homemade gingerbread bark

Not truly a big fan of white chocolate.


I think it may be stem from childhood when I ate one of those white chocolate bunnies during Easter.
Remember those?  Nice waxy, chemically aftertaste, inability to melt, stayed in little pocket piles on your back teeth?....
All the other kids were chowing them down, while I sat there inspecting the insides for evidence of falsehood, thinking how is this chocolate? Why is this chocolate--
Chocolate is dark, rich, melts in your mouth.
White chocolate doesn't melt in your mouth and tastes just like those wax lip candies.  Remember those? I never got that rage either.
Thankfully the appearance of high quality white finally made its appearance in my life, and I "kind of" grew to "love it".
Experimenting with it, mastering the art of tempering with it grabbed my attention
It's one of those chocolates  in my opinion, that needs texture; a crushed Oreo, a nice salty chunk of Cheez It crackers, pineapple & coconut, peanut butter cups, .....



Easy peasy to put together. Prebake gingerbread cookie & butter mixture til crisp.

Spread white chocolate ganache over the crust.

Sprinkle with gingerbread cake crumbles. That's it!

Easy right?
Do I even need to tell you how tasty this is?
Gingerbread and white chocolate are meant to be together--forever.


And away they go on a field trip.....I shall miss them.
gingerbread bark
print recipe

2 cups gingerbread cookies, crushed almost fine (use a hard cookie)

1 stick (8 ounces) unsalted butter, melted

a few dashes of cinnamon

a couple pinches of sea salt

1 cup high quality white chocolate chips or chunks (Ghirardelli is good)

1-2 TB half & half or heavy cream

½ - 1 cup of gingerbread cake crumbles or more crushed gingerbread cookies

Cook notes:

You’ll need some baked gingerbread for this recipe.  If you’re short on time, you can use the Trader Joe’s gingerbread cake mix—it’s pretty tasty.

If you don’t have any gingerbread cake, you could also use gingerbread cookie crumbs for the top (I haven’t tried this, but certain it might taste ok).

I used a 8 or 9 inch tart pan with removable bottom.  If you don’t have this you can use an 8 or 9 inch brownie pan and use foil to line the pan. This will help you remove bark from pan with ease.

If you really like the taste of ginger, adding a few slices of candied ginger to the top would be a nice touch.

For the crust:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Mix the crushed gingerbread cookies with the melted butter, add a few hefty dashes of cinnamon and a couple pinches of sea salt.

Using a 8 or 9 inch tart pan (one with a removable bottom is perfect), spray with nonstick spray.  Place the crust mixture into the bottom and spread evenly in pan, making sure to get all the corners.

Bake for 12-16 minutes or until crust is almost crisp.

Remove from oven and let cool.

Temper the white chocolate with the half & half until you have a nice white glossy ganache. Using a spatula,  spread the ganache over the cookie crust evenly.  Try not to let it go to the sides of pan if you can.

While chocolate is still warm, sprinkle the top of the bark with the gingerbread crumbles.  Let set up at room temp for a bit, then transfer to fridge to harden.