Easy Peppermint Bark

For those of you who follow my writing (thank you!) you know I love Christmas. From the lights to the shiny ornaments, even the late night gift-wrapping on Christmas Eve doesn’t thwart me. Confession time – I do my last minute wrapping on Christmas Eve. Don’t mock me! Remember I’m Hindu so I shouldn’t be putting myself through this at all. I do because I love this wintry festival season.

Having friends over, the warm spicy aroma of mulled wine and of course chocolates make the perfect ending to any evening.

And if you can use some of that leftover Christmas candy then nothing like it. Every year the kids beg me to buy the largest bag of peppermint candy canes they can see. Some of those are for decorating our Christmas tree but the remaining wind up in our bellies.

Last year a friend introduced me to the ease of making chocolate bark. A delicious way to use up leftover candy canes, it also makes a yummy and homemade hostess gift.

Easy Peppermint Bark Chocolate

Ingredients:

Any good chocolate – 2 cups. I use good quality semi-sweet chocolate chips.
Peppermint candy canes – crushed coarsely. You don’t want them to get powdery.

Steps:

1. Melt the chocolate in a double boiler. I didn’t have one so I made my own – with a Pyrex glass bowl fixed on top of a pan with boiling water. Don’t let the bowl touch the boiling water otherwise the chocolate will seize.  You could use the microwave for this but you will need to stop and stir the mixture every 30 secs, and in total the chips will take around 5-6 mins.
2. Use the boiling water to thin out the melted chocolate and get the consistency to pour out onto a foil-covered baking sheet. Smooth it out.
3. Sprinkle the candy crumbs on the chocolate evenly.
4. Stick the tray in the fridge and let the chocolate solidify.
5. Afterwards break the disc up in asymmetrical pieces.
6. Serve, or pack in boxes lined with parchment paper as hostess gifts.