Adventures in Peppermint Bark Making

You might think adventures is too strong a word to use for a description of making what has been termed the "simplest candy recipe ever" (at least by fans who commented on the recipe I used), but Ben and I would have to disagree.

It all started a few weeks ago when Ben brought home a Purdy's Chocolates fundraising brochure from his preschool. I pondered over my order for a long time, trying to decide whether or not I should include a little something for myself (for Jason to give me for Christmas, of course). The item that tempted me the most was the peppermint bark. I'd tried this once before at Mom and Dad's (a couple of years ago now) and have been craving it ever since, but I could never justify buying it for myself. Anyway, I decided to order some--just to support the kids.

Well, our order arrived last week, and every day since I have debated on whether or not to open the peppermint bark. I have also thought of all the other people I should probably give it to as a gift. To make a long story short, I thought I could solve all of our problems by making MORE peppermint bark . . . then I could have some now, we could give some to other people as gifts, and the REAL peppermint bark could still show up in my stocking on Christmas morning!

As I already mentioned, the recipe said it was super-easy to make and always a hit on the dessert table, so Benjamin and I put Janae down for her nap and got started.

Step One: crush the candy canes--we would need one cup. I put Ben to work on this. Although the recipe suggested a hammer, I thought we would try the more genteel method of using a rolling pin. I began by showing Ben how to roll it over the candy canes (which, of course, were in a zip lock bag). This didn't work too well, so I showed Benjamin how to smack the candy canes using the rolling pin. Still not satisfied with the results, I went upstairs, found Jason's hammer, and let Ben pound the candy canes, as the recipe had recommended. This was Benjamin's favorite part of the activity.

 

Step Two: melt the chocolate. I selected my medium-sized Visions saucepan, then carefully washed and dried it. I had to wash a few other dishes, too (and thought I'd take advantage of the opportunity, with Ben being otherwise occupied), so instead of putting the saucepan in the dishrack (where it would be buried with other items), I put it on the narrow stretch of counter between the sink and the . . . floor. Of course, it didn't teeter there very long.

Step Three: sweep, vacuum, and--ultimately--wash the kitchen floor. This step wasn't in the original instructions, so the preparation time ended up being a bit longer than expected.

 

Step Four: back to melting the chocolate. Now that we were using a stainless steel pot, this actually went really well--we didn't burn the chocolate, and it melted very nicely and smoothly. Notice Benjamin was doing most of the work here.

 

Step Five: add peppermint extract to the chocolate. This step was optional, but I thought we would like to have some peppermint in our candy. So, I got out our bottle of pure peppermint extract, carefully measured out a teaspoon, then dumped the rest of the bottle all over the counter. (The peppermint, of course, continued to drip down the cupboards and onto the newly-washed floor). I don't recommend this step, but it sure made the kitchen smell like Christmas!

Well, the rest of the steps really are fool-proof, because somehow we managed to complete them without too much more difficulty. We now have a tupperware container full of delicious peppermint bark.

So, if on Christmas Day your gift from us looks suspiciously like peppermint bark, be sure to savor it--after all, it was made with lots of . . . love :)