Every Christmas, I make a whole load of my family’s favourite Peppermint Bark. We were sent some homemade peppermint bark as a gift many years ago and, ever since, it just hasn’t been the festive season without a full jar of the stuff!

However, my sister-in-law, Amy, is not a huge fan of peppermint, so, obviously, that particular bark isn’t exactly her treat of choice. Last year, we sat down and brainstormed some ideas for a zero-peppermint alternative and we landed on this: a Rocky Road-inspired bark, with a 50/50 blend of milk and dark chocolate with raisins, marshmallows and digestive biscuits.

In today’s post, I’m sharing the recipe for Amy’s Bark: a fun, festive alternative to peppermint bark (for the candy cane-haters and the rocky road-lovers alike!).

Table of Contents

• Ingredients
• Method
  • Tempering the Chocolate
  • Assembling the Bark
• Recipe

Ingredients

To make Amy’s Bark, you will need:

• Dark chocolate

I like to use a 50/50 blend of dark and milk chocolate for this recipe. The dark chocolate that I use contains about 72% cocoa solids (so relatively dark). When combined with the milk chocolate, you get a perfectly sweet (but not-too-sweet!), chocolate base. However, if you prefer, you can use all dark or all milk: it’s up to you!

• Milk chocolate

The milk chocolate that I use for this recipe contains about 32% cocoa solids.

• Digestive biscuits

Biscuits add great crunch and texture to the bark. Digestives are a classic biscuit here in the UK and a key feature of our Rocky Road. They’re great, because they add a slight saltiness, which balances out the sweetness of the other ingredients, but feel free to experiment with different biscuits!

• Raisins

Dried fruit adds sweetness, tartness and a bit of a chew to bark. You can use raisins or sultanas for this recipe (I actually prefer sultanas myself, because they’re seedless!), but you could also really branch out and use dried cranberries, cherries or even chopped, dried apricots!

• Mini marshmallows

Marshmallows add even more chew and sweetness. I prefer to use mini marshmallows so they can be easily distributed throughout the bark (and it’s a lot less sticky than cutting up bigger marshmallows!).

Method

Amy’s Bark is pretty simple to make: the only tricky part is tempering the chocolate! Once the chocolate is in temper, you need to work fast, so it’s best to get everything weighed out and ready before you start:

• Line a baking tray with greaseproof paper.
• Weigh out the marshmallows and raisins and have them to hand, ready to sprinkle over the bark.
• Break the digestive biscuits up into very small pieces (this helps to keep the bark relatively thin and ensures that the biscuits are evenly distributed throughout the chocolate).

Tempering the Chocolate

To make Amy’s Bark, you start by tempering the chocolate. This ensures the finished bark sets properly at room temperature and has a great snap.

This chocolate tempering process is complicated by the fact that we’re using a combination of two chocolate types: milk and dark, so it’s a little different to the chocolate tempering instructions given here. Luckily, dark chocolate is actually the easiest to temper, so it’s easier to temper this mix than it is to just temper milk chocolate!

You’re welcome to use your favourite method for tempering chocolate, but this is what I do:

Roughly chop all of the chocolate (milk and dark). Transfer about 4/5 of the chocolate to a heatproof bowl and microwave on the lowest setting for 1 minute (if you don’t have a microwave, you can do this over a pan of barely simmering water on the hob).

While the chocolate is in the microwave, continue chopping the remaining 1/5 of the chocolate so that it is super fine. We’ll use this later to help with the tempering process.

After 1 minute, give the chocolate a stir. It won’t look very different at this stage, so put it back in for another minute (don’t be tempted to skip the stirring step, though: chocolate can burn very easily, so you want to take it slow and steady).

Keep microwaving the chocolate in 30 second – 1 minute bursts, stirring in between each burst, until it is completely melted. Check the temperature as you go, using a probe thermometer: you want it to reach 45-47°C. Don’t let the chocolate go any higher than 50°C.

Once the chocolate has melted and is at the correct temperature, add a small amount of the finely chopped, reserved chocolate and stir it in well until it has melted into the rest of the chocolate. The additional chocolate is known as ‘seed chocolate’ and helps the melted chocolate to cool the right way. This, along with the stirring motion, is the key to perfectly tempered chocolate!

Keep adding seed chocolate and stirring, keeping an eye on the temperature of the chocolate, until it reaches 26-27°C. If you run out of seed chocolate, just keep stirring the chocolate until it comes down to temperature (or chop up a little more chocolate, if you have it!).

Next, return the chocolate to the microwave and heat it very gently (5-10 second bursts on the lowest setting) until it reaches 30-32°C. The chocolate is now in temper and is ready to use! You’ll want to work fast at this stage, because it will start to set quite quickly.

