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Thursday, December 24, 2009

Last Minute Hostess Gift: Peppermint Bark

Peppermint Bark: cooled and broken

Exchanging gifts with neighbors or coworkers and ran out of cookies? Make a batch of peppermint bark. It takes very little time and doesn't cost much.

Ingredients:
8 oz. chocolate chips (semi-sweet or milk)
6 oz. white chocolate chips
1/2 tsp peppermint extract
red food coloring (optional)
crushed candy canes (optional)

Or use: 4 blocks of chocolate bark and 3 blocks of almond bark

Melt the chocolate and spread on a cookie sheet covered with silpat mat or wax paper. Melt white chocolate and add one drop red food coloring and peppermint extract. Taste white chocolate and add more peppermint if desired. Then drizzle over the chocolate.

Peppermint Bark: drizzling together

Next, grab a toothpick. Run the toothpick through the chocolate horizontally in rows. Then repeat vertically.

Peppermint Bark: swirling 1

Peppermint Bark: swirling 2

Add crushed candy over the top if desired. Then allow to cool and harden. You can speed this up in the refrigerator. The freezer works too, but may result in bloomed chocolate. (Rapid temperature changes cause the cocoa butter to seperate, causing white spots.)

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