No Bake Christmas Treat: Peppermint Bark

I absolutely love peppermint and chocolate together and my boyfriend and I had been seeing peppermint bark pre-made in stores but we wanted to try to make it ourselves to have a bit of fun in the kitchen. I'm so glad we did because it's super easy and would make a great last minute treat if you're going to a Holiday party or need gifts to pass out to doctors, neighbors, etc.

Let's get started!

What You'll Need:

Tools:

1. Aluminum Foil

2. Cookie sheet or baking dish

3. Spatula or spoon to smooth the chocolate out

4. Something to break the chocolate up with once it hardens

5. Not Pictured: Double boiler

Ingredients:

1. 8 or 12 ounces of dark, milk, or semi-sweet chocolate depending on how much you want to make (I used milk chocolate the first time and semi-sweet the second and I preferred the milk, but I have a high sweet tolerance :)

2. 8 or 12 ounces of white chocolate

3. Candy canes or about 25 crushed peppermint candies

4. 1/4 tsp Peppermint Extract (1/2 tsp if you use 12 ounces or to taste)

5. Optional: Decorative Sprinkles!

Before we get started I just want to say that this is extremely easy to do, and you have a lot of leeway in terms of what ingredients you use and how much of them because it's really all about your tastes and your preferences. This isn't something that's getting baked, so it's okay if your measurements are a little off so just use what you like!

1. Fashion a double boiler. You don't want the bowl touching the water, so don't use too much and you don't want the water boiling. Put it on a low to medium heat. Start with your darker chocolate. We put in all of our chocolate at once, but it would be a little easier to put a small amount in at a time and keep stirring the chocolate to help it melt quicker. Add your peppermint extract once it's almost completely melted.

2. Pour in and spread out your chocolate into the pan. Make sure your aluminum foil is as smooth on the bottom as you can get it.

3. Add peppermints to your liking. (You don't have to put them on both layers, but we like it really minty so we did both)

3.5. Refrigerate your chocolate layer until completely hardened. It will be about one hour.

4. Once your first layer is hardened, do the same process with your white chocolate. Melt it in your double boiler, add in your peppermint extract, pour over your darker chocolate but work quickly because it'll start melting the dark chocolate.

5. Once you've gotten it smoothed out, sprinkle on your peppermint candies and sprinkles. Be sure to press them down with your fingers so they are in the chocolate and will have a better chance of staying in tact when you break it up. Refrigerate for another hour, or until this layer has completely hardened. 

6. Use your mallet or whatever you chose to break the bark up. Once we got a chunk broken off, we started using our hands also.

That's it! It's as easy as that and incredibly delicious! Not only that, but it looks pretty and festive as well :)

Happy candy making! And eating ;)