peppermint bark

For my holiday present to our grandparents/extended family, I decided to make Peppermint Bark. Last year I made Holiday Nuts- nuts roasted with a sweet coating.

This was my first adventure in candy making and bark making.

I naturally googled a recipe and found one. However, I made many changes after having more than 1 batch fail.


Here is the recipe and my tips and changes


Peppermint Bark


Ingredients:

12 oz semi sweet/bittersweet chocolate chips

16 oz white chocolate chips

1/2 teaspoon peppermint extract

1/2 CUP peppermint candy, crushed



Instructions:

- preheat oven to 250

- Line a 9x13" pan with 1 long sheet of foil, letting it hang over the short ends. Be sure to press it in to conform to the pan

- Spray foil with cooking/baking oil spray

- pour the chocolate chips in an even layer on the foil

- Place in oven for 5-7 minutes or until melted. Note: the chips may not lose their form as they melt

- Remove from oven, place on cooling rack or hot pads, and use a spatula or knife to smooth/spread the chips evenly in the bottom of the pan. I like to spray my spatula with the baking spray

- Place in refrigerator until cold and firm, approx. 20 min.

- Crush your peppermint candy

- Melt white chocolate chips in a double boiler or in a metal bowl over simmering water (don't let the bottom of the bowl touch the water), stirring with spatula until chocolate is melted.

-Remove bowl from water and set on cooling rack, continue to stir.

-Add peppermint extract and stir a few more times until it is thoroughly mixed

- Pour white chocolate over chocolate layer and smooth with spatula into an even layer over the chocolate

- Sprinkle the crushed candy evenly over the white chocolate and gently press the candy into the chocolate with your spatula

- Place back in refrigerator for several hours to chill

- Lift foil out of pan and set on counter

-Peel bark from foil then set back on foil

- Break apart the bark with your hands into the desired size pieces over the foil, the foil will catch the extra candy/chocolate the falls off

- Chill in a covered container and enjoy!


According to the original recipe: yields approx. 2 pounds



Tips:

- Use good quality chocolates- look at the ingredients. Semisweet chocolate chips should be real chocolate, white chocolate chips are best if they contain cocoa butter.

- When measuring the ingredients, I did not have a scale. Instead I used my liquid 2 cup Pyrex measuring cup and filled it to the top line with chocolate, and to the brim with white chocolate. Not everyone has a kitchen scale.

- set a low rising cooling rack in the refrigerator to set the pan on to cool. This protects your shelf and allows the cool air to circulate around the entire pan

- take the bottom layer out of the refrigerator before you start boiling water in the double boiler to melt the white choc chips, this will ensure it is not too cold and that the layers bond well

- 6 regular sized candy canes yields the right amount of crushed candy, of course measure to double check

- I put the candy in a sandwich zip bag and pound on a cutting board with my meat tenderizer. Break it it up as small as you want, even the fine powder will taste and looks great

-Let the bark sit out for just a few minutes before your break it apart

- I found that cutting it made it separate and resulted in a lot of chocolate shreds that got wasted, even though my original recipe said to cut

- You can make just 1 layer bark as well

- I found peppermint extract at Wal-Mart, so I don’t think it is too difficult to find

- don’t skimp and make the layers to thin, they may separate if you do

- No adjustments needed for high altitude