Peppermint Bark

Mama and I spent some time this weekend making Christmas goodie bags for the members of my apartment building's staff. We had struggled with the choice of goodie...cookies seemed boring, fudge seemed risky for two inexperienced candymakers, anything with peanut butter is frowned upon these days since so many people are allergic. And then we hit upon peppermint bark! It's yummy, it's festive, it's easy, and it's without common allergens. It turned out so well that I thought you might enjoy the recipe, which we culled together from a bunch of recipes we found on the 'net.

Peppermint Bark

2 lbs white chocolate morsels (we used a mix of Ghiradelli and Toll House, which turned out well)

1/2 tsp mint or peppermint extract (we used mint)

24 full size candy canes

1. Crush up candy canes to about 1/4 inch-size pieces. We did this by putting the candy canes in a heavy duty Ziploc bag atop a plastic cutting board and pounding them with a skillet.

2. Line two large baking sheets with wax paper.

3. Pour white chocolate morsels into a large, microwave-safe bowl. Heat the morsels in the microwave at 1/2 power for 2 minutes. Remove and stir. Return to microwave for 30 seconds at 1/2 power. Remove and stir. Repeat until the mixture becomes smooth when stirred. We found that this took about 3 of the 30-second sessions. You definitely don't want to over-microwave the morsels because they will burn, so stir for a while after each microwave session to allow the mixture to melt to its fullest extent.

4. Once morsels are fully melted and mixture is smooth and shiny, pour in crushed candy canes and mint extract and combine all ingredients.

5. Quickly divide mixture between the two baking sheets and spread with a spatula to about 1/4" thickness. The slab will measure about 9" x 13".

6. Allow to set up in the refrigerator for 45 minutes.

7. Peel wax paper from the back of the candy slabs and break the candy into pieces of varying sizes.

Doesn't it look tempting? I can promise it's delicious!

We made two batches of this recipe (4 pans' worth), which gave us enough peppermint bark to make 6 generously sized goodie bags and have more than a full cookie tin's worth left to enjoy at home (a critical consideration!). A word to the wise: if you make two batches and reuse the baking pans from the first batch, allow the pans time to come up to room temperature. We couldn't figure out why our second batch was setting up so quickly and thickly until we realized the pans were still chilled.

We wrapped each staff member's portion in clear cellophane wrap and tied it up with a ribbon and a tag. Perfect for teacher, neighbor, and hostess gifts, as well!

Enjoy!