Valentine’s Strawberry Chocolate Barks
Loaded with almonds, rice crispies, and strawberries, this Strawberry Chocolate Bark is one of the best no-bake Valentine’s desserts. A dreamy dessert for every occasion, rocky road is very easy to make too!
White and milk chocolate combine to form this rich strawberry chocolate bark. Perfect colors for Valentine’s Day or any festive celebration, it hardly takes 15 minutes of prepping and 45 minutes of freezing to make this delicious rocky road dessert!
Who Invented Rocky Road?
Thankfully the history of the rocky road chocolate bark is not as complicated as the history of the Rocky Road ice cream that all of America loves.
The invention of the popular rocky road ice cream has different claimants – William Dreyer and Joseph Edy of Edy’s versus Seth Fenton and George Farren of the Fenton Creamery. And the rocky road ice cream shot to fame in 1983 when singer Weird Al Yankovich sang “I Love Rocky Road”.
But it’s quite possible that the rocky road ice cream was really invented in Kansas. There is a version of the Rocky Road Candy bar on page 241 of the Rigby’s Reliable Candy Teacher book from the 1920s.
The chocolate bark on the other hand has a story dating back to 1853 that’s a bit dubious. According to this story, when confectioneries from Europe reached Australia after the months-long journey by ship, some of them would have spoiled.
To cover the questionable taste of the candies, they were mixed with cheap chocolates and nuts that were available locally. These candies were called ‘rocky road’ because the individuals selling these chocolates had to travel a very rocky road to the area of the gold minefields where they sold the chocolates.
Whatever their origin, rocky road barks or fudges are now popular world over. And they’re the perfect make-at-home valentine’s desserts to treat your loved one!
What Will I Need to Make Strawberry Chocolate Bark?
You will need the following ingredients to make the rocky road chocolate bark:
- 12 ounce bag Milk Chocolate Chips
- 12 ounce bag White Chocolate Chips
- 1/2 cup Dehydrated Strawberries, chopped
- 1/2 cup Sliced Almonds
- 1/2 cup Crispy Rice Cereal (we used Rice Crispies)
- 1/4 cup Red or Pink Chocolate Melting Disks
- Valentine’s Sprinkles
You will also need the following supplies:
- 13×9 inch pan
- Parchment Paper or Wax Paper
- Microwave Safe Bowls
Recipe Pointers For Strawberry Rocky Road Bars
- These strawberry chocolate barks are the perfect DIY Valentine’s Day chocolate gifts!
- You can skip the red and pink sprinkles and melting chocolates if you want to.
- If making this dessert for children, you can use a mix of colors – red, blue, green, yellow.
- We don’t cut the rocky road into squares as we want it to look more bark-like. But you can cut squares if you want to.
- If you have many people to serve, you can cut smaller pieces.
- You can add tiny pink and white marshmallows to the rocky road bars.
FAQs about Strawberry Chocolate Bark
Leftover rocky roads should be stored in an airtight container in a cool, dry place and will last at least 10 days.
A rocky road is an Australian invention made using melted chocolate, nuts, marshmallow, and glazed cherries. A tiffin is a British dessert invented in Troon, Scotland that’s similar to the rocky road, but made of crushed digestive biscuits, syrup, raisins, cherries, and sugar covered with a melted chocolate layer.
Although the almonds add to the texture of the dessert, you can skip them if you’re allergic. If you’re not allergic and simply don’t like almonds, you can substitute them with peanuts, broken cashew nuts, pine nuts, chopped walnuts, or any other nuts of your choice.
You can also use freeze dried strawberries in this recipe. If you don’t find those as well, try chopped candied cherries or candied cranberries.
Strawberry Rocky Road Bark
Loaded with almonds, rice crispies, and strawberries, this Strawberry Chocolate Bark is one of the best no-bake Valentine's desserts. A dreamy dessert for every occasion, rocky road is very easy to make too!
Ingredients
- 12 ounce bag Milk Chocolate Chips
- 12 ounce bag White Chocolate Chips
- 1/4 cup Dehydrated Strawberries, chopped
- 1/4 cup Sliced Almonds
- 1/2 cup Crispy Rice Cereal (we used Rice Crispies)
- 1/4 cup Red or Pink Chocolate Melting Disks
- Valentine’s Sprinkles
Instructions
- Line a 13x9 pan with parchment or wax paper.
- In a microwave-safe bowl, melt half of the chocolate chips in the microwave at 50% power for 1 minute. Stir and keep microwaving at 50% power in 30-second intervals until all of the chips have melted.
- Once melted, pour the chocolate into the 13x9 pan and layer half of the strawberries, almonds, and crispy rice cereal on top.
- Melt half of the white chocolate chips in the microwave in the same way as the chocolate chips and pour into the pan.
- Lightly swirl the ingredients together making sure to coat the strawberries, almonds, and cereal with the chocolate.
- Add the second half of the strawberries, almonds, and cereal to the mixture.
- Melt the rest of the chocolate chips and swirl onto the top, making sure to coat the other ingredients.
- Melt the red or pink melting chocolates and swirl onto the top of the bark. Sprinkle bark with sprinkles.
- Chill until set, approximately 45 minutes - 1 hour.
- Break into pieces and serve.
Notes
- Be careful when swirling the chocolates not to swirl them too much or they will completely mix together and you will lose the swirled look.
- Be sure to chop the strawberries into small pieces, otherwise, they will be hard to coat with the chocolate and the bark won’t stay together as well.
- Valentine’s sprinkles and red or pink melting chocolates are optional.
