White Chocolate Peppermint Bark

Cooking time: 5 minutes | Difficulty level: Easy

We made this peppermint bark for coworkers and everyone loved it, wanting more. Eventually when I ran out of peppermint bark for everyone, I just decided to post a recipe because it is SO easy to make. Here you go... Happy Holidays!!

White chocolate peppermint bark

Ingredients
2 packs Nestlé white chocolate chips
6 peppermint candy canes
1/2 tsp peppermint extract


Method

1. Put the peppermint candy canes in a heavy-duty ziploc bag and crush them using a hammer or a pestle. Once they are small enough chunks, you can run them in a blender to get a finer grind.
2. Once they are ground to the desired sized chunks, run them through a sieve to separate out the powder from the bigger chunks. Keep the chunks aside, we will use them at the last step.
3. Put all the white chocolate chips in a microwave safe bowl and put them in a microwave on medium for about 2 minutes. The time needed to melt them might be different, depending on the type of your microwave so make sure to keep an eye on them. Keep checking every 30 seconds and remove them immediately once the chocolate is all soft.
4. Add the candy cane powder that we separated in step 2 as well as the peppermint extract and mix well.
5. Line a cookie tray with wax paper and pour this mixture over it. Using a spatula, spread it out a little to cover most of the cookie tray. Lightly pat the tray down on a hard surface to make the chocolate mixture spread out in a thin layer and to remove any air bubbles.
6. Once it is more or less flattened, sprinkle the remaining chunks of candy cane over the chocolate layer and pat the tray some more to make the chunks sink in the melted chocolate a little so they don't fall off. At this point your bark is more or less done.
7. You can let the bark cool on the counter for a few minutes and then stick it in the refrigerator for 25-30 minutes to let it solidify.
8. Remove from the refrigerator, peel off the wax paper and then break the bark with your hands to make pieces of desired size and your peppermint bark is ready to be enjoyed!

Helpful tips:

• Keep the bag of peppermint candy canes on a cutting board while you are hammering it to prevent getting your countertop sticky if the bag punctures.
• You can substitute peppermint oil for peppermint extract if you have some readily available. It basically achieves the same purpose.
• Peppermint bark tastes best if it is about 1/8th of an inch thick so select a baking sheet size accordingly.