3-Ingredient Trees in the Fall Chocolate Bark (Easy Kid Edible Craft!)
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Hold up… colorful autumn trees made entirely out of pretzels, chocolate and cereal? No way!
Picture this: it’s a freezing October afternoon, the kids are vibrating with cabin fever, and you need a distraction before someone loses an eyebrow. Enter your kitchen rescue mission… these 3-Ingredient Trees in the Fall Chocolate Bark!
We’re taking rich melted chocolate, crunchy pretzel trunks, and bright autumn “leaves” to create a whole forest of edible fall trees! It looks like something straight out of a boutique candy shop, but it honestly takes under an hour.
If you are obsessed with easy seasonal sweet treats like my 5-Ingredient Buttery Pecan Pie Bark, this one is about to be your new October favorite.
Package a few pieces in cellophane bags tied with twine for host gifts, or serve them on a dessert platter alongside my The Best 3-Ingredient Chocolate Pecan Turtles!
🛒 Ingredient Notes
- ✅ Melting Chocolate – Dark chocolate, milk chocolate, or creamy white chocolate melts all work amazing here! Use whatever your sweet tooth is craving today.
- ✅ Fruity Rice Cereal – You’ll need a box of Fruity Pebbles for this! The tiny colorful shapes are what give us those gorgeous red, orange, yellow, and green autumn leaf colors. (Haven’t found a store brand copycat that gets the colors quite right, so stick to the OG name brand!)
- ✅ Pretzel Sticks – The bite-sized tree trunks and branches.
How to Make Fall Tree Chocolate Bark
- Pick out the red, orange, yellow, and green cereal pieces from your box and set them in a bowl.
- Melt your chocolate in short microwave bursts, pour it onto parchment paper, and spread it out. Sprinkle a handful of cereal right over the top and chill until set!
- Snap your bark into 7 or 8 big pieces. Break pretzel sticks into little trunks and branches, then pipe melted chocolate to glue down the pretzels and extra cereal “leaves.”
🍽️ Recipe Tips
- Always set aside a small handful of sorted cereal pieces before assembling your trees. You’ll want those extra bright “leaves” for sprinkling around the base of the trees to look like fallen foliage!
- Snap these into irregular, rustic shapes and pack them in clear gift bags with a festive plaid ribbon. Instant neighbor gift solved!
- If you love sweet-and-salty candy barks like my 4-Ingredient Nutter Butter Candy Bark, you can even drizzle a little melted peanut butter over the chocolate base before sticking your pretzel trees down!
Frequently Asked Questions
Melting wafers or almond bark work best because they set firm at room temperature without getting soft in your hands. If using chocolate chips, add ½ teaspoon of coconut oil to help it melt smooth and set firm!
Actually, there isn’t a good substitute for this exact look that I’ve seen! That being said, I also don’t live everywhere so if you have something else or a store brand that would fit the bill, absolutely sub the fruity pebbles for something else. I just like how the flat, colorful rice shapes mimic autumn leaves perfectly.
Storage and Freezing
- Storing: Keep your bark in an airtight container in a cool, dry spot for up to 4 days. (Eat them within 3 days for maximum cereal crunch!)
- Freezing: Not recommended for this one… frozen cereal gets soggy when it thaws out, and nobody wants soggy leaves!
How cute did your chocolate bark forest turn out?! Drop a comment below and tell me if you made these with your kiddos or packaged them up for cozy autumn gifts!
~Joanne
3-Ingredient Trees in the Fall Chocolate Bark Recipe
Adorable chocolate bark decorated with pretzel trunks and colorful fruity cereal leaves. A fun 3-ingredient fall treat for kids and gifting!
Ingredients
- 10 oz melting chocolate (dark, milk, or white), divided
- ½ cup fruity rice cereal (Fruity Pebbles)
- 15–20 pretzel sticks
Instructions
- Sort out all the red, yellow, orange, and green rice cereal pieces into a bowl.
- Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
- Set aside 1 ounce of melting chocolate for piping later.
- Place the remaining 9 ounces of chocolate in a microwave-safe bowl. Heat in 30-second intervals, stirring between each burst, until smooth and fully melted.
- Pour the chocolate onto the parchment paper and quickly spread it out into an even layer with a spatula.
- Sprinkle some of your sorted cereal pieces over the wet chocolate. Place the baking sheet in the fridge for 8 to 10 minutes until the chocolate hardens.
- Remove the hardened bark from the fridge and break it into 7 or 8 rustic pieces using your hands or a sharp knife.
- Break pretzel sticks into smaller pieces to form tree trunks and branches.
- Melt the remaining 1 ounce of reserved chocolate. Scoop it into a piping bag and snip a tiny hole off the tip.
- Pipe lines of chocolate onto each bark piece where you want your trees to go, pressing pretzel trunks into the chocolate. Pipe little dots of chocolate around the branches and stick on more cereal "leaves."
- Let sit at room temperature for 5 minutes until the piping chocolate sets. Serve and enjoy!
Notes
- Don't have a formal piping bag? Just scoop your melted chocolate into a sandwich bag, seal it up, and snip a tiny microscopic corner off. Works like a charm!
- Don't leave your base chocolate in the fridge for more than 10 minutes on the first chill! If it gets too rock-hard and cold, it can be tricky to break cleanly without shattering your tree layout space.
Nutrition Information
Yield 8 Serving Size 1Amount Per Serving Calories 249Total Fat 11gSaturated Fat 7gUnsaturated Fat 4gCholesterol 8mgSodium 109mgCarbohydrates 34gFiber 1gSugar 20gProtein 4g
All nutritional information is based on third party calculations and is only an estimate. Each recipe and nutritional value will vary depending on the brands used, measuring methods and portion sizes per household.