See all of these pretty presents?! I MADE them. Except I didn’t really. I doodled designs and then uploaded them to Shutterfly to make beautiful personalized gifts for people I love! And I gilded the lily by throwing in the most delicious homemade Christmas candy. Best part? Both are super quick and easy. High five! Read on.
I am so excited to share this project with you because it brought me so much joy from start to finish. I really like to paint, and love the idea of giving something I made myself as Christmas gifts. But I really don’t have the space, time or energy right now for large-scale present production. (Although, I did feel like an elf today when I accidentally inhaled a whole lot of candy cane dust…)
Now, the peppermint bark. It’s kind of insane how good this stuff is. I’m a big fan of mint chocolate. But this? With the white chocolate on top of bittersweet chocolate plus the teeny crunch of crushed candy canes? It’s just crazy good. And easy. As easy as microwaving, stirring, microwaving again, and sprinkling. The only important thing is to use really good chocolate bars, not chips or white chocolate buttons.
The recipe I’m giving you makes enough to give four people each a 3-oz bag but you can easily double, triple or quadruple it to make as much as you like. I’ve seen some recipes call for peppermint extract, but I find the crushed candy cane adds just enough mint without over-powering the chocolate, especially because I melt a bit right into the base.
In this world of retail overload, there’s so much joy in making special gifts, don’t you think?
Easy White Chocolate Christmas Bark Recipe
Ingredients
- 5 oz good-quality dark chocolate 60-70% cocoa, chopped
- 7 oz good-quality white chocolate chopped
- 3 candy canes crushed
Instructions
- In a large microwave-safe dish, heat dark chocolate on 50% power for two minutes.  Chocolate should be about 80% melted; stir to finish melting. (If not 80% melted, continue cooking in 30-second intervals at 50% power until it is.) Stir in 1 tbsp of finely crushed candy cane to melt a bit, then spread on a parchment-lined baking pan to make a rectangle of about 10x7".  Transfer to freezer for 10 minutes.
- Wash and dry the bowl completely.  Add white chocolate to the clean bowl and repeat the same melting process.  Let melted white chocolate stand at room temperature for about 5 minutes to cool, then give it a stir and pour evenly over top of cold dark chocolate, quickly spreading it to the edges using an offset spatula (or a pie lifter). You don't want the chocolate to be too cool or it will be too thick to easily spread thinly, and working it too much with the spatula will start to melt in the dark chocolate. It's ok if it happens. It will remain delicious. Sprinkle the bark with crushed candy canes and let stand at room temperature until set, about 2 hours, or overnight.
- Use the parchment to lift the bark and break it into asymmetrical pieces. Store between layers of parchment or waxed paper in an airtight container for up to two weeks (or maybe longer, if it lasts!).
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