Peppermint Bark Recipe

This Peppermint Bark Recipe is an easy, festive candy featuring decadent layers of white and semi-sweet chocolate infused with peppermint and topped with crushed candy canes. Perfect for gifting!

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‘Tis the Season with today’s Peppermint Bark Recipe

Melt a couple layers of white chocolate and semi-sweet chocolate, then smash my holiday anxiety out on candy canes and use that as a topper? Easy. Welcome to the season of joy and chocolate with today’s Peppermint Bark Recipe!

Two kinds of peppermint goodness combine with two kinds of chocolate and one festive candy for the treat you’ll be making with your loved ones for years to come.

#3 on the 1^st Annual Beaming Holiday Treat-a-Palooza: Peppermint Bark Recipe!!

The Ingredients You Need + 1 Secret One

Making this peppermint bark recipe is super easy, but admittedly, the ‘melting white chocolate’ part can get a bit tricky. Make sure to use the 1 secret ingredient for the smoothest time.

• Semi-sweet chocolate chips – use your favorite quality chocolate chips
• Peppermint extract – make sure this is pure peppermint extract, not something artificial. The better the quality, the better the flavor of peppermint in your bark. Here’s mine.
• White chocolate chips – be sure to slowly melt this one—it likes to harden and get chunky quickly. See the secret ingredient for help.
• Crushed candy canes – you can use a combo of regular candy canes and crushed peppermint candies, but I like mini candy canes best (more on that later).
• Secret Ingredient: Coconut oil. Erik and I’ve been melting chocolate for years, and the one stumper: white chocolate. Without a little help, white chocolate can harden and get clumpy quickly. Coconut oil loves staying liquidy when warm, so it’ll keep your white chocolate in check!

How to Make Peppermint Bark

This photo tutorial will show you exactly how to make peppermint bark. We’ll go step by step, then you can head over the recipe card below for exact measurements.

CRUSH THE CANDY CANES

First, crush the candy using a meat mallet or rolling pin. You’ll place unwrapped candy canes (I prefer mini) into a resealable bag.

Then, wrap the bag in a large kitchen towel. Lay the wrapped bag on a sturdy, protected surface. Using the meat mallet, smash the candy into generally even pieces. Or, roll to bits with a rolling pin.

MAKE THE PEPPERMINT BARK

Now, line a medium baking sheet with parchment paper or wax paper. Then, clear some space in the freezer for this sheet—you’ll need it later.

Using the double boiler method, or the following method, melt the semi-sweet chocolate. Microwave in 15-second increments, stirring in between, until melted and smooth.

Then, stir in peppermint extract.

Using a spoon or spatula, spread the peppermint chocolate in smooth, even layer on the prepared baking sheet.

Freeze for about 3 minutes.

Melt the white chocolate using the same method in a clean bowl.

Then, remove the sheet of mostly solid semi-sweet chocolate and quickly spread the white chocolate on top to avoid marbling.

Now, for the fun part: generously sprinkle crushed candy canes over the white chocolate. Using a finger, gently press the candy into the white chocolate.

Refrigerate until firm, about 20 minutes.

Once firm, set the peppermint bark out until it reaches room temperature, then slice.

Enjoy the easiest peppermint bark recipe!

How to Customize this Peppermint Bark Recipe

Customizing this peppermint bark recipe is super easy. You can make chocolate orange bark, or double chocolate pretzel bark…

• Swap the chocolates – if you’re not a fan of white chocolate, go ahead and use a combo of semi-sweet and milk. Others can do dark chocolate for one layer, and white for the next.
• Change the extract. Not a fan of peppermint? Swap with almond extract and top with chopped almonds and white chocolate chips. You can even do orange extract and top with candied orange slices!
• Sub the toppings – don’t want to spend your time unwrapping and crushing candy canes? During the holidays, stores also sell peppermint crunch bark in bags. You can also do a combo of pretzels and chopped peppermint kisses… the world is your oyster.
• Sprinkle… a little salt on the bark to make the bark a salty/sweet combo. Or, add festive sprinkles to make it cute.

Demeter’s Tips

Here are some of my favorite tips for ensuring that your peppermint bark turns out beautifully (and tastily).

Crushing Candy Canes: Unwrap candy canes and place into a zip bag, then wrap with a kitchen cloth—this will protect the bag from being immediately ripped to smithereens by the crushed candy shards. Then, use a food mallet or rolling pin on a protected, sturdy surface to crush candy canes.

Mini Candy Canes vs. Regular: Seriously, what’s the difference? Crushed candy canes can be a bit lacking in color when crushed. Mini candy canes have the most bright red surface area—this means more colorful candy cane-looking bits on the peppermint bark!

Use the Coconut Oil: Why bother, right? Wrong, unfortunately. White chocolate can be a real… beast when it comes to melting. Look away for one second, or the house fan turns on, and boom! It’s clumpy and hardened—and heating it up again will only make matters worse/drier and more crumbly (!). Enter: the uber helpful coconut oil.

Coconut oil loves to stay liquidy when warm; this means that it will help not only all moisture to the white chocolate, but will also keep it in a liquid state while you’re spreading it.

Quickly Spread the White Chocolate: Move quickly when spreading the white chocolate layer over the semi-sweet chocolate layer. Move too slowly, and the two chocolate with create a marble effect (not the end of the world—cover with more crushed candy canes!)

Room Temperature Peppermint Bark for Better Slicing: After refrigerating to harden, allow the peppermint bark to reach room temperature—this will make for easy, non-brittle slicing.

Tools You Need

• Chef’s knife
• Cutting board
• Glass mixing bowls
• Food mallet

Happy Holidays!

Thank you for stopping by and sharing in these happy holiday delights with me and your loved ones. Be sure to leave a comment and rating telling me what you think of today’s recipe. ‘Til our next sweet adventure…

Sending you all my love and maybe even a dove, xo Demeter ❤️

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