Yep.  I said it ~ The Best Peppermint Bark recipe ever is right here.  Your search is over.  Trust me on this one.  I really did my homework!

This is a layered bark recipe that sandwiches richly delicious semi-sweet chocolate between luscious layers of peppermint and white chocolate.  It’s very likely the same stuff that fuels Santa’s elves through Christmas Eve…but that’s just a rumor.

Also, I have Joel’s super HUGE family’s Christmas gathering coming up this weekend and I needed to bring something new to the party. Something gluten free, wheat free & nut free for the various allergies that several family members have (just select ingredients by manufacturers that state “gluten free” or “nut free” and you’re good to go!).  This is perfect!

There is absolutely nothing difficult about melting chocolate and crushing candy canes.

Except trying to stop yourself from licking bowls clean from one step to the next.

You’ll need really good white chocolate, semi-sweet chocolate, some vegetable oil (unless you are totally awesome at tempering chocolate by hand – which I am not), peppermint extract (which I had on hand, but peppermint oil could really take this to the next level) and peppermints.

I went with mini candy canes because they are much easier to crush than the larger ones, and heck, they were on sale at Costco.  Open about 25 of these little cuties and throw them in a bag.

Oops!  Disregard the bag, folks.  I’ll share my trial and error here with you – after reading many a recipe that stated to use a rolling pin, a mallet (and even a hammer!) to crush these in a large ziploc bag, I tried that and failed.

The candy punctured the ziploc and after 5 minutes of whacking there were still larger pieces that I couldn’t get to break down and a pepperminty-snowy mess all over the counter top.

So instead, forget the rolling pin, forget the bag – go straight for the Pampered Chef chopper.  This will give you the smaller pieces you need as well as the finer powder that we need for each layer.

I don’t have a double boiler.  Most people don’t.

No biggie!

Go ahead and rig up this make shift double boiler with a heat proof bowl over a saucepan filled with about 1/2 to 1 inch of simmering water to melt down your chocolate without scorching it.

Add about a teaspoon of vegetable oil to the melting chocolate.  That will give the chocolate the tempered shinny look and feel and will help it snap when you break and bite into it.

Quickly pour out and spread the melted 1st layer of white chocolate onto a cookie sheet lined with aluminum foil (enough to slightly hang over the pan for easy removal).  Use your spatula to get it all the way to the edges.

Collect your beautifully crushed candy canes into the bowl of a sifter and sift the finer candy cane “powder” onto the first layer of chocolate.

Peppermint snow!  You could use this to top your whipped cream topped hot chocolate, or add to any peppermint flavored Christmas cookie, if you wanted!

Pop this 1st layer into the fridge or freezer for about 20 minutes to set.

Next up: the semi-sweet layer!

Same as before with the make-shift double boiler,  but we’re adding a sneaky little boost of peppermint to this layer.  Pure peppermint extract, or oil, if you can find it.  My store only carried the extract and I didn’t have time to dig around for a store that carried the oil.  Although, I will say, the oil would have been my preference.

Add about a teaspoon of vegetable oil to this layer of melting chocolate as well.

Once melted and the extract or oil is fully incorporated into the semi-sweet chocolate, pour this in ribbons across the chilled and set white chocolate layer and then spread with your spatula.

Some of the peppermint snow might be lifting into the semi-sweet layer if it didn’t totally stick to the white chocolate layer, but that’s ok!

Why ribbons?  Because it spreads the chocolate wealth across the pan and you won’t have to take a glob from the center and try to quickly spread it across an entire cookie sheet.

Why the completely chilled and set white layer?  Because you’ll end up with a swirl of chocolates if you’re not patient enough.

So, following my logic here, the next step is to let the semi-sweet layer set completely.  I’m thinking another 2o minutes in the freezer outta do it.

Last layer ~ which I failed to photograph (oops!): back to the double boiler with the remaining white chocolate and another teaspoon of vegetable oil.

Spread the melted white chocolate over the chilled and set semi-sweet chocolate layer (again, in ribbons, then spread) and quickly add the larger candy cane pieces to the top.  I use the back of a larger spatula to gently tap the candy cane pieces into the white chocolate to help them really dig in and stick.

Another 20 minutes in the freezer and it should be set!  Carefully pull it away from the foil and break it into bite-sized pieces of bark.

How gorgeous is that?

Wrap some up in cellophane, fill a mason jar or a snack sized ziploc baggie and you’ve a sweetly delicious homemade Christmas gift to share.

Bring some to the office party, leave some out for Santa, but don’t, I repeat, DON’T leave yourself alone in a room with these.  You just might eat them all!

With warm peppuh–mint kisses to you all ~ Merry Christmas! ~ Let the Christmas baking begin!

~pw

(Please rate this recipe when you leave a comment!  Accepting constructive criticism as well as ranting rave reviews!! Thanks!)

Best Peppermint Bark Recipe

 

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Prep Time

10 mins

Cook Time

1 hour

Total Time

1 hour 10 mins

 

Easy layered peppermint bark ~ makes a great homemade Christmas gift and has that "WOW" factor when served up alongside your dessert table for the Holidays.

