Peppermint Bark is a yummy Christmas tradition at our house during the holidays. Crunchy, white chocolate is layered with creamy dark peppermint chocolate and crushed candy canes! We make this delicious treat for all the holiday parties and Christmas stockings.

I kid you not, I’ve made over a hundred pounds of this peppermint bark through the years. Probably more. Everyone seems to love receiving it and I love making and giving it.

My funniest memory regarding Peppermint Bark has to be with my first busy little four year old years ago. He was always aggressively pounding on something or other. I thought crushing candy canes would be the perfect job to occupy him. (Positively!)

So I sent him out to the driveway to bang on candy canes with a veggie can. He was excited. I mean, really excited. The candy was in a ziploc bag, in an old camping pan lined with a dish towel. The banging went on and on and then it got really quiet.

I went out to check on him. He’d gotten a little carried away with well doing. Half the driveway was covered in crushed peppermints. We laughed and laughed. (And thankfully I had more peppermints inside, which is probably WHY I could laugh, lol.) Then for a couple weeks we had the sparkliest driveway in the neighborhood, just in time for Christmas.

Peppermint Bark shouts “Christmas” loud and clear from snowy rooftops. This bark is extra yummy because it has whipping cream mixed in with the bittersweet chocolate. This makes the top chocolate layer creamy instead of hard. It’s also highly addictive. (I think it’s every bit as good as Williams Sonoma peppermint bark. Maybe better.)

I pack it in 1/4 lb. candy boxes for gift giving. White box. Red and white striped grosgrain ribbon. It seems that Santa himself prefers Peppermint Bark to cookies, based on an experiment we conducted one Christmas Eve. (!)

How To Make Peppermint Bark:

Crush the peppermints/candy canes and set aside. (To crush peppermints or candy canes: leave in plastic wrappers, place in a heavy duty ziploc bag and bang with the sharp edge of a veggie can. I put the ziploc bag in an old t0wel-lined camping pan. Or use a food processor. (Remove wrappers first if using the food processor!)

 Melt the vanilla candy wafers.

 Spread onto parchment paper. Cool.

Dollop the barely warm melted chocolate, peppermint extract and whipping cream mixture onto the white chocolate.

Spread chocolate mixture evenly on top of first layer, then sprinkle with crushed peppermints or candy canes.

Cool in refrigerator for 15 minutes. Then let sit out for 5 or 10 minutes. (If you cut it when it’s too cold, the hard white layer underneath doesn’t cut cleanly.)

Chop into triangles with a sharp butcher knife and quick, hard pressure.

Package into 1/4 lb. candy boxes for gift giving. Peppermint Bark: It’s how we roll for the holidays.

Keep this treat refrigerated because of the whipping cream in the dark chocolate layer.

Tips for making Peppermint Bark:

• Use a veggie can to crush peppermints or candy canes. Leave the candy in the plastic wrappers and use a veggie can to bang on them. Line an old camping pan with an old towel for the task. Do this in the basement, garage or outside because little pieces of the candy can fly and make a mess.
• I use mini candy canes. I used to use the starlite peppermint candies, but the mini candy canes work best for me.
• Chop into triangles with a sharp butcher knife and quick, hard pressure.
• Keep peppermint bark refrigerated.
• Package into 1/4 lb. candy boxes for gift giving

Other peppermint treats you my enjoy: Peppermint Stick Ice Cream, Pink Peppermint Eggnog Punch, Peppermint Fudge and Peppermint White Christmas cocktail.

Print

Peppermint Bark

Peppermint Bark is delightful any time of year, but especially at Christmas. Use good quality chocolate! This is highly addictive and makes a great gift packaged in 1/4 lb. candy boxes.

Course Candy

Prep Time 35 minutes minutes

Total Time 35 minutes minutes

Servings 1 1/2 pounds candy

Author Allie Taylor

Ingredients

• 16 ounces white vanilla candy wafer disks buy at A.C. Moore or Michael's
• 8 ounces bittersweet chocolate chopped
• 1 1/2 teaspoons peppermint extract
• 4 tablespoons whipping cream
• crushed starlite peppermint candies or candy canes

Instructions

• Melt vanilla candy wafer disks according to package directions. (I use the microwave.)
• Spread onto a 24" X 18" foil or parchment square on top of an inverted baking pan.
• Let harden.
• Slowly melt chopped chocolate over very low heat.
• Remove from heat when just melted.
• Stir in peppermint extract and whipping cream.
• Spread melted chocolate mixture evenly on top of white candy layer.
• Sprinkle with crushed peppermint candies.
• Chill until just hardened, about 15 minutes.
• Wait 10-15 minutes, then cut into triangles.
• Refrigerate!

Notes

How to crush the peppermints: leave in plastic wrappers, place in a heavy duty ziploc bag and bang with the sharp edge of a veggie can. Or use a food processor. (Please take off wrappers first if using the food processor!)

Refrigerate peppermint bark!

You may also like: Peppermint Stick Ice Cream

The post Peppermint Bark Recipe appeared first on Through Her Looking Glass.

Hello friends, and happy weekend! Hope you’re out tooling about, enjoying fun Christmas activities today. Exciting things are going down at Through Her Looking Glass this weekend!

Several years ago, on a frosty December morning, I came down and discovered this sweet scene…

So we’re having a fun Christmas Photo Caption Contest  for the above picture, complete with an awesome prize pictured below:

Christmas gift package from Through Her Looking Glass:

• Yarnball Christmas Ornament    http://throughherlookingglass.com/?p=1530
•  “An Orange for Frankie” by Patricia Polacco  http://throughherlookingglass.com/?p=1677
• Vanilla Bean Maple Syrup    http://throughherlookingglass.com/?p=1156
• Homegrown Mint Extract
• 2 Christmas DIY Bookmarks   http://throughherlookingglass.com/?p=1133

CHRISTMAS PHOTO CAPTION CONTEST Rules:

(Yup. We got rules. Just like “Always (!) Follow the Rules”. Did you miss that funny post? Click here…  http://throughherlookingglass.com/?p=1076 )

• The Christmas Photo Caption Contest runs from the publish of this post, Saturday, December 6th until Sunday, December 7th, 2014 at midnight. Entries after Sunday night midnight don’t count.
• You may enter twice per person. (Additional entries after the second don’t count.)
• My hubby Jon will be the impartial judge. He’ll judge all entries, but won’t know who authored them.
• A winner will be announced on Monday, December 8th, 2014 on the Through Her Looking Glass blog post. Also on Facebook. The winner will also be notified by e-mail.
• My immediate family (my five guys) may submit entries, but are disqualified from winning the prize. (Sorry guys, I’ll bake you a cake or something. Or peppermint bark?)
• Other relatives can participate. (Why should you be penalized just ‘cuz you got stuck in my gene pool?)
• The only entries that count are comments listed here underneath this post, in the order they are received. (Facebook comments, e-mails and Tweets don’t count.)
• Don’t be grinchy, share the fun! Let your friends and family join in on this Christmas Photo Caption Contest. Share this on e-mail, FaceBook, Twitter and Pinterest. Get in the Christmas spirit, the more the “merrier”!

Can’t wait to see your clever captions! AND GOOD LUCK!!!

Update:

Many thanks to all who took time to think of so many fun, creative captions for the Christmas Photo Caption Contest this past weekend, December 6-7, 2014.  It was so entertaining to see your entries come in.

Big congratulations to Linda (pictured with husband Jack) for her winning entry:  “I’ll just close my eyes for a minute…”  

The post Christmas Photo Caption Contest appeared first on Through Her Looking Glass.