Candy Cane Bark

I have become quite the fan of unique chocolate barks, so I'm always looking for new ones to try out. Since it is the holiday season, I decided to mess around with mint and candy canes and ended up with quite a tasty bark!

Ingredients:

• 12oz White Chocolate
• 1 tsp Mint flavoring: I used Mint Extract, but you could also use Peppermint Extract. Also, because extracts are water based, it will mess up the consistency of your chocolate. Since I was just spreading mine, I didn't care and everything worked fine, but if you want to keep your chocolate smooth, you can use a peppermint oil flavoring instead. those are stronger, so use less
• 8 Candy Canes: feel free to use less if you want
• Optional: you can sprinkle more melted white chocolate on top

Supplies:

• Silpat Mat or wax paper
• Baking Pan - nice for putting your Silpat mat on while bark is hardening
• Zip Lock
• Something to smash candy canes with, I started with a rolling pin but that didn't work great, so I ended up using the side of a tiny cast iron pan

These guys are pretty darn tough. I put mine in a zip lock back (4 at a time) and ended up smashing them with the edge of a small cast iron pan. Be careful what you use to smash them and where you smash them. When I started with the rolling pin on this wooden board, both were being dented by the cane pieces. Don't damage anything you have an attachment to to smash them up.

Keep in mind if you like to chew on candy canes when smashing them. If you don't really like to, smash them smaller and go for more candy cane dust. I think some bigger chunks look nicer, but it isn't nicer if you don't like eating it.

This is pretty simple. Start by melting all of your white chocolate in your preferred method. I used the microwave at half power and just kept taking it out to stir it every minute or half minute depending on how it was doing.

Once melted, add in your extract. This will wreak the consistency of the chocolate, but it doesn't matter.

Spread chocolate in a nice coat on your baking mat. Do not feel like you have to go edge to edge. The important thing is to make sure it is the thickness you want. If you want thicker or bigger than what you see here, you'll need more than 12 ounces.

Now sprinkle on your candy cane pieces. After it looks the way you want it, carefully pat down those pieces as they will come off pretty easily if they aren't pushed into the chocolate.

Let it harden. My house is cold this time of year, so I just left it out, but you can also put it in the fridge to harden it faster.

Once it is all harden, break or cut it into pieces and enjoy!