: Candy, Dessert

Ingredients

• 24 oz + 12 oz high quality white chocolate (make sure it has cocoa butter in it)
• 1lb high quality semi-sweet, milk or dark chocolate (your preference)
• 3 teaspoons vegetable oil, divided
• 1 teaspoon pure peppermint extract (or ¼ - ½ teaspoon peppermint oil)
• 25 mini candy canes, or 30 small peppermint candy discs

Instructions

1. Crush the peppermint candy and set aside - you should have a finer powder as well as smaller pieces
2. Line a rimmed cookie sheet with aluminum foil so it hangs over the edges slightly (this will help you easily remove the bark from the cookie sheet later)
3. Place a heatproof bowl over a saucepan with about an inch of simmering water. Melt 24 oz white chocolate with 1 teaspoon vegetable oil. When it's smooth and completely melted, pour into the foil lined cookie sheet and spread to the edges of the pan.
4. Use a sifter to top this layer with the candy cane powder - the sifter will keep the pieces out, but allow the powder to fall.
5. Place the sheet in the freezer for about 20 minutes to set.
6. Once set, remove from the freezer and begin to melt the semi-sweet chocolate in a heatproof bowl over a saucepan with about an inch of simmering water.
7. Add peppermint oil or extract and 1 teaspoon vegetable oil and stir until smooth and completely melted. Pour this in ribbons over the set layer of white chocolate and peppermint powder. Use a spatula to spread it evenly to the edges.
8. Place the sheet in the freezer for about 20 minutes to set.
9. Once set, remove from the freezer and melt the last 12 oz of white chocolate with a teaspoon of vegetable oil in the same heatproof bowl you used for the first batch of white chocolate. Pour the melted chocolate in ribbons across the semi-sweet layer and use a spatula to spread it to the edges.
10. Top with crushed candy cane pieces and use the back of a clean spatula to gently press the candy pieces into the chocolate.
11. Freeze for another 20 minutes or until set. Remove from freezer and gently peel back the foil.
12. Break into pieces and store in the refrigerator until ready to serve.
13. Makes 3 lbs of bark and keeps about 2-3 weeks.

Notes

You must let each layer set to get a clean white/semi-sweet/white look. If you pour the warmed chocolate on a layer that hasn't set it will seep through and make swirls of white/semi-sweet and you don't want that!

3.1.09

I can’t even begin to tell you how excited I am that I took on a DIY craft and actually finished it.  Yes, that’s right folks.  I went to the craft store and made something with my own two hands!

Not just one something, 50 little somethings that I decided to use as baby shower (or baby wash, as Aiden calls it) favors.  I’m calling them, “Cute-as-a-Button Marble Magnets” ~ don’t ya love that name?!

My inspiration came from my friend Danielle’s refridgerator as Aiden became quite obsessed with the marble magnets she has. Then, upon finding out you can’t just buy them, I ran a Pinterest search and came across a fellow blogger’s site who said they were pretty simple to make.

Of course I don’t follow directions (or recipes) to the “T”, so here’s my take on them!

Shopping list:

• flat bottomed marbles from the floral section of the craft store
• pack of 3/4″ round magnets, I found a 50-pack at the register, or you can get smaller portions down the magnet isle (seriously, craft stores have a magnet isle – who knew?!)
• a tube of E6000 glue, I found it hiding in the jewelry department of the craft store
• a 3/4″ hole punch, down the scrap booking isle
• scrapbook paper, also down the scrap booking isle

The hole punch was the most expensive item, but I went to Hobby Lobby’s website and pulled down the weekly 40% off coupon that they seem to constantly run and was able to use it right off my iPhone.

First, cover your work surface.  The glue oozes a  bit and you won’t want to waste time scrapping it off your counters or kitchen table.

Flip the hole punch upside down so you can see the pattern you want to punch out from your scrapbook paper.

Punch out a few more than the number of magnets you have in case you accidentally ruin one in the sticking process.

Line up your magnets across your work surface.  Keep them 3-4 inches apart so they don’t collide, especially once you’ve got your glue on them.  Just a warning because that happened to me about 10 times before I learned my lesson.

Working in batches, place a lentil sized ball of glue on the magnet.

I got to about 6 magnets per batch before I noticed the glue got too tacky to be able to place the dot of paper and still shift it to center if you over shot.

Place the paper dot, decorative side up, on the glue that is on the magnet and press gently to spread out the glue across the magnet’s surface.  With E6000, which has a similar consistency to rubber cement at first, you have about a minute to adjust its position before it becomes permanent.

Let these sit overnight to allow the glue to set up.

Now, you can be as particular as you want with the marbles.  They’re manufactured in bulk and poured into bags for resale, so they’re not all perfectly round and chip-free.  I painstakingly looked at each marble on top of the magnet to ensure it was large enough to cover the magnet and near chip-free.

The perfectionist in me can drive Joel to drink at times.  This time he humored me and helped me line up some perfect marbles before laughing, shaking his head and walking away.

So now I’m determined as ever to make the most perfect marble magnets!

Add another lentil sized drop of glue to the paper topped marble.  You can also do these in batches ~ again, I got up to 6 or 7 before the glue started to get too tacky to work with properly.

Top these off with the flat side of the marble, pressing down until you see the glue spread to the edges and you’ve worked out any air bubbles that are trying to surface.

I let these sit another night to allow the permanent bond to set up before moving them to the refrigerator which was the temporary holding tank for them until we got the party favors assembled.

Once we had the candy bags stuffed and tied off, my sweetheart husband ran to the hardware store for me and bought me these nifty washers.

Washers, you ask?  Yep, good old fashioned hardware store washers were used on the backsides of these gift tags for the magnets to “stick” to.

Then we set the basket of party favors by the door and let our guests know to take a bag as they left as a thank you for coming and to hold on to the magnet for the birth announcement!

Easy peasy, right?  Hey, if I can do it, trust me, you totally can do this too!  And your guests will be so impressed that you hand-made these for them.  Works well for a shower, a wedding, a pool party or just to pretty up your own fridge.  I LOVE THESE!

Think I could make a buck selling ’em? Hmmmmm….

~Pretty Crafty Penny (aka: pw)