Peppermint Bark

All I can say is yum! Who doesn't like peppermint bark?! And it is super easy to make. All you need is chocolate and candy canes...actually, white chocolate, milk chocolate, and candy canes. I'm not a fan of dark chocolate, which is something most bark "recipes" call for, so I use milk chocolate. I've read that you can't taste the difference once between milk chocolate and dark chocolate once it's combined with other ingredients, but I can taste the difference. Maybe it's in my mind, but there is definitely a distinct taste, and I do not like it! Anyway, use whatever chocolate you want.

I prefer peppermint bark that are in cute little shapes! So what I do is line a baking sheet with wax paper, place the cookie cutters on the wax paper and then place the entire thing in the freezer while I prepare the rest of the stuff. I then take the wrapper off the candy canes and crush them with a food processor (or inside a ziploc bag with a rolling pin). I like to separate the bigger chunks of the candy cane from the powdery parts, so I use a sifter for that. Then you place the milk chocolate in a piping bag (or ziploc bag) and microwave it in 10 second increments (so that it doesn't burn...burnt chocolate is no good!) kneading it as you go. Then you just pipe it inside the cutters. At this point, I like to sprinkle them with the candy cane powder, just to give it more of the peppermint flavor. After that, I place the tray back in the freezer while I melt the white chocolate (same way as the milk chocolate). After it's melted, I just pipe again inside the cutters and then sprinkle them with the crushed candy canes. After that, I place the tray inside the freezer again for a couple of minutes. After they set up, just push them out of the cutters (sometimes they try to stick to the tray, if so just take a toothpick and wedge it between the chocolate and the cutter, it'll separate easily then). Voila, that's it. simple as that!

*I prefer using Ghirardelli chocolate chips...the higher the quality of chocolate, the better it tastes!