Hello and welcome! Without even blinking the holidays have arrived. I’m afraid I’m a little behind in posting so today I’m going to make it quick yet a lot of fun. By now many of us have had enough of the hustle and bustle of the crowds and the stress of all those holiday expectations. Sometimes you just want to take your frustrations out on something. Fear not! I have the perfect recipe for venting all that holiday angst and yes you get to whack things with a hammer, a brick or whatever blunt instrument you can find!
This recipe is quick and easy and loved by many so, you may end up making it at other times of the year. I’m talking about peppermint bark. Its only four ingredients and a hammer, that’s it! If you don’t feel like crushing candy canes (but who doesn’t?) you can buy crushed candy canes, the ones I found had a strange ingredient , shellac. I know it’s food grade but that’s the stuff I used in wood shop back in high school, so I couldn’t bring myself to buy it. Candy canes seemed the way to go and it’s fun crushing them up. To do that I broke them into smaller pieces by hand first and placed them in a plastic bag. I then used a rolling pin to crush the candy. After a couple of whacks the bag broke so I’d recommend you place the plastic bag between two sheet of waxed paper, then start smashing. Once that’s done I placed the crushed candy canes into a small baking dish lined with parchment paper. The rest of the recipe follows below.
- 1 eleven ounce bag of white chocolate chips
- 1 eleven ounce bag of semisweet chocolate chips
- 12 candy canes
- 2 teaspoons peppermint extract
- Place one bag of the white chocolate chips into a microwave safe glass bowl and in 30 second intervals heat the chips. Remove and stir and heat again for another 30 seconds. In my microwave it took 70 seconds to melt the chips. Note: the chips keep melting while stirring.
- Pour the peppermint extract into the melted white chocolate and stir well, then pour over the crushed candy canes.
- Place in the refrigerator for about 20-30 minutes to let cool.
- Melt the chocolate chips in the same fashion as the other chips and pour over the white chocolate .
- Place back into the refrigerator for about an hour.
- Remove the peppermint bark to a cutting board, remember to take off the waxed paper.
- Use a hammer or a rolling pin to break the bark up into manageable pieces and enjoy.
This is the perfect treat to make if you’ve got other things to do while its cooling. It can also be made without peppermint candy, simply substitute crushed almonds and you have almond bark, and you still get to whack it with a blunt instrument! I love quick and easy holiday recipes so if you have one please share it with us in the comment box below. In future posts I’d like to write about holiday traditions. If you’d like to share some of your traditions I’ll try and put a few of them together in another post. I hope you give this recipe a try and when you do please send me a comment. Enjoy the holidays, until next time Boone Appétit!
