Peppermint Bark

Now that it's December it's time for an overabundance of sweet holiday treats.  I love mint anytime of year, but this is the only time of the year I can make one of my favorite desserts because of product availability.

Joe and I love mint chocolate chip ice cream throughout the year, but now that it's holiday season Blue Bell has their Peppermint ice cream available (Braum's has it throughout the year some places).  When I was grocery shopping Monday I picked up my tub of peppermint ice cream and then thought of a recipe my mom and I made up about 7 years ago after having some of Williams Sonoma's Peppermint Bark. 

Williams Sonoma can eat it.  My mom and I came up with a better tasting recipe and it does not include paying a ridiculous amount of money for it.  AND....it's only 3 ingredients!  So simple and so hard not to stop eating it.  Give yourself about 30 minutes to complete this start to finish, and that includes hardening time for the almond bark.

Ingredients:

• You will use an entire package of the Plymouth Pantry Vanilla flavoredAlmond Bark.
• You will use about half a bag of the Andes Peppermint Crunch.
• You will use about half of the Bob's Sweet Stripes soft peppermints.
• Items you will need:  Microwave safe bowl, wax paper, cookie sheet (preferrably with sides), and a rolling pin/hammer/meat tenderizer...something to smash things with. 

Note:  The Andes Peppermint Crunch is hard to find and is only available in stores around Christmas time.  I found it at Wal-Mart and it was not on the cooking aisle, it was in a large mid-aisle display in the food section that had holiday specific items like jellied cherries, pumpkin pie filling, etc... 

Directions:  Open the bag of Almond Bark, break it apart, and place in a microwave safe cooking dish (I used my big Pyrex bowl). 

Next, you will need to unwrap about 2 cups worth of the Soft Peppermints.

Next, you will place the peppermints in a ziplock bag and smash them via a rolling pin or any other device of your choosing.

You'll want to break them into pretty small pieces so they disperse easier

in the melted almond bark, and you want them to be chewable in the bites you take. 

Now it's time to melt the almond bark.  I put mine in the microwave according to the directions for 90 seconds. That amount of time almost had it completely melted after I removed it and stirred for about 2 minutes.  Then I popped it back in the micro for the recommended additional 15 seconds and that did the trick. 

While the almond bark was in the microwave I lined my cookie sheet with wax paper.  I lined it horizontally and then vertically to make the removal of the bark after it dries easier. 

Add the crushed soft peppermints to the almond bark and mix thoroughly and quickly.



After your peppermints are all mixed into the almond bark, you will just poor it onto the cookie sheet and start spreading it out with a rubber scraper.

You'll want to spread the mixture out as thin as possible without any gaps. 

This is why its important to really crush up the soft peppermints. 

After I got all mine spread out this is what I ended up with.  I didn't use up the entire cookie sheet. 

Last thing is to just sprinkle the Andes pieces on top and push them into the mixture.  If you don't, they'll come off when you break the bark apart. 

And there you have it!  Make sure it is hard before you break it apart.  I let mine sit for about 15 minutes before I broke it into pieces.  Just enough time to unload and reload the dishwasher and lick every leftover morsel off the rubber scraper and Pyrex bowl. 

I broke mine into pieces by hand, but you could use a cookie cutter to do shapes or use a knife to cut squares, rectangles or triangles.

If you prefer your mint with a little chocolate, you could melt a layer of the chocolate almond bark on the bottom of the cookie sheet before you add the white chocolate mixture.   

Here is the finished product!