December 1st is National Peppermint Bark Day, celebrating one of our favorite holiday treats. Every year we purchase it from Enstrom, our favorite brand after tasting every one we could get our hands on over the years.

It’s a symphony of white chocolate, dark chocolate, vanilla cookies, chocolate cookies, and crushed peppermint. This perfect combination yields a confection that’s delicious with hot or iced coffee, tea, hot chocolate, and milk.

Enstrom sells it in a gift box. Williams-Sonoma has a private label version in a tin, made for them by Guittard.

What makes one peppermint bark better than the next? It’s all about the quality of ingredients and the ratio.

We love the combination of chocolate and mint, so every so often, we whip up this really easy recipe from scratch.

Our own personal touch is using Starlight chocolate mints (photo #5) instead of red-and-white peppermints.

But yesterday, we made a new recipe, compliments of our colleague Hannah Kaminsky of Bittersweet Blog. Prep time is just 10 minutes!

Something about the combination of creamy chocolate slabs, festooned with crunchy red and white striped mint confections seems to strike a chord with everyone, young, old, jolly, and curmudgeonly alike.

This bar looks beautiful, but the real beauty is in its simplicity. If you’ve forgotten to get someone a holiday gift, or need a last-minute contribution for a party, make some peppermint bark.

The recipe follows.

> Ways to use extra bark, below.

> More peppermint bark and chocolate bark recipes.

> The history of chocolate bark.

> All of the chocolate holidays.
 
 
RECIPE: THREE-COLOR HOLIDAY PEPPERMINT BARK

Hannah made the top of her peppermint bark look like tree bark, by using this wood-grained chocolate bar mold. We didn’t have time to order them, so we piped a bunch of Christmas trees. You can use any decor and any shape, if you want to create something other than rectangles and squares.
 
Ingredients

 
Preparation

1. SET out three candy bar molds that can hold approximately 2 ounces each; set aside.

2. WHISK together in a medium bowl the melted cocoa butter, confectioner’s sugar, and vanilla, mixing thoroughly until completely smooth. Pour about 1/3 of the mixture into the molds, dividing it equally among them.

3. DIVIDE the remaining mixture in half, pouring the other half into a second bowl. Into the first bowl, add the ground candy cane, beet powder, and peppermint extract. Once smooth, pour it into the molds, right on top of the first white layer.

4. WHISK the cocoa into the second bowl, and pour it on top of the white layer, filling the molds. Use a toothpick to gently swirl all three colors together, marbling the layers without completely blending them. Carefully…

5. MOVE the molds into the fridge and let them rest, undisturbed, for 1-2 hours or until set.

6. POP the bark out of the molds, wrap them in plastic, and store in a cool place.
 
 
WAYS TO USE CHOCOLATE BARK

If you don’t want to eat it plain,

 
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*The Toll House Cookie was created by accident in 1924 when Ruth Graves chopped and mixed a chocolate bar into cookie dough, thinking it would melt into a chocolate cookie. Here’s the whole story.

[1] This recipe was made in both rectangular bars and squares, but you can use any chocolate mold you have (photos #1 and #2 © Hannah Kaminsky | Bittersweet Blog).

[2] Large bars (photo #1) make a more impressive gift, but smaller pieces are better for serving.

[3] Enstrom Peppermint Cookie Bark is our favorite, and a great holiday gift for a chocolate lover (photo © Enstrom).

[4] Use some of the bark to garnish ice cream (photo © Williams-Sonoma).

[5] We use Starlight Chocolate Peppermint Candies in our own recipe for peppermint bark (photo © Snackivore Store | Amazon).