Happy New Year!
This is actually a joint post – my friend Lillian is staying with me for a few days from Singapore, and we are definitely on a baking adventure. Our first creation was the peppermint bark. I first made peppermint bark last week with just white chocolate, but she introduced me to the idea of using both dark chocolate and white chocolate. She says that she loves the peppermint bark that Williams Sonoma sells that uses both types, so we had to try making our own. Everyone who has tried it so far says they taste great, and Lillian says that she’ll never buy peppermint bark again because they are so easy to make!
You can use either peppermint candy or candy canes. We had about half a bag of individually wrapped peppermint candies left over from our holiday party a few weeks ago, so I unwrapped about two handfuls of them. Put them in a ziploc bag, seal the bag, and bang away! I used a pan first to crush these candies, but Lillian came up with a better idea to use the rolling pin!
We mixed a handful of the crushed peppermint candies into the top layer of white chocolate, and then sprinkled another handful right on top.
You can use white chocolate only or dark chocolate only with the peppermint, but the double layer gives it more depth and more flavor.
Peppermint Bark
Ingredients:
1/2 of 12 oz. bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/2 of 12 oz. bag of white chocolate chips
about 1/2 cup of crushed peppermint candy
Directions:
- Place peppermint candy into plastic ziploc bag and crush using either a frying pan or a rolling pin
- Melt dark chocolate using a double boiler (place bowl over sauce pan of boiling hot water)
- Line 9×9 cake pan with foil and pour melted chocolate into pan. Place into freezer until hardened, about 15 minutes
- Melt the white chocolate using a double boiler. Add a handful of the crushed peppermint and mix into the melted white chocolate. (Be sure to start melting the white chocolate only after the dark chocolate layer is hardened. We had some trouble with melting the white chocolate too soon before the dark chocolate was ready and the white chocolate lost its smooth consistency when we tried to remelt it.)
- Pour the melted white chocolate on top of the dark chocolate layer. Sprinkle crushed peppermint candy on top.
- Freeze until hardened, about another 15 minutes.
- Break into pieces. You can use a knife, but we found it easiest to whack it with the rolling pin again like a piñata!
