Now you can make the best peppermint bark in the world from your very own kitchen.
Ingredients
2poundsdark chocolate (couverture)*
2poundswhite chocolate (couverture)*
1/4teaspoonpeppermint oil**
6peppermint candy canes
Instructions
Prepare the candy cane pieces. Place the unwrapped candy canes in a gallon ziplock bag. With a mallot or another hard flat object (a can or the bottom of a glass works great), gently crush the candy canes into large pieces. Pour into a small bowl and gently shake the candy in the bowl until the larger pieces surface to the top. Set aside.
Temper the dark chocolate. Place 2/3rds of the dark chocolate in a silicone or plastic bowl and microwave for no longer than 1-minute intervals, until the chocolate is melted and has reached between 115 and 120 °F. Be careful not to burn the chocolate, and stir between each interval. Add the remaining 1/3 of unmelted chocolate to the melted chocolate (this is your "seed") and stir together to help cool down the melted chocolate. Continue to stir until your chocolate reaches 89 °F. This may take some time. If you have additional pieces of chocolate in your bowl that have not melted once your chocolate reaches 89 °F, you may either remove the extra pieces of chocolate, or cool the chocolate to 78 °F and slowly warm the chocolate again, keeping it below 89 °F.
Test your chocolate. Make sure that the tempering process was done correctly by dipping a small piece of parchment paper into your bowl of chocolate and gently setting on another piece of parchment paper for 2-3 minutes. After waiting a few minutes, your chocolate should not appear wet and have a good sheen on the surface. It should also appear set and have a proper snap. If the test is unsuccessful, start the tempering process from the beginning again. If your test is successful, proceed to the next step.
Pour your dark chocolate. Line a standard half sheet pan with parchment paper. You can place two small dime-sized drops of chocolate on separate ends of the paper, and then place the chocolate side down to keep your parchment in place as you pour. Pour the dark chocolate into the lined half sheet pan and use a bench scraper to distribute the chocolate as evenly as possible across the half sheet pan. If you do not have a bench scraper you may use a spatula. Set aside at room temperature to harden. Do not put in the fridge.
Temper the white chocolate. Place 2/3rds of the white chocolate in a silicone or plastic bowl and microwave at 1-minute intervals, until the chocolate is melted and has reached 110 °F. Be careful not to burn the chocolate, and stir between each interval. Add the remaining 1/3 of unmelted chocolate to the melted chocolate (this is your "seed") and stir together to help cool down the melted chocolate. Continue to stir until your chocolate reaches 84 °F. This may take some time. If you have additional pieces of chocolate in your bowl that have not melted once your chocolate reaches 84 °F, you may either remove the extra pieces of chocolate, or cool the chocolate to 78 °F and slowly warm the chocolate again, keeping it below 84 °F.
Test your chocolate. Make sure that the tempering process was done correctly by dipping a small piece of parchment paper into your bowl of chocolate and gently setting on another piece of parchment paper for 2-3 minutes. After waiting a few minutes, your chocolate should not appear wet and have a good sheen on the surface. It should also appear set and have a proper snap. If the test is unsuccessful, start the tempering process from the beginning again. If your test is successful, proceed to the next step.
Once your white chocolate has successfully been tempered, add the peppermint oil to the white chocolate and stir together.
Pour your white chocolate onto the dark chocolate. Your dark chocolate should be set at this point. Use a bench scraper to distribute the white chocolate as evenly as possible over the dark chocolate. If you do not have a bench scraper you may use a spatula. Take the candy cane pieces and sprinkle on top of white chocolate. Gently press pieces into white chocolate slightly. Set aside the sheet pan at room temperature to harden. Do not put in the fridge.
After the bark has sat at room temperature for an hour, using a protruding edge of parchment paper, carefully remove the chocolate from the sheet pan. If all of the parchment paper has been covered in chocolate, you can use the edge of your bench scraper or a metal spatula to loosen the edges and then remove. Break the peppermint bark into palm-sized pieces or smaller with your hands. The peppermint bark will keep at room temperature for several weeks.
Equipment
Instant read thermometer
Parchment paper
Bench scraper (optional)
Notes
*For this specific recipe we used the Guittard "French Vanilla" couverture dark chocolate and the Callebaut couverture white chocolate callets. Make sure that for this recipe you're using couverture chocolate (rather than compound chocolate), which will have cocoa butter listed in the chocolate ingredients.**We used LorAnn oils super-strength peppermint oil for this recipe and only needed 1/4 teaspoon for the entire batch. You may need to add more peppermint oil if yours isn't as strong. Taste the white chocolate after you have added the peppermint oil before adding more. The Williams Sonoma Peppermint Bark has a slight and subtle peppermint flavor in their white chocolate-- nothing strong or overpowering.