Assembling the Bark

Tip the broken up digestives into the bowl with the tempered chocolate. Mix them together quickly, but thoroughly, so that all of the digestives are covered in the chocolate. This helps to keep the biscuits slightly fresher and crunchier than if they were just scattered over the top of the chocolate, so your bark will last longer.

Tip the chocolate mixture onto the prepared baking tray and spread it out into a thin layer using an offset palette knife, or the back of a spoon/spatula.

Sprinkle over the raisins and marshmallows, pressing them down gently as you go to ensure that they stick to the chocolate. Continue to work quickly at this point, because if the chocolate sets too hard before the raisins/marshmallows are added, they won’t stick!

Set the bark aside at room temperature to harden completely (about 30 minutes).

Once firm, break the bark up into pieces and enjoy!

The bark can be stored at room temperature, but it’s important to keep it in an airtight jar/tin to keep the biscuits super crunchy. It can also be packaged up in little bags and given to your friends and family as gifts!

Recipe

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Rocky Road Bark (Amy’s Bark)

A 50/50 blend of dark and milk chocolate, digestive biscuits, raisins and marshmallows all combined into a fun bark, perfect for snacking on and gifting this festive season!

Course Snack

Cuisine British

Keyword 5 ingredient, Chocolate, Rocky Road

Prep Time 1 hour hour

Setting Time 30 minutes minutes

Total Time 1 hour hour 30 minutes minutes

Equipment

• 1 Baking tray lined with greaseproof paper.
• Thermometer

Ingredients

• 3 digestive biscuits
• 180 g dark chocolate
• 180 g milk chocolate
• 50 g raisins
• 25 g mini marshmallows

Instructions

• Break the digestive biscuits into very small pieces. Set them aside. Weigh out the raisins and mini marshmallows and set them aside too, ready for later.
• Melt and temper the chocolate (both the dark and milk, together). See post above for detailed instructions on how to do this.
• Working quickly, mix the broken digestives into the chocolate until completely coated.
• Tip the chocolate/biscuit mixture onto the lined baking tray and use an offset spatula/the back of a spoon to spread it out quickly into a thin layer.
• Sprinkle over the raisins and mini marshmallows, pressing them down gently into the chocolate to make sure they stick.
• Set the bark aside at room temperature until hardened (about 30 minutes) before breaking into pieces. Store in an airtight container at room temperature.

This no-bake, Small Batch Festive Chocolate Biscut Cake is basically a Christmassy, slightly more grown-up version of Rocky Road. Made with a combination of milk and dark chocolate for the perfect combination of bitter and sweet, it also includes crumbled amaretti biscuits, roasted, salted almonds and dried cranberries. The whole thing is finished off with a drizzle of white chocolate to make the bars look super pretty on your festive table this year!

Because there’s always so much chocolate and so many sweet treats around this time of year, I developed this as a small batch recipe: it only makes 12 small pieces (though it’s pretty rich, so that’s perfect!), so you can don’t feel overwhelmed by yet another chocolate-y treat! If you’d like to make a bigger batch, feel free to scale up the recipe and use a bigger tin.

Table of Contents

• Ingredients
• Method

Ingredients

To make this festive chocolate biscuit cake, you will need the following ingredients:

• Dark, milk & white chocolate

This biscuit cake uses a combination of dark and milk chocolate, for the perfect, sweet, but not-too-sweet combination. If you prefer, you can use all dark, or all milk. You will also need a small amount of white chocolate to drizzle over the top of the bars, but this is an optional step (it just makes the bars look SO pretty!).

• Golden syrup

Golden syrup is melted with the chocolate to make the bars slightly soft and fudgy (and easier to slice!).

• Unsalted butter

Like the golden syrup, this is combined with the chocolate to keep the bars nicely fudgy and sliceable, but it also makes them extra rich. I would recommend using unsalted butter, because there are already other salty elements in the recipe— it’s still a sweet treat, after all!

• Amaretti biscuits

These are crisp, Italian almond biscuits that are often served alongside coffee. They’re readily available in supermarkets across the UK these days and they add great crunch and flavour to these bars.

• Roasted, salted almonds

To echo the almond flavour of the amaretti, I’ve used almonds in this biscuit cake (though you could substitute them with another nut (or even just more biscuits), if you prefer). Using roasted almonds helps to ensure the bars have a really nutty flavour, while the saltiness really help to balance out the sweetness of the bars.

If you only have plain almonds, you can turn them into roasted & salted almonds super easily! Dissolve a generous pinch of sea salt in 1 tsp of hot water, then toss with the almonds, until they are completely coated. Bake the almonds at 180°C for about 5 minutes (or throw them in the airfryer at the same temperature, for the same amount of time), until golden and nutty-smelling. Allow them to cool before chopping and using in the bars.

• Dried cranberries

What could be more festive than cranberries? Traditionally, biscuit cake contains raisins, but cranberries add the same chew with extra festive-ness, plus, they’re more tart than raisins, so they help to make sure these bars aren’t too sweet. I recommend using unsweetened dried cranberries, if you can find them.

