How To Become Addicted to Peppermint

Just when I was trying to convince you I don’t JUST bake around here…The third thing Mon and I tackled over last Saturday’s Baking Extravaganza was peppermint bark. 

Now… I’ve done the standard chocolate and crushed peppermint before. And it’s good.  But that’s not what this was.  THIS blows my standard candy out of the water.

Basically, they’re slabs of junk food goodness.  That’s the only way I can think of to explain it. And yes, it’s a slab.  No “cute” or “sexy” way to put it. 

I found the idea by stumbling across this post by Gingerbread Bagels, but did some substituting here and there.  And didn’t really follow the measurements.  Because sometimes I just feel like winging it.

My version had a peppermint theme going on, but I’m positive there would be a way to make an amazing Andes mint remake of it (if you’re so inclined to do so).

I melted the semi-sweet and milk chocolate together.  No problem.If you like peppermint bark REALLY minty (hence the name, right?), I would suggest adding peppermint extract to the chocolate after you melt it. Just a thought.

My issue came when it was time to melt the almond bark.  The original recipe calls for buying separate red and green candy disks to melt.  Did I do this?  No… my thoughts were that I’d just buy the white almond bark and dye it.  Cheaper and just as easy, right?

Um.  No.

Once that dye hit the almond bark, it became this really weird, almost paste-like, concoction. Trying to heat it more did absolutely nothing.  I had to throw it out. Can someone explain this to me?  Chemistry was not my strongest subject.

On to Plan B.

The bark itself just wouldn’t be as “festive”.  I think we were close to hour 3 or 4 at that point and a break to run to Michael’s was not happening.  Plus, we were drinking and it was sleeting outside. And a pizza was on it’s way.  Priorities, people!But after plenty of swirling with a knife, it still looked oh so pretty.On to the toppings…When was the last time I bought Oreos?  I don’t remember.  I’m not one to buy packaged cookies (because I prefer to bake instead).  But in case you’re wondering, the peppermint Oreos?  Deadly…

That goes for pretzel M&M’s and peppermint Hershey kisses, too. I’m wasn’t overly sad there’s still about half of each bag leftover. They’ve been coming in handy this week. 

Like I said, I’m sure you could buy as much christmas-y candy you’d like and really load up on this thing.  But I kept it simple…This is where the large knife came in…After it cooled in the refrigerator, I was trying to figure out how to best break it up without smashing all the stuff on top. 

Clearly Mon took care of it.

This was her favorite out of all the things I made.  And she even replicated it on her own a couple days ago.

Since Mon doesn’t spend time in the kitchen, you know it’s easy.Well.  Not THAT easy.  Melting things can be hard…

I say that kind of seriously.  I’ve burned my share of chocolate. And other food.  And skin.  Now that I think of it, I have no idea why I’m allowed extreme heat or open flame.

Speaking of that half bag of M&M’s… I’d be lying if I didn’t say they were a good chunk of my dinner last night after a 20-minute walk on the treadmill because I wasn’t feeling very energetic.

What?  Sometimes Hump Days are just rough. 

I still got a round of resistance bands in yesterday morning and The Shred this morning.

We’ll call it even.

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