Easy Chocolate Date Bark

Name: Easy Chocolate Date Bark
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 60 min
Total time: 70 min
Ingredients: 12 oz pitted medjool dates ((350g or 17 dates)); ½ cup smooth peanut butter ((see note 1)); ⅓ cup peanuts, roughly chopped ((see note 2)); 1.5 cups chocolate buds or chips ((milk or dark, whichever you prefer)); 2 tsp coconut oil; 1 tsp salt; 1 - 2 Tbsp desiccated coconut ((optional))

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This Easy Chocolate Date Bark is a delicious dessert or snack that can be made in minutes. While similar to this Chocolate Covered Dates recipe, it’s a great alternative for those with little patience for fiddly tasks. Instead of stuffing dates individually this is simply made all on one tray.

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Easy Chocolate date bark has been chopped up in various shapes and is sitting on brown baking paper on a white tray with blue trim. The top has been sprinkled with coconut.

Key Ingredients

This recipe uses very basic pantry staples. And if they’re not already in yours they’re easy to find. Aside from the dates, which form the base of the recipe, most other ingredients can be changed to suit your tastes. Use any nut butter or nuts preferred and it’s your choice of milk or dark chocolate too.

All the ingredients needed to make chocolate date bark have been laid out across a table in various small bowls.

Dates – The glue that holds this deliciousness together. They also make the bark chewy and deliver hints of caramel with every bite.
Nut butter – any you choose will be fine. I went with peanut butter because it’s what I had on hand.
Nuts – peanuts or cashews are great, they give this a snickers feel. Again though, anything you have is fine.
Chocolate – Go with your preference here, milk or dark.
Coconut oil – This is used to make the chocolate easier to spread once melted. It adds a nice hint of coconut flavour too.
Salt – Helps to cut through the sweetness of the dates and chocolate.
Desiccated coconut – This is optional but adds a touch of colour and flavour when sprinkled over the top.

Let your creativity guide you with this recipe. You can mix milk and dark chocolates, add coconut flakes or even more chopped nuts on top. If you do add any other toppings, be sure to add them straight after pouring over the chocolate. This will ensure they stick to it before it’s frozen. And if you need to make a dairy free version, just replace the chocolate with your dairy-free variety of choice.

Substitutions And Variations

Any nut or seed butter can replace the peanut butter. The same is true for the peanuts – any nut can be used in their place.

While technically any date could be used for this recipe, Medjool are best because they’re large and have a very creamy texture. As such, I don’t recommend swapping them for another variety.

Want a dairy free version? Simply use your dairy free chocolate of choice.

A white hand is holding up a piece of chocolate date bark. Underneath a blue plate is filled with more date bark and a bowl of peanuts and coconut can just be seen in the frame.

How To Make This Easy Chocolate Date Bark

This recipe needs 10 minutes or less hands on time. Perfect for those days you’d like a sweet treat with little effort. The trickiest part is flattening out the dates because they can get quite sticky. A tip to help with this if needed is to lay a piece of baking / parchment paper over the top before pressing them down.

Deseeded dates have been spread out and flattened on a tray lined with baking paper - with the cut sides facing up.

A white hand is holding a spoon that is spreading peanut butter over dates flattened out on a baking tray lined with baking paper.

A white hand is sprinkling chopped peanuts over the top of the date bark. They're falling onto peanut butter spread over the dates.

A white hand is spreading melted chocolate over the top of the date bark with the back of a spoon.

Line a baking sheet with baking / parchment paper.
Remove seeds from the dates, open them right up and lay them out on the baking tray slightly overlapping with the cut side up.
Press the dates down so that they slightly stick together as one large piece.
Pour the peanut butter over the dates and spread it out to the edges. Next, sprinkle the chopped peanuts over the top.
Melt the chocolate and coconut oil together in a double boiler on the stove or in the microwave. Once runny, pour this over the top of the chopped nuts and gently spread it out to the edges of all the dates.
Sprinkle over the desiccated coconut if using, followed by the salt and put the tray in the freezer for 30 minutes to an hour to firm up.
Remove the chocolate date bark from the freezer and chop it into chunks. It’s quite sweet, so I cut mine into 20 or so pieces.
Serve straight away and keep any leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge.

If the chocolate is still too thick to pour after it’s been melted, add another 1 – 2 teaspoons of coconut oil to help thin it out. It needs to be a pourable consistency, so the dates aren’t pulled apart as the chocolate is spread.

A white hand is sprinkling desiccated coconut and salt over the top of melted chocolate on easy chocolate date bark.

Tips For Success With This Recipe

I like to use a slightly runny nut butter to make spreading it out much easier.

If you want to make this as fuss free as possible you can just use a crunchy peanut butter and leave off the extra nuts. Again though, look for one that’s slightly runny to make spreading easier.

Storing And Make Ahead

Store any leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge or freezer.

Having guests? Make this a day or two in advance and keep it in the fridge ready for them to enjoy when they arrive. It can be eaten straight from the fridge.