We’ve all been there.

Someone you weren’t expecting gives you a gift, and suddenly you’re left with 48 hours before everyone leaves the office for Christmas and no gift to give your surprise Santa.

Don’t panic. I’ve devised the perfect solution. All you need are 4 simple ingredients in your pantry, and you’ll be safe-guarded against impromptu gifting.

This chocolate bark looks way more impressive than it actually is. If you can successfully melt chocolate, you’ve got this in the bag. But not one needs to know our little secret, do they?

Whip up a batch of this to have on hand for last minute gifting…or just snacking…and you won’t ever be caught off guard again.

You can make this with only one kind of chocolate, but I love the marbled effect of using both dark and white. It makes the green pistachios and the red cranberries pop, and absolutely screams Christmas.

And if there’s two things I love to do this time of year, it’s make simple items look super impressive, and absolutely scream Christmas.

Ingredients (makes enough bark for at least 10 people):

• 2 pounds dark chocolate
• 1 pound white chocolate
• 2 cups pistachios
• 2 cups dried cranberries

Directions:

1. Melt the dark and white chocolate in separate pans or double boilers. Line multiple rimmed cookie sheets with parchment paper.

2. Pour our enough dark chocolate to cover your baking sheet (the amount will vary based on the size of the pans you’re using) and smooth with a spatula to make sure it’s even.

3. Drizzle the white chocolate over the pans of dark chocolate, and run a knife both vertically, and horizontally through the chocolate to create your marbling effect. The more you run the knife around, the more marbled it will be.

4. Sprinkle the pistachios and cranberries over the chocolate, and gently press them into the melted chocolate, or tap the pans on the counter to make sure they’ve set into the chocolate.

5. Let it sit out at room temperature until completely hardened – for about an hour – or store in the fridge if you need a quicker drying time.