• Coarse sea salt

This is optional, but I like to sprinkle a small amount of coarse sea salt over the top of the bars before they go into the fridge to set. This echoes the saltiness of the almonds and makes these bars feel extra grown-up and delicious!

Method

To make the bars, start by preparing your tin. Like with my small batch pecan bars, I’m using a 900g (2lb) loaf tin (21cm x 11cm x 7cm), but you can use any shape tin, as long as it’s a similar size. Line the tin with baking paper, so that the chocolate mixture doesn’t stick to the sides of the tin and you can remove it easily.

Next, prepare your mix-ins. First, crumble up the amaretti cookies. Aim for small chunks— too big and your bars won’t be even, too small and you won’t get that nice, crunchy texture! Amaretti cookies are quite fragile, so it shouldn’t require too much force to break them.

Chop the almonds roughly. Again, you don’t want them too big or too small (though honestly, it doesn’t really matter— the bars will still taste great, so do whatever you feel like!)

For the cranberries, just leave them whole.

Next, prepare the chocolate mixture. Place both the milk and dark chocolate, along with the butter and golden syrup into a small saucepan and set over a low heat.

Stir frequently as the chocolate and butter melts.

Once you have a smooth mixture, remove the pan from the heat. It’s important that you don’t overheat the chocolate, because it might seize (at which point you’d have to start all over again!).

Pour out about 50g of the chocolate mixture into a separate bowl. Set this aside for later, when you’ll use it to level out the top of the bars, to make them extra pretty!

To the rest of the chocolate mixture in the pan, add the crumbled amaretti cookies, the chopped almonds and the dried cranberries.

Mix everything together thoroughly, until all of the mix-ins are completely coated in the chocolate mixture.

Tip the mixture into the lined tin and spread out into an even layer. It will seem like there’s not a lot of mixture, but just spread it out evenly— because these bars are small, they don’t need to be too deep to look proportional.

Pour the reserved 50g of the chocolate mixture all over the top of the bars, and gently spread it over the surface to fill in any gaps and level everything out a little.

Now, it’s time to decorate. Drizzle some melted white chocolate all over the surface of the bars— the messier the better!

Sprinkle over some coarse sea salt while the chocolate is still wet, so that is sticks.

Put the whole tin into the fridge to firm up for at least 3 hours, or until firm enough to slice. Once it’s chilled, remove it from the tin and transfer it to a chopping board.

Once chilled, cut the biscuit cake into 12 small bars and dig in!

The bars will keep in an airtight container at a (cool) room temperature for 4-5 days, but, if your house is particularly warm, I’d recommend storing them in the fridge to prevent the chocolate from melting!

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Small Batch Festive Chocolate Biscuit Cake

This rich, grown-up version of Rocky Road contains a 50/50 blend of milk and dark chocolate, alongside crumbled amaretti cookies, salted almonds and dried cranberries. The perfect, quick and easy, no-bake recipe for Christmas!

Course Dessert, Snack

Cuisine British, Italian

Keyword almond, Amaretti, Cranberry, Dark Chocolate, Milk Chocolate, White Chocolate

Prep Time 25 minutes minutes

Chill Time 3 hours hours

Total Time 3 hours hours 25 minutes minutes

Servings 12 small pieces

Equipment

• 1 900g (2lb) loaf tin (21cm x 11cm x 7cm)

Ingredients

• 90 g milk chocolate, roughly chopped.
• 90 g dark chocolate, roughly chopped.
• 60 g unsalted butter
• 50 g golden syrup
• 70 g amaretti biscuits, broken up.
• 40 g roasted, salted almonds, roughly chopped.
• 30 g dried cranberries

To decorate:

• 15 g white chocolate, melted.
• Coarse sea salt, for sprinkling.

Instructions

• Line the tin with greaseproof paper and set aside.
• Place the milk and dark chocolate, unsalted butter and golden syrup into a small saucepan and set over low heat. Stir gently while the mixture melts together.
• Once the mixture is smooth and completely melted, remove from the heat immediately. Pour about 50g of the mixture into a small bowl for later.
• To the remaining chocolate mixture in the pan, add the crumbled amaretti cookies, the chopped almonds and the dried cranberries. Mix well to coat everything in the chocolate mixture.
• Tip the mixture into the prepared tin and smooth out into an even layer. Pour over the reserved chocolate mixture and smooth over to level out the surface.
• Drizzle the melted white chocolate all over the surface of the bars, then sprinkle with coarse sea salt.
• Place the bars into the fridge to chill for at least 3 hours, or until firm enough to slice. Remove from the tin and slice into 12 small pieces to serve. The bars will keep at room temperature, in an airtight container, for 4-5 days (though, if the weather is warm, I would recommend storing them in the fridge).