Have you ever been wandering the mall at this time of year and popped into a Williams Sonoma store? They often give out samples of their Peppermint Bark. Delicious stuff, and at $22 a pound it should be. But you can make it at home for much less. I found a copy cat recipe at this site.
Here’s what you’ll need:
- 1 bag semi-sweet chocolate chips
- 1 lb. white chocolate chips (I used 12 oz. Nestle chips)
- 1/2 tsp. peppermint extract
- 1/2 cup crushed candy canes
Line a 9×13 pan with foil and spray with cooking spray. Pour the chocolate chips in the pan and set them in the oven at 250 degrees for 5 minutes or until they’re almost melted. Use a spatula to smooth out the chips over the bottom of the pan. Refrigerate for about 20 minutes until the chocolate is hardened.
Melt the white chocolate in a double boiler. Stir in the peppermint extract. Pour the white chocolate over the dark and smooth with a spatula. Sprinkle with the crushed candy canes. Refrigerate until firm. Peel off the foil and cut into pieces.
I did have some trouble with the white and dark layers coming apart. I’m not sure why. It could be that the white chips are not the best to use for this. I thought about using Bakers White Chocolate, but it cost so much more. The white chips did melt kind of funny – they wanted to seize up on me instead of melting smooth.
Despite the layers coming apart on some of the pieces, the candy tasted good and was eaten up in record time.
If you have any tips for me about keeping the layers together, please let me know!
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Maybe you could try glue or mommy spit. Just kidding. I thought maybe you could try swirling in the white melted chips into the chocolate. It would change the look but it might be pretty.
Does anyone know of a good place to buy peppermint extract? Is there much
variance in price? Is there anything to watch out for with regard to quality?
Lois, I bought my peppermint extract at walmart. It was near the vanilla extract. I don’t have any info on quality or price though.
This is funny! I made this last night and I also had problems seperating. I read some of the comments on the previous people that made it on another recipe site and they said to make sure there is no condensation from being in the fridge for a few min.’s because this will cause the layers to stay seperate. Now that i think about it mine did have a little b/c i put the chocolate in fridge while it was still really hot. I am starting to think quality chocolate would work way better but i was giving this a test run on my family before I gave it as gifts this year. Also about your white chocolate seizing up before melting completely nestle says to add a teaspoon of canola or vegetable oil when its starting to melt or half way melted. Hope this helps! If i get it perfected I will let you know
Tiffany, do let me know if you perfect it. I have the same trouble with toffee wanting to come apart sometimes. I’ve wondered if it’s the brand of chips. With toffee, I thought it came apart worse when I used Hershey brand. My favorite brand was Walmart, but they stopped making the store brand.
You have a great name, btw
Your bark looks yummy! Here is why the layers separated:
1. There could be condensation on the first layer from the fridge. Water causes chocolate to seize up. Another, but slower, way to do this would be to let the chocolate set up outside of the fridge. Only takes 30min. or so.
2. Your extract could be water based, which would have the same effect. Try finding extract that is oil based, or just do w/out the extract. I sold chocolate not too long ago, and I didn’t add any extract to my bark. People told me it was better than Sonoma.
3. Double Broiler. I tend to shy away from the double broiler just because of steam getting into the chocolate. Try using the microwave to melt the chocolate instead!
Good luck!!
Double Dipped Life – thank you so much for the tips! Those are really helpful
Yum! Now that’s something I could make: ) Thanks Tiffany!
I’m going to try making this this weekend. I shy away from Whute Chocolate Chips as I always have problems with them melting, I’m gonna try using Almond Bark instead and see what happens. But thanks for the idea and recipe.
Colleen, let me know how the almond bark works. I thought about trying that too.
Love your site and recipes, thanks for sharing with all of us! I made the peppermint bark yesterday, instead of cooling the chocolate in the fridge first, I went ahead and put the white chocolate on the melted chocolate put it all together and then put it in the fridge. The two chocolates did swirl together a bit but not much. The layers stayed together and did not seperate when I cut the candy up. My husband said this was the best thing I’ve ever made. Thanks again.
Gina Brazer
Choctaw, Oklahoma
Wow, thanks for sharing — I love peppermint bark!