Chocolate Bark with British Biscuits
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A chocolate bark recipe featuring classic British biscuits like custard creams, bourbon biscuits, party rings, and pink wafers.
What Inspired This Chocolate Bark with British Biscuits?
Biscuits (cookies, for my US readers!) are a teatime staple in the United Kingdom. Classics include digestive biscuits, bourbon biscuits, party rings, custard creams, ginger biscuits, malted milk biscuits, fig rolls, Hobnobs, and Jammie Dodgers. (My personal favorites are the pink wafers, although popularity rankings of British biscuits nearly always disagree.) Biscuits are both inexpensive and readily available, which unfortunately makes it far too easy to unintentionally accumulate a dozen half-eaten sleeves in the snack drawer or biscuit tin, or at the back of the kitchen cabinet.
When my personal cabinet situation reached critical mass, I developed this recipe as a way to repurpose all of those “odds and ends.” Requiring just a handful of ingredients and about twenty minutes of active prep time, this chocolate bark offers a unique way to use up the last few stragglers in a packet, and a fun alternative to enjoying your biscuits with tea or coffee.
Biscuit Bark Ingredients
To make this chocolate bark with British biscuits, you’ll need the following:
- Chocolate – You’ll need 400 grams (14 ounces) of good-tasting chopped chocolate, or chocolate callets. I made my biscuit bark with milk chocolate, but feel free to switch things up and use dark or white instead.
- Biscuits – You’ll need approximately 115 grams (about 1 1/2 cups) of chopped biscuits, or approximately 15-18 whole biscuits. For suggestions and US substitutions, see my notes below.
- White Chocolate – For piping the decoration. Feel free to use white chocolate chips, chocolate callets, or chopped white chocolate. Or, substitute milk, dark, or ruby chocolate instead.
- Sprinkles – You can decorate your bark with pastel nonpareils, pink and white nonpareils, or homemade sprinkles.
Which British Biscuits Should I Use?
This recipe is perfect for using up all of those “odds and ends” at the bottom of the biscuit tin or cookie jar. You’ll need approximately 115 grams (about 1 1/2 cups) of chopped biscuits, such as bourbon biscuits, party rings, pink wafers, custard creams, or rich tea biscuits. In the US, you can find British biscuits in the international aisle at many supermarkets; at specialty shops like Myers of Keswick in NYC; or on Amazon.
To subsitute products more readily available in the US, select cookies with a dry, crunchy texture rather than chewy, bakery-style cookies. Some suggestions include Nilla Wafers; Chips Ahoy! chocolate chip cookies; wafer cookies; Lotus Biscoff; frosted animal cookies; Nutter Butters; Vienna Fingers; Chessmen; Lorna Doones, or Oreos. You can also make your own British-inspired bourbon biscuits, party rings, or Jammie Dodgers.
If using thick sandwich cookies like custard creams or Oreos, you might wish to make slicing easier by decorating your bark using the tops of the sandwiches only, rather than the whole cookie.
Recommended Tools and Equipment
You can make this chocolate bark without much special equipment, but you will need a bain marie (hot water bath), double boiler, or microwave to melt the chocolate. You’ll also need a silicone mat for pouring the melted chocolate—a sheet of parchment will work in a pinch, but I recommend silicone because, unlike parchment, it won’t make ridges and wrinkles in your bark.
Finally, you’ll want to have a rubber spatula or small stepped palette knife on hand for spreading the melted chocolate; a disposable piping bag for applying the white chocolate drizzle; and a sharp chef’s knife to chop your chocolate bark into pieces.
Cooling the Chocolate Bark
Allow the finished bark to cool at room temperature, even if it takes a few hours. Do not refrigerate unless absolutely necessary. The humid environment can create ugly white marks in the chocolate; cause the sprinkles to bleed; and make the biscuits moist or soggy rather than crunchy.
Make-Ahead and Storage Suggestions
Store chocolate biscuit bark in an airtight container at room temperature for up to two weeks.
This chocolate bark does not require refrigeration, so it’s perfect for gifting. For gifting, package chocolate bark in treat boxes, pretty cello bags, or decorative food storage containers. You could also go meta and gift your biscuit bark in a bicuit tin or cookie jar, along with some homemade party rings or bourbon biscuits.
British biscuit recipes you might enjoy:
Bourbon Biscuits
Party Rings
Jammie Dodgers
Earl Grey Shortbread
And if you do make these, or any of my recipes, don’t forget to tag me @bastecutfold or use the hashtag #bastecutfold on Instagram. I always love to see what you’re making!
Chocolate Bark with British Biscuits
- Total TimeAbout 1 1/2 hours
- Yield600 grams (about 6 1/2 US cups) 1x
A simple chocolate bark recipe featuring classic British biscuits like custard creams, bourbon biscuits, party rings, and pink wafers.
Ingredients
400 grams chopped milk chocolate, or callets (14 ounces)
115 grams assorted chopped biscuits or cookies (about 1 1/2 cups chopped biscuits)
15-18 whole biscuits (or sandwich biscuit tops)
30 grams white chocolate (about 2 tablespoons)
Sprinkles or pastel nonpareils, to decorate
Instructions
Line a quarter sheet tray with a silicone baking mat.
Add chopped milk chocolate to a bain marie or double boiler. Melt over low heat, stirring gently, until completely melted.
Remove from heat. Stir in chopped biscuits.
With a rubber spatula or small stepped palette knife, spread chocolate mixture onto prepared tray, forming a rectangle approximately 7 x 10 inches in size.
Top with the whole biscuits, pressing down gently to secure.
In a microwave-safe bowl, melt the white chocolate on medium power, stirring every 15-20 seconds until completely melted. Scoop chocolate into a disposable piping bag.
Pipe thin zigzags of melted white chocolate over the entire surface, covering both the biscuits and the chocolate.
Scatter with pastel nonpareils or homemade sprinkles.
Allow the tray sit at room temperature for 30-60 minutes, or until the chocolate sets.*
Peel the slab away from the silicone mat. Place on a large cutting board. With a sharp chef’s knife, cut the slab into smaller pieces.
Store chocolate bark in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 2 weeks.
Notes
*Depending on the temperature in your kitchen, this may take a few hours. I don’t recommend refrigerating unless absolutely necessary, as the moisture from your fridge can make the biscuits soggy.
