By Jen Coleman
Its that time of year were we all love to get in the kitchen and create amazing sweets for are family, friends .. This is one of my Favorite candy to have at Christmas time . I can remember my mom bringing this home one year and it was in a tin and it was red and white tin and I looked at it and opened it and was like who would like this it was two types of chocolate and then broken up candy canes .. I broke a piece off and tasted it and Loved it and ever since then it is a must for me to have during the Christmas Holiday season .. I know their are a lot of big box stores that make it and I know I can think of one that comes to my mind that to me that makes it so good and that is William Sonoma . When I sit and think about it makes my mouth water just the way they get their chocolate just so perfect and amazing tasting I knew I needed to find out how I could make this amazing sweet treat at home ..
So what is this Amazing sweet Treat ?
Peppermint Bark is Normal found at Christmas time it is made with two kinds of chocolate with broken candy canes on the top of it . When I first made it I used milk chocolate morsels and then white chocolate morsels . It came out good and tasted good too but it was missing the taste that I was use too. So when I made it this time I used Baker's Semi - Sweet chocolate that is 56 % cacao . Then I used Ghirardelli white chocolate after it was done I tasted it and it was so good it tasted just like what I was going after .. So my take away is if you like this sweet treat you will want to use a good chocolate to make this . If you only have chocolate morsels and white chocolate morsels it will taste great and amazing too . But if you want to kick it up and have it taste like the ones you will find at the big box stores then use a good grade of chocolate .
Melting Chocolate .
When it comes to Melting Chocolate their are two was of doing that you can melt it in the microwave at about 30sec at a time or you can melt it over the stove . If you choose to melt it in the microwave you need to watch out that you don't over cook it and you have to real have your eye on it . The way that I love to melt chocolate is on the stove with a double boiler this way I can watch it and control the heat better then melting it in the microwave . either way is fine to do . Once the chocolate is melted then you will want to take it off the heat and then poor the chocolate into what ever you are doing with the melted chocolate .If your Chocolate seize then that means that it has been over cooked or it burned so then you will need to toss the chocolate and start over ..
Ingredients :
1 pound of a good Semi Sweet Chocolate
1 pound of a good White Chocolate
1 1/2 teaspoons of peppermint extract
8 candy canes broken up into pieces
Directions :
1). Take a 9 by 13 pan and line it with either parchment paper or Reynolds wrap I have done it both way . If you use the Reynolds wrap make sure you put the shiny side up .
2). Take your Chocolate and place it into a safe Bowl for melting .If you are choosing to melt your chocolate on the stove please male sure you don't have the water touch the bowl at all. Don't rush this step cause you don't want your chocolate to burn or over cook .. This step should take about 10mins or less ..
Step 3).
Once the chocolate is melted you will want to take a dish rag and make sure if you are melting the chocolate on the stove their is no water or the bottom of the bowl is moist . If the bowl is most when you go to add the Peppermint into the chocolate it will start to seize and that is not fun .. I normal will add the peppermint into the chocolate while it is on the stove heating up . either way you want to add 3/4 teaspoons of the peppermint into the chocolate before you poor it on to the pan
Step 4).
Once the chocolate is melted you will want to take it and poor it into your bottom Lined pan and smear it evenly . Then you will want to gently shake it back and forth to make sure the air bubbles are out and that the chocolate is as even as it can be . At this point the bottom layer needs to set so you can leave it on the counter for about 10 mins or you can pop it into the freezer . If you put it into the freezer only place it in their for only like 2 to 3 mins you are only wanting to set up so you can poor on the top layer
Step 5).
In this step you will want to repeat step 2 and melt your white Chocolate . Once the white chocolate is melted then you want to add the rest of the peppermint to the white chocolate witch is another 3/4 teaspoons . In this photo I didn't have enough of the white chocolate in the Bar form so I mixed it with the white chocolate morsels and it cam out still amazing . I will say mixing the two the morsels will make it a little bit more sweet then the bar would have .
Step 6).
Once the White chocolate is melted then take it and poor over the chocolate on the pan. Spreed out over the chocolate evenly and then take the broken up candy canes and spreed over the white chocolate . I will then push gently the candy into the white chocolate . At this point you can leave it on the counter until it hardens or if you want to speed up the time you can put it int the freezer . Don't leave it to long in their or when you take it out to break apart it will not break easy and then you will have to let it warm up to break apart .
Step 7).
Once it has harden up you can break it up using your hands or you can use a knife . I use my hands to break it up . To store it you can put it in a air tight container it will stay fresh up until 2 weeks . it will stay long in the fridge . You can also freeze it too .. Enjoy !
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