Sweet And Crunchy Valentine Bark Dessert

Last Updated on February 7, 2025

Valentine Bark is a beautiful and festive treat for Valentine’s Day.

This holiday bark is a treat with a twist. It isn’t just a traditional sweet dessert — it’s a crunchy snack mix that combines sweet and salty, just like these salty sweet caramel pretzel cookies.

This easy holiday dessert is perfect for class parties, gift bags or on a platter at a party served with these pretty strawberry cake mix cookies.

Jump to:

• Why do Sweet and Salty Taste so Good Together?
• SAVE THIS RECIPE!
• ❤️ Why You’ll Love This Recipe
• 🥘 Ingredients
• 🔀 Substitutions
• 🌈 Variations / Options / Add-Ins
• 🥄 Equipment Needed / Helpful Tools
• Tired of Ads?
• 🔪 How To Make Valentine Bark
• 👩‍🍳 Pro Tips
• ❓ Recipe FAQs
• 🙏 Pairing
• SAVE THIS RECIPE!
• 📋 Recipe
• Pro Tips
• Recipe FAQs

Why do Sweet and Salty Taste so Good Together?

Sometimes you might be craving something that’s both sweet and salty, like this bark dessert. Here’s why we love this flavor combination so much:

• Our bodies need sodium to function, and we’re naturally drawn to sugar for quick energy. When combined, they create an irresistible duo that our brains recognize as rewarding.
• Sweetness and saltiness balance each other out, preventing either from becoming overwhelming.
• Salt is a natural flavor enhancer. It makes the sweetness taste more intense by activating specific sugar receptors on the tongue that require the presence of sodium to function optimally.
• Your brain loves variety. The mix of sweet and salty creates a dynamic contrast that keeps your taste buds engaged and craving more.

❤️ Why You’ll Love This Recipe

Valentine Bark is a special treat for Valentine’s Day that everyone will love for these reasons:

• Ready in under 30 minutes: In fact, it only takes about 20 minutes to make this yummy looking treat and have it ready for your family or friends.
• Easy to share: This treat is so easy to divide into cute Valentine bags. Just tie the bags with bright red, pink and white ribbons and it is ready to send to school for your child’s class party or to take along to work and hand out to coworkers.
• Fun to make: You’ll feel like one of those fancy chefs as you spread the various drizzles around on this mix.

In case you want a similar treat for Mardi Gras, check out these Rolo pretzel bites.

🥘 Ingredients

Valentine Bark contains some basic ingredients you will find in a lot of sweet and salty snack mixes. You might already have a lot of these ingredients in your cabinet.

• Chex Cereal: Your choice of corn, rice, wheat, etc. and any brand will be fine.
• Mini Pretzels: Any brand will work.
• Red Candy Melts: This is the first drizzle that’s applied — you can use any brand of candy melts.
• Mini Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips: These will be used as one of the drizzles. It doesn’t matter what brand of chocolate chips you use.
• Valentine’s sprinkles: I prefer the jimmies kind of sprinkles, but you can use any kind you want.
• Red and White M&M’s: You can usually find these in the aisle with the Valentine candy.
• Pink Colored Candies: The round sixlets candy works well in this mix.
• Pink Candy Melts: This another one of the drizzles — you can use any brand.

See recipe card for complete list of ingredients and quantities.

🔀 Substitutions

If you don’t have the ingredients you need, or if you have different dietary needs/preferences, see if you have these instead:

Chex cereal: If you don’t have Chex, you can use Crispix, Golden Grahams, or Cheerios instead.

Mini pretzels: Pretzel sticks would work in this recipe if you can’t find the mini pretzels.

Red candy melts: White chocolate(melts or melted) + red food coloring, or melted red frosting can be a substitute.

Mini semi-sweet chocolate chips: Milk chocolate chips, dark chocolate chips, or chopped chocolate bars will work instead.

Valentine’s sprinkles: If you can’t find these, you might be able to find, red, white and pink sprinkles separately and just add some of each color.

