocolate Peanut Butter Bark makes an excellent addition to be swirled into your ice creams. However, it also makes a nice topping for already finished ice cream and pudding. For cupcake or cake decorating, feel free to have some bark pressed into the frosting! Although we haven’t tried it, you could experiment with using crumbled bark in place of chocolate chips in your next batch of cookies. If you’re a fan of hot chocolate bombs but the price scares you as much as it scares us, feel free to drop a piece of bark into your hot cocoa the next time around. If you’re making a charcuterie board, chocolate peanut butter bark is nice for the sweet section.