Our gluten free and dairy free Holiday Chocolate Pretzel Bark perfectly combines sweet, salty, crunchy, and creamy into one delicious treat. This makes a great homemade gift, and it’s vegan and top 8 free as well!
Hey all, we’ve got another great allergy friendly candy recipe for you today! Even though we’re getting pretty close to Christmas and by blogger standards my new posts are “late” for holiday content, I’m still pushing out some fun holiday recipes for you since I know people end up looking for last-minute Christmas treats when they’re busy.
I’m on a chocolate bark kick this month: we posted Peppermint Bark a couple days ago and today we’re posting a yummy dairy free and gluten free Chocolate Pretzel Bark.
This recipe perfectly combines that sweet, salty, smooth, and crunchy all in one allergy friendly treat that’s easy to decorate for Christmas (or even Halloween or Easter if you want to make this other times of the year).
For quite a few years I didn’t do a lot of seasonal content on The Fit Cookie, but I decided about a year ago that I wanted to meet more needs in the special diet community by creating more content specifically for the holidays for people with food allergies.
So I hope these recipes help you celebrate you enjoy your Christmas even if you have multiple food allergies! ?This pretzel bark makes a great treat for school parties, family gatherings, and homemade gifts.
How to make allergy friendly chocolate pretzel bark
For our pretzel chocolate bark, we used the small gluten free pretzel rods from Snyder’s and we I broke them apart by hand. But you can use the gluten free mini pretzels instead of mini rods if you like, both will work fine in this recipe.
If you don’t want to break them apart by hand, you can add them to a ziploc bag and crush it with a rolling pin (just be aware that you’ll have more small bits in the pretzels than if broken by hand).
The Snyder’s gluten free pretzels are made in a peanut free facility. Plus they taste great (even people who aren’t gluten free love them) and they have a great crunch.
I wanted to add enough chocolate to this recipe that it held together well, but if you want more pretzel to chocolate ratio, you can use fewer chocolate chips (like 3/4 cup).
Our pretzel bark makes a perfect homemade gift for others, too! You can put pieces of this candy bark in a Christmas tin or mini treat bags tied with ribbon.
If you’re giving these as gifts for people with severe food allergies, make sure that you’re checking labels thoroughly and using clean kitchen tools to prevent cross contamination to keep your family and friends with food allergies safe.
We love using the Enjoy Life chocolate or the Nestle Simply Delicious chocolate (in both white and semi sweet) because they are both top 8 free and safe for our family, but you can use a different chocolate that fits your allergies.
Variations for our pretzel bark
You can have fun with our chocolate bark recipe by switching the chocolate around and making the main pretzel bark with dairy free white chocolate and drizzling the dark chocolate on top.
Change up the sprinkles you use on top as well and add some snowflake sprinkles instead of nonpareil sprinkles. Or sprinkled the top with some crushed up peppermints or candy canes if you want a bit of mint crunch with your pretzels and chocolate!
This pretzel bark is also perfect to make for other holidays, too, by just switching out the sprinkles. You can make this for Halloween, Easter, or July 4th by simply using different holiday themed sprinkles on top. This is so easy to customize!
You can make this recipe sugar free! Simply swap out the chocolate and sprinkles for sugar free chocolate and sugar free sprinkled for this recipe (like Lily’s or a homemade sugar free chocolate). Just make sure that you read labels for other allergens that might be in the sugar free chocolate or sprinkles.
Lily’s sugar free chocolate is made in a facility with nuts and dairy, so make sure you check the labels before using commercial sugar free chocolate.
Check out our other dairy free candy recipes perfect for Christmas!
- Gluten Free Toffee Squares (aka Cheater Toffee)
- Gluten Free Holiday Pretzel Bark (Dairy Free)
- Almond Coffee Toffee Chocolate Bark
- SunButter Buckeyes
- Chocolate Peppermint Bark
- Peppermint Patties
- Almond Butter Cups
- SunButter Jam Cups
Please note, our recipes are listed allergy friendly by ingredients. You are responsible for using ingredients that fit your specific food allergies.
Gluten Free Holiday Chocolate Pretzel Bark (Dairy Free)
Ingredients
- 1 cup gluten free pretzel rods (small ones), broken up into pieces (we used Snyder's)
- 1 cup allergy friendly chocolate chips (or 3/4 cup if you want more pretzel to chocolate ratio)
- ½ cup allergy friendly white chocolate chips (we used Nestle Simply Delicious)
- Christmas sprinkles
Instructions
- Break up the mini gluten free pretzel rods into 1/4-inch to 1/2-inch pieces and set aside.
- In a double boiler, melt the chocolate chips and the white chocolate chips separately (or you can use a microwave to melt them, cooking them at 30 seconds at a time until melted, stirring between each cooking segment).
- Stir together the pretzels and the regular melted chocolate until the pretzels are coated, then spread out evenly on a parchment or silicone lined baking sheet.
- Drizzle the melted white chocolate on top of the chocolate pretzels, and sprinkle Christmas sprinkles on top of everything.
- Chill in the fridge about 30 minutes or until completely set. Break apart into pieces and store in an airtight container.
Nutrition
Sarah Jane Parker is the founder, recipe creator, and photographer behind The Fit Cookie. She’s a food allergy mom and healthy living blogger based in Wyoming. Sarah is also an ACSM Certified Personal Trainer, ACE Certified Health Coach, Revolution Running certified running coach, and an ACE Certified Fitness Nutrition Specialist
It’s so hard yummy gluten free recipes that my whole family can enjoy, but I made these for my family yesterday morning and everyone loved them! My family had eaten all of them by the time I went for seconds, which never happens when I bake gluten free! These are definitely a new family favorite. Thank you!
Thank you Sonya! So glad you loved this recipe 🙂
Thanks for this easy and versatile recipe! I am wondering what sprinkles you use? As I was about to pour on the holiday sprinkles, I glanced at the ingredient list and noticed they were all made in facilities with several allergens.
Hi Jenny! I usually use the Wilton sprinkles since we have safely used those for a while. They usually have soy lecithin but I haven’t seen other allergens on their labels, however I haven’t reached out to them to check on their manufacturing processes to see if they have possible cross contamination with allergens yet.