New Recipe Tuesday: Holiday Peppermint Bark

I'm well aware that Thanksgiving comes before Christmas. Really, I promise. However, for Christmas this year, I've decided to make treats and give them away as gifts. Because of that,  I've decided that for the next couple of weeks, I'm going to be trying out the desserts that I want to include in my gift box so that I can decide how time consuming each dessert is before I attempt to make everything in the same week.

Holiday Peppermint Bark

Ingredients:

1 (12 oz) package of chocolate chips

24 hard peppermint candies, unwrapped

Directions:

1.) Line baking sheet with waxed paper.

2.) Microwave morsels in a medium, microwave-safe bowl on MEDIUM for 1 minute; stir. Microwave at additional 10-20 second intervals until smooth.

3.) Place peppermint candies in a heavy duty plastic bag. Crush candies using rolling pin or another heavy object. While holding a strainer over the melted chocolate, pour crushed candy into the strainer. Shake to release all the small candy pieces. Set aside the larger pieces and stir.

4.) Spread mixture to desired thickness on prepared baking sheet. Sprinkle with reserved pieces; press lightly. Let stand for about 1 hour or until firm. Break into pieces and store in an airtight container at room temperature.

Notes: This recipe originally calls for white chocolate morsels. However, the grocery store was all out, and I'm not a huge fan of white chocolate anyway, so I grabbed a bag of milk chocolate chips. Also, based on the recipe, I thought I'd be able to use a rolling pin to roll over the candies and crush them, but no such luck. Apparently, it's common knowledge that you're supposed to smash the candies. It's a great stress reliever, by the way! I didn't have a strainer, so I left the candies in the bag and cut a small hole in the bottom to shake it out.

 

 

I really didn't have to attempt this ahead of time because it's pretty simple, but I bought the cutest candy boxes to put them in and really just wanted an excuse to use them and besides, what better time ot use them than for my 50th Blog Post?!