Homemade Peppermint Bark

Well the holidays are rapidly approaching which means lots of baking in my house.  I'm always on the hunt for new holiday recipes.  After roaming around on allrecipes, I was inspired to try and make my own homemade peppermint bark.  I was very surprised at how easy it was!  Basically, all you need is melting chocolate and peppermint candies.  Mine came out rather thick so its more like peppermint slabs than bark but here is what I used:

Lori's Peppermint Slabs:

Ingredients

• 12 ounces Baker's Sweet Chocolate
• 12 ounces vanilla flavored white melting chocolate
• 8 candy canes, crushed

Directions:

• Carefully melt Baker's Sweet chocolate over a double boiler, stirring frequently

• Meanwhile, line an 8 inch round cake pan with parchment paper and place some heavy objects in it to weigh it down and force the parchment paper in place

• Once all the chocolate is melted and looks smooth, remove from heat and pour into prepared cake pan

• While chocolate layer is setting, melt the white chocolate in the same way over a double boiler

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• Meanwhile, place the 8 candy canes (unwrapped) in a plastic bag and crush them (I used the flat side of a meat tenderizer)

• Sift the contents of the plastic bag so as to separate the bigger candy cane "chunks" from the "dust."

• Once the white chocolate is melted and smooth, remove from heat and mix in the larger candy cane pieces, till the mixture resembles cottage cheese

• Pour the white chocolate-candy mixture on top of the chocolate layer in the cake pan.  Its best to still have the chocolate layer a little "malleable" (not quite set) so that the white and chocolate layers can blend together a bit so they stick together better.
• Sprinkle the candy cane "dust" over the top.  This gives the slabs a nice shiny luminescence!

• Then allow mixture to cool and set (takes about 30 minutes in the refrigerator)
• Once the mixture is set, remove from pan by lifting up parchment paper, turn over and peel parchment paper off of the bottom (very easy)

• Next cut the slabs into desired shapes or sizes.  Keeps very well in a cool, dry area for several weeks.

A few side notes.  If you wish to make this thinner and more like a true bark, you could use less chocolate (probably about 8 ounces of both white and regular, versus 12 ounces) or you could use a larger pan, thus requiring a thinner spreading.  Either way, these peppermint treats are delicious and are sure to be a hit at any holiday gathering!  Put them in a cute little Christmas tin with some pretty parchment paper and you've got a great gift!