Peppermint Bark

Here is a recipe perfect for adding a festive splash to your Christmas dessert spread. Peppermint bark is simple to make (as long as you don't burn the chocolate like I did last year), delicious, and makes a perfectly delectable gift for anyone on your list.


Last year I made peppermint bark and ran into some complications. I had never had experience with tempering chocolate before and I overheated the chocolate as I was melting it in the double boiler, which made the chocolate impossible to spread and I had to scrape that batch and start over.


This year I came to the kitchen with more knowledge and boy did that make all the difference! I wanted to make some Christmas treats for some of the teachers that I am student teaching with and peppermint bark seemed just perfect.

What you will need:


2 bags milk chocolate chips
2 bags white chocolate chips (The chocolate makes all the difference so I would recommend splurging on the nice chocolate at the store).
2 tbs oil (half for the dark chocolate and half for the white)
1 tbs peppermint extract
8 drops of red food coloring
8 regular sized candy canes (crushed)


Instructions:


* Begin by lining a cookie sheet with some wax paper; this will make it easy to remove the peppermint bark when it is finished.
* Set up a double broiler on your stove by filling a pot halfway with water, bringing it to a simmer and placing a glass bowl on top (be sure that the water does not actually touch the bowl... this is how mine burnt last year).
* Pour into bowl 1 tbs oil, 1 tbs peppermit extract and 1 1/2 bags milk chocolate chips. stir slowly until chocolate is smooth. Remove it from the heat, add in other 1/2 of chips and continue to stir until all are melted. 

* Pour melted chocolate onto cookie sheet and spread and smooth with a spatula. 

* Place cookie sheet in the fridge to harden while you complete the same steps for melting chocolate for the white chocolate chips.

* Once white chocolate is melted, layer the white chocolate on top of the dark chocolate (move quick, the white chocolate seems to cool more quickly).

* Drop 8-10 drops of food coloring randomly on top of the white chocolate and use a fork to create swirls in the chocolate (simply for looks).
* Sprinkle crushed candy canes on to the white chocolate and lightly press them into the chocolate so that they stick once the chocolate cools.

* Place back into the fridge for at least one hour.
* Slice however you would like and enjoy!

There you have it. Such an inexpensive way to treat your family, friends and neighbors.

I decided to make treat packages for some teacher friends, so once the chocolate had cooled and hardened, I found some cute Christmas gift boxes at Target, placed some sparkly red tissue paper in each box, filled them with peppermint bark and folded them up. I then made Christmas gift tags with my embosser, wrote a thank you note to each teacher and snuck them into their mailboxes in the office at school. 

Such an easy way to let people know that you are grateful for them during this season of giving.