The nice thing about this marbled peppermint bark is that it looks pretty fancy and like it took a lot of time to make, but it’s even easier and a lot quicker to make than the layered kind!
And it’s really, really yummy. You just can’t go wrong with mint and chocolate!
Now, depending on what chocolate you use for this peppermint bark recipe, it might turn out to be a little bit melty at room temperature. If you want something sure to be hard, you can use tempered chocolate, or candy coating chocolate. I’d stay away from the candy coating though, because it’s just not as good.
Chocolate Peppermint Bark
Preparation Time: 15m Cooking Time: 15m Total Time: 1h30m
Servings
Yields 1 lb or so peppermint bark.
Ingredients
6 oz semi-sweet or bittersweet chocolate, chopped
6 oz milk or white chocolate, chopped
4 regular-sized candy canes, crushed
1/4 cup pistachios, coarsely chopped (optional)
1/4 tsp peppermint extract (optional)
Instructions
- Line a baking sheet with wax paper.
- Melt the dark chocolate and light chocolate separately. Remove the chocolate from the heat.
- If desired, whisk the peppermint extract into the dark chocolate.
- Spread the dark chocolate over the lined baking sheet into 3 thick strips, about 8 inches long. Leave about an inch or two of space between the strips.
- Fill the two gaps with the milk or white chocolate. Be sure that the two chocolates are touching or overlapping a bit.
- Swirl a knife or spatula back and forth across the strips to make swirly patterns.
- Sprinkle the chocolate with the crushed candy canes and, if desired, the pistachios. You can press them into the chocolate a little bit to be sure they’ll stick.
- Refrigerate for 45 to 60 minutes, or until the chocolate is hard, then break it into pieces.
Tips
- To crush the candy canes, you can use a food processor. Or you just place them in a plastic zip bag and crush them with a rolling pin.
- You’ll have more luck with a thick freezer bag, because the sharp candy cane pieces might shred a thinner bag.
- Freezing the candy canes for a little while can make them easier to crush, too.
- There are a few ways to melt chocolate.
- You can use a double boiler to melt the chocolate. Just keep it on low heat, stir often, and don’t let the top saucepan touch the water — you just want the steam to melt the chocolate.
- If you prefer, you can microwave the chocolate on medium power for 3 or 4 minutes. Since microwave powers vary, check it every minute and stir a bit.
- You can also melt the chocolate in a saucepan directly on the heat, but you have to be super careful not to scorch the chocolate. Use the lowest heat possible, and stir constantly.
- No matter which method you choose to melt your chocolate, always be sure to keep any water or moisture away from the melting chocolate. Even a few drops can make the chocolate seize up and get lumpy.
- Different chocolates have different compositions. Depending on the chocolate you use, your peppermint bark might get a bit soft and melty at room temperature, and you might have to store it in the fridge.
- To avoid this, you can temper the chocolate — a process that lets chocolate cool to a hard, shiny finish that won’t melt at room temperature. It takes a little more time though.
- You can experiment with different chocolates to see which ones harden better, if you don’t have the time to temper the chocolate.
- Use the chocolate as soon as it’s melted, especially if you’re using white chocolate — it can harden really quickly, and then your peppermint bark will end up lumpy instead of nice and smooth.
- If you store the pieces in an airtight container, they’ll stay good for a week or two. So you can make this chocolate peppermint bark recipe ahead of time!