Holiday Peppermint Chocolate Candy

The amount of different goodies that we make at our house for the holidays may seem a little obscene to some. . .Generally 4-5 kinds of cookies, toffee, peanut brittle (I've made 4 batches of that so far this season), caramels (a new treat here this year), several kinds of chocolate. .not to mention numerous kinds of dip mixes and snack/nut combinations.  Most of these get stored away to use on cookie plates and in goody packages for teachers, Sunday School and youth group leaders, co workers, family, and friends.  People that show up at my house around the holiday baking episodes are very likely to find themselves headed out the door with a plate of yummies!

A few years ago I saw a picture in a catalog of some peppermint bark that they were selling for a very steep price. .and as I am prone to doing. .I raised an eyebrow and said "Hey, I can do that!!"

Here's what we came up with!!

These huge chocolate bars were found at Sams club.  The double chocolate is actually a darker chocolate. I have never used it before, because it is not readily apparent that it isn't milk chocolate. You can use chips. .but sometimes the chocolate wouldn't stay melded together well (meanin', when I broke it apart. .sometimes the layers would pop apart too!) These chocolate bars worked much better than using chips!! Just sayin'!

Melt the dark chocolate. I use the microwave and heat for 45 seconds and stir, repeating that process until smooth. This is where you would add the peppermint extract. .but you wouldn't have to, if that isn't your thing. Pour chocolate onto a baking sheet covered in foil or parchment paper. Using a spatula, I drag the chocolate out into a rectangle about 12 inches by 8 inches. Let set up until hardened.

Follow the same melting steps with the white chocolate. If you cut the bar up into smaller pieces, it tends to melt better and faster.

Pour the white chocolate right over the dark chocolate, again using spatula to scoot it to the edges.

Go ahead. .Lick your fingers!

Put the candy canes into a small chopper and chop. If you chop too long, you get peppermint powder. .and it is pink. .not red.  You can also put the canes into a baggie and beat them with a mallet or your rolling pin. I still haven't come up with a good, fast way to crunch up the canes into small, lovely pieces.

I get. .

A nice combination of pink powder

and coarser chunks of cane. .When eating this chocolate, I prefer the finer pieces in my mouth, so I tolerate the pink color.

Pour those pieces over the top of the melted white chocolate and lightly push them down using a piece of foil or even your hand. This helps the candies to stay in the chocolate after you break it into pieces and package them.

MMMMM. . .Delish!!

These are so cute packaged in a small clear bag with a holiday ribbon tied on!

The best thing about this chocolate???

Total work time is less than 30 minutes!

Does it get any better than that?

(other than it's awesome flavor??)

                                      Holiday Peppermint Chocolate Candy

                                                16 oz dark chocolate (bittersweet) bar

                                                      16 oz white chocolate bar

                                               ½ tsp peppermint extract, divided

                                           4 oz (8) peppermint candy canes, smashed

Line sheet cake pan with foil. Melt dark chocolate in microwave until smooth. Stir in ¼ tsp extract. Spread onto a sheet cake pan covered with foil into a thin layer. Cool till set. Melt white chocolate and stir in ¼ tsp extract. Spread over dark chocolate layer. Sprinkle with candy canes and top with another piece of foil pressing gently down on candy. Let set completely before removing foil (an hour or so.) Break into pieces. Very pretty!