Peppermint Bark

As I was reading Retromummy's post on peppermint bark I chuckled to myself. The very first paragraph reads:

Put your hand up if you’ve seen peppermint bark on pinterest or in a magazine. Now keep your hand up if you’ve actually made it. Thought so. Are you like me? Always pinning and thinking of trying something new and then you just make old faithful. At Christmas I make rocky road until I can’t look at rocky road again on Christmas day.

Yes, I am like you Corrie! Except my old faithful is an online order of rose Turkish Delight delivered to my door by 2 Brothers Foods. It is absolutely delicious and looks beautiful in a clear cellophane bag. Gotta love simple!

Last Christmas we made these snowmen and I still had leftover peppermint lollies so I seized the moment and started making some peppermint bark. Before school. But after I had made the lunches and checked that everyone had brushed their teeth!

As everything is always done in large quantities in our house, I lined one my super sized lamington trays with baking paper. Just this morning Zoe was chuckling about the 600m (0.37 miles) Glad Wrap dispenser that sits on the kitchen bench. Not a good look, but it is too big to keep taking in and out of the cupboard.

Back to the peppermint bark. Melt your milk chocolate. I used the microwave and it took about two minutes on half the usual power to melt a 375g (about 12 oz) bag. It's always a good idea to stir half way through. Burnt chocolate smell takes about 5 hours to go away. Really.

Add a small blop of vegetable oil to the melted chocolate and mix. Pour the melted chocolate into the base of your tin and put it in the fridge until it is set and cold. I became a little impatient to move onto the next step, so it melted a little when the white chocolate layer was poured on top.

Melt your white chocolate in the same way as the milk chocolate. Don't forget to add your small blop of vegetable oil.

Crush your peppermint lollies/candy canes. I did mine in the Thermomix, but did get a bit carried away with the pulse button. I ended up with more peppermint 'dust' than pieces. May I suggest using a rolling pin to crush yours?

Mix the peppermint dust pieces into the white chocolate.

I managed to save some larger chunks of peppermint that I pressed into the top of the white chocolate layer.

Refrigerate until cold. Remove from the fridge and break into pieces. I found it easiest to do with I knife; push the tip of the knife into the peppermint bark to force it into cracking.

This was very, very popular in our house. So popular that peppermint bark has made its way into one lone cellophane bag.

Time to make another batch I think!

TIP: I prefer thinner layers of chocolate as opposed to thick. My preference is for an overall thickness of about 1.5cm (just over 1/2").

These would make wonderful gifts for neighbours.