Red and white M&M’s: You could always just use Regular M&M’s, peanut M&M’s, additional Sixlets, or jelly beans.

Pink colored candies: White chocolate(melts or melted) + pink food coloring, or strawberry-flavored candy melts can be a substitute.

Pink candy melts: You could try Conversation hearts, heart-shaped gummies, chopped pink Starbursts, or pink Jordan almonds instead, but it depends on how you want the texture to be.

🌈 Variations / Options / Add-Ins

If you’d like to add some extra flavor or texture to your bark, here are some great options.

• Strawberry Flavor: Add freeze-dried strawberries or strawberry yogurt-covered raisins.
• Additional Sweet-Salty Flavor: Add popcorn, crushed potato chips, or salted caramel drizzle for extra crunch.
• Marshmallows: Mini marshmallows or chopped heart-shaped Peeps would be a great addition.

For a sweet and salty Valentine’s treat in cupcake form, try these Cupid’s bow cupcakes.

🥄 Equipment Needed / Helpful Tools

You only need a few kitchen tools to help you make this easy recipe. Gather these tools and get ready to enjoy this sweet and salty treat.

• Baking sheet: This is where you’ll assemble the bark.
• Wax paper: Put this on the baking sheet before you make the bark so clean up is really easy when you’re done.
• Microwave safe bowls: You’ll need three bowls to melt the chocolate chips, and red and pink candy melts.

🔪 How To Make Valentine Bark

This is such a simple recipe. There is no baking involved — if you have a microwave and can melt and stir, then you can make this recipe in no time.

Step 1: Prepare Baking Sheet

The first step is to prepare the baking sheet. Line a baking sheet with wax paper and then spread the Chex cereal and mini pretzels over the wax paper.

Step 2: Melt the Red Candy Melts

Now it is time to melt the red candy melts. Place the red candy melts into a microwave safe bowl.

Microwave them on defrost for 1 minute and then stir. Continue cooking on defrost in 30 second increments until melted and smooth.

Step 3: Drizzle the Melts

Drizzle the red candy melts over the Chex cereal and pretzels.

Step 4: Melt Chocolate

Place the chocolate chips in a microwave safe bowl. Melt the chocolate chips in the microwave on defrost for 1 minute.

Stir the chocolate chips and continue to heat on defrost in 30 second increments until smooth and melted.

Step 5: Drizzle the Chocolate

Drizzle the melted chocolate over the Chex cereal and pretzels using a fork.

Step 6: Add Sprinkles

Sprinkle some Valentine’s themed sprinkles over the mixture. Try to do the sprinkling before the red candy melts and chocolate have totally hardened.

Step 7: Add Candy

Add some red and white M&M candies and the pink colored candies over the top of the Chex cereal and pretzel mixture.

Step 8: Melt the Pink Candy Melts

Repeat the same melting procedure (as the red) with the pink candy melts.

Step 9: Drizzle the Melts

When the pink candy melts are smooth and melted go ahead and drizzle over the mixture on the baking sheet.

Step 10: Let it Harden and Store

The last (and hardest) step is to wait until the whole mixture is set up and the candy melts have hardened.

Once the mixture is hard it is time to gently break it up into pieces and store in an airtight container until ready to serve.

👩‍🍳 Pro Tips

Here are a few tips to make sure that your bark turns out perfectly every time that you make it. 

• Try to spread the ingredients evenly so each piece of bark has a good balance of cereal, pretzels, and candy.
• Since chocolate hardens fast, have everything ready before melting.
• If your candy melts or chocolate are too thick, mix in ½ teaspoon at a time to thin them for smooth drizzling.
• You can use a fork or piping bag for drizzling – A fork creates thin, delicate lines, while a small sandwich bag with the corner snipped off gives you more control.
• If you’re in a hurry, place the baking sheet in the fridge for 15-20 minutes to make it set faster.

❓ Recipe FAQs

🙏 Pairing

These are my favorite dishes to serve with Valentine Bark:

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📋 Recipe