Valentines Day Bark Treats

Okay. Valentines Day bark treats. First of all, I know that Valentine’s Day is spelled like that [with an ‘s] and not like that [sans the ‘s]. It has something to do with the mysterious symbols, punctuation marks, and words that are unacceptable in titles. Second of all, maybe you thought this was a post about puppy treats. It’s not.

This is a post where the bark is better with the bite.

It’s a crazy easy, kid friendly Valentine’s Day bark treat to make.

It’s delicious and simple to make a treat bag/box/plate out of.

Here’s what you’ll need.

— enough Graham Crackers to line the bottom of a cookie sheet with.
I used almost two full sleeves. If you’re going to use a smaller pan, you won’t use as many.

— Almond Bark or some kind of melting wafers
Here’s what I used — CandiQuik — and I loved it.

It’s fantastic.

I chose the vanilla CandiQuik because I figured it would be easier to see the items on the top of the white chocolate.

It is a little bit like magic to use. Remove the microwaveable tray from the wrapper — stick it in the microwave for 60 seconds and stir it.
If it didn’t melt and stir to super silky, stick it back in the microwave for 15 more seconds.
60 seconds worked for me.

Warning: Do not overcook.

There were several warnings in the reviews on Amazon.
[That link is above on the word CandiQuiK.]

So far you have the graham crackers and the CandiQuik/Almond bark/candy wafers. Now you need to buy the little treats that go on the top.

Buy what y’all love to munch on.

I suppose it would be simple enough to cut anything into small enough pieces to use. There are some items that would tend to dry out (like cut up donuts or some such thing).

These were a must. I didn’t even break them up into smaller pieces.

Here are the treats we included in our Valentines Day Bark.

[Or Valentine’s Day Bark, if you know what I mean.]

— KitKat bars (cut them up)

— Thin Oreo Cookies (I cut them up as well)

— frosted animal cracker cookies

— tiny marshmallows — though I actually won’t include them in the next batch unless we deliver it very soon after it’s done because they dried out no matter if they were covered by aluminum foil or in a container with a lid.
[They look great, though.]

— Pretzels (there are a hundred shapes to choose from. Pepperidge Farm makes a fish-shaped one. That would be all kinds of cute.
[That link will give you an idea of what I’m talking about if you haven’t heard of them before.]

— Valentine M&M’s

— tiny gummy bears
I scooped out and purchased all the colors that came in the bin and then just picked out the ones I wanted to use when I got home.

— slivered almonds just for the fun of it

— I forgot to mention that we purchased a little shaker full of tiny little candy hearts. We sprinkled them on at the end. Loved it.

I liked having a variety of shapes, textures, colors and flavors to choose from.

Buy what y’all love to nibble on. It will be more fun to make as well as eat

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Here’s what you do.

1 — Line the cookie sheet with graham crackers.

2 — Melt the CandiQuik according to the package instructions.

3 — Stir it.

4 — Pour the melted CandiQuic over the graham cracker layer on the cookie sheet and spread it around evenly.

5 — Start placing the tasty treats on the the chocolate.

[Make sure you give the treats a little tap, tap so they ‘settle’ into the CandiQuik. You don’t need to push them into the chocolate, just make sure it stays where you’ve put it.]

We placed all of one kind of treat at a time. Pretzels because they were the longest. Frosted Animal Cracker cookies because they were the biggest around, and so on.

It was easier to see the different textures were kinda sorta evenly dispersed that way.

We stuck our finished Valentine’s Day Bark in the fridge to cool it a little more quickly.

Break it up into irregular pieces of bark. I didn’t try to do it uniformly in any way. Like using a knife. Nope.

I just used my fingers and the palm of my hands to break it into pieces. It turned out wonderfully.

It’s a delightful way to include the littles in a Valentine’s Day project.

And of course nibbling as you decorate is part of the fun.

And there you have your Valentines Day bark treats.

Once you’ve broken the bark into manageable pieces, use cellophane, fun boxes, bags, plates with wrap or whatever your creative self comes up with for packaging.

I love boxes, bags and wrapping that have fun patterns.

I’d love to know if you have favorite toppings and do you ever do themes?

Have the best kind of day!

UPDATE:

Rethink using marshmallows unless you plan on eating the Valentines Day Bark treats quickly. Those little guys dry up pretty quickly.