Baking Extravaganza:Peppermint Bark

Last year (or maybe two years ago) my Mom, sister, and I went into Williams Sonoma during the Christmas season. They had peppermint bark out for sampling. It was delicious. But it was also way pricey, so as my BFF always says, "I can make this."

Now I do not use fancy chocolates or peppermint for my peppermint bark, just the inexpensive stuff you can buy at Walmart. Maybe it's not as tasty as the stuff from Williams Sonoma, but as I haven't had theirs since that time at the store, I really don't know the difference.

We start with peppermint candy canes. I used the entire box, but I had some left over and I'm going to melt it into hot cocoa. Or at least I hope to- I haven't tried it yet, so I don't know if it will work... if worse comes to worse, I'll just sprinkle it on top and it will still give the flavor.

Anyways, I tried two methods for getting finely crushed peppermint. I thought that my food processor would work, but it seemed like the canes were being too finely crushed. So I went back to the "old way" of using a hammer with the canes in a ziplock bag. It was coming out the same, so I went back to the food processor. WARNING: Crushing candy canes in a food processor is VERY LOUD.

Like I said, I don't use fancy chocolate for this treat, just plain old Nestle morsels. One bag of milk chocolate and one bag of white chocolate.

Not only do I use regular-person ingredients, I also use a makeshift double boiler to melt my chocloate. Just a Pyrex bowl over a pot. It works just dandily.

First I melt the milk chocolate morsels and spread them onto a cookie sheet. Some will say you need parchment or wax paper, but you don't the way I make it. Maybe you don't at all and people just say you do. Who knows? Who cares? Not me, let's continue.

Before we do though, please forgive me for my ghastly looking cookie sheet.

Okay, after you've spread the melted milk chocolate on the cookie sheet, put it in the freezer.

Next, melt the white chocolate morsels.


Add the crushed peppermint into the white chocolate and stir together.


Layer the white chocolate/peppermint mixture over top the cold milk chocolate layer.

Put the cookie sheet with chocolate back in the freezer. Leave it there until you can tell it's cooled all the way through.

After the bark has cooled properly, take it out and break it into pieces. The chocolate might melt a little on your fingers after coming right from the freezer, but no worries, it will not ruin the deliciousness.

Once you've broken it into the desired pieces, it's ready to eat! When you aren't enjoying the crazy sweetness, be sure to store the bark in the fridge.

Tonight I'm going to make cinnamon-sugar roasted nuts. But not until I get home from hopefully finishing my Christmas shopping. Hubby did his last night and my gifts are currently stored in the guest bathroom shower. Haha, I love it!

Happy Tuesday! Just 9 days until Christmas!