5 from 7 votes

Cranberry white chocolate bark is an easy homemade bark with creamy white chocolate, a hearty mix of fruit and nuts and a hint of orange! Try my copycat cranberry bliss bars next.

I have a thing for white chocolate and cranberries. They go hand in hand in my book (er, blog). White chocolate is one of those ingredients that's easy to use, but also super fragile.

If you don't heat it enough, it's chunky. If you heat it too much, it scorches and because unusable – and it's not cheap, so the idea of just throwing away a batch of white chocolate makes my wallet sad.

Ingredients for cranberry white chocolate bark

12 ounces white chocolate, chopped, or chips
¼ teaspoon orange extract OR 1 tablespoon grated orange peel
½ cup dried cranberries
¼ cup almonds, sliced
¼ cup pumpkin seeds
¼ cup each of any fruits or nuts

How to make cranberry white chocolate bark

Prepare a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat.
Melt white chocolate in a double boiler or microwave safe bowl, stirring frequently. You want it to be pour-able, but not *too* thin. Don't overheat as it will become scorched and irreversibly ruined!
Add orange extract or orange peel and stir to combine.
Pour chocolate into an even layer on prepared baking sheet. You can either make a thicker layer with a smaller surface area, or a thin layer with a larger one.
Place your fruit and nuts across the surface of the chocolate. You'll want to move relatively quickly so that the chocolate doesn't harden before you're done!
Place completed bark in the fridge for 30 minutes to an hour to let set and completely harden. Remove from fridge and break into pieces. Enjoy!

Customize your ingredients

The beauty of this is that you can add basically anything you want, and what you see picture was what I had on hand:

dried cranberries
pumpkin seeds
sliced almonds.

But if I'd gone to the store recently to fill my pantry with more than cheesy poofs and chocolate (sorrynotsorry), I would have also included: pistachios, orange zest, and chunks of mango.

How to melt white chocolate

I very much recommend using a double broiler to melt your white chocolate. It's so delicate that you have to be super careful about not overheating it, and if you microwave it and take it out every 15 seconds to stir… there's a good chance you're going to be a few seconds too late.

If you use a double broiler, you have a constant eye on it while you stir constantly, and you'll save yourself the heartache of completely destroying a batch of white chocolate.

Did you know white chocolate isn't actually chocolate?

There isn't actually any chocolate in white chocolate – its main ingredient is cocoa butter. And no, that does not mean you should go try to eat that jar of cocoa butter you use on your skin.

That's gross, and wouldn't taste anything like white chocolate. You have to add milk fat, milk solids, sugar and vanilla to get the good stuff.

I know – your entire life is a lie now. Shhh… it's okay. Everything is going to be okay. I recommend making this Cranberry White Chocolate Bark to get over it.

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