Patriotic Candy Bark

 

Are you getting ready for 4th of July? This Patriotic Candy Bark is a fun summer take on a Christmastime classic, using some patriotic M&Ms to give it some red, white and blue flair.

It’s a great sweet treat to serve alongside this healthier American Flag Kabob centerpiece!

Patriotic Candy Bark

This patriotic candy bark is actually a hybrid of two fun homemade candies: Amanda’s homemade crack candy and Christmas bark. While Amanda uses saltine crackers in her recipe, I swapped those out for pretzels for a different salty crunch.

Christmas bark is usually just melted chocolate sprinkled or swirled with something red and white, but layering it on the pretzel candy helps prevent it from being a big melted mess at your summer get-together, and also provides a nice contrast between the soft chocolate layer and crunchy candied pretzel layer.

While we used red, white & blue M&Ms for our recipe (a family favorite) you can swap those out for sprinkles or any other candy you’d like – even a couple drops of food dye swirled into the white chocolate while it is still melted.

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How to Make 4th of July Candy Bark

You will need:

• 1 cup pretzels (enough to line the bottom of a pan)
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1 cup butter
• 1 cup white chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup Patriotic M&Ms (can use sprinkles or other candies as desired)

Things you may find useful:

• Rimmed baking sheet
• Parchment paper
• Saucepan
• Candy thermometer
• Offset spatula

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MORE CANDY RECIPES YOU WILL LOVE:

Saltine Toffee, sometimes referred to as “Christmas Crack”, is a toffee candy made using saltine crackers as the base. Easy to make and delicious!

Another Christmas favorite is homemade Peanut Brittle. I make this just about every year, it’s definitely a family favorite.

If you have kids, they’ll love making these homemade candy bars with you! They are made from graham crackers and peanut butter, two favorites!

More Patriotic Recipes

• American Flag Kabobs
• Patriotic Mini Cheesecakes
• Red, White and Blue Poke Cake
• American Flag Brownies
• Mini Shortcake Cups
• Patriotic Punch
• No Bake Berry Cheesecake Trifles
• Patriotic Ice Cream Cone Cupcake

4th of July M&M Bark

5 from 2 votes

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Author: Amanda Davis

Ingredients

• ▢ 1 cup pretzels enough to line the bottom of a pan
• ▢ 1 cup brown sugar
• ▢ 1 cup butter
• ▢ 1 cup white chocolate chips
• ▢ ½ cup Patriotic M&Ms can use sprinkles or other candies as desired

Instructions

• Preheat your oven to 350F
• Line the bottom of a baking tray or casserole dish with parchment paper.
• Place your brown sugar and butter in a saucepan over medium heat and melt. Cook for 2 minutes after they have melted, until the mixture reaches a caramel color.
• You can use a candy thermometer if it makes you more confident but it is not required.
• While the butter-sugar mixture is caramelizing, lay down an even layer of pretzels in your baking pan.
• Pour the sticky butter-sugar mixture over the pretzels and smooth with an offset spatula.
• Sprinkle the white chocolate chips over the caramel-pretzel layer and place in the oven for 4 minutes.
• Remove the baking pan from the oven and use a clean offset spatula to smooth the chocolate. The white chocolate may still look unmelted but remove it and try to smooth it - it may spread easily. If not, heat for an additional minute until spreadable.
• While the chocolate is still melted, sprinkle on your M&Ms before placing the baking pan in the fridge.
• After an hour, you can break up the candy and serve!

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