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I made this a while back but wasn’t going to post it, thinking it was likely something everyone did and y’all might think I was crazy for actually doing a tutorial on it! Yesterday though, I went to my son’s school and sat with his class while the teacher’s had a gathering. I took a bag of this peppermint bark to bribe them with (I am a firm believer in substitute teachers bribing their class) and their reaction caused me to rethink my post. I actually had third graders trying to buy the remainder off of me!

This is another good one to make with your kids because they get to do the fun part : Crushing the candy canes!

You’ll need: White almond bark, candy canes, red paste food coloring, and peppermint oil.

Peppermint oil is sometimes difficult to find. You do not HAVE to have it for this recipe so don’t fret over it if you can’t find it. Likewise with the paste food coloring. Don’t use regular liquid food coloring because that will mess up your chocolate (okay so its fake chocolate but still – just don’t use liquid food coloring). The food coloring I am using is made by Wilton and can be found at any arts and crafts store as well as most Wal Marts – in the craft department. If you can’t find the paste coloring though, just omit that too and you’ll be fine. The candy canes will give it enough color so don’t sweat it.

There are important things to worry about, lets conserve our energy for those.

Line a baking sheet with waxed paper. I am using two bricks of almond bark and a 13×15 inch pan here.

Unwrap a mess of candy canes. “Mess” is a term referring to a quantity of items which you might not find outside of the southeastern united states. “We had us a whole mess of greens!” “She made a big old mess of cookies for the party!”.

In this case, I would estimate a “mess” to be somewhat equivalent to ten or so…but it is up to you.

Place them in a bag and hand the bag to a kid. Give the kid a blunt object which they are not very likely to kill themselves with. My son’s weapon of choice varies. For this particular exercise, he chose a soup can.

Stop them in between “finely crushed” and “clouds of peppermint powder descending upon the entire house”.

Place one package of almond bark in a microwave safe bowl. Get a spoon or spatula handy. Make sure everything that touches your chocolate is dry, no water droplets on anything at all.

Now you can melt this in a double broiler but that seems an awful lot like work to me so we’re gonna use the microwave. Put this on about 45 seconds and then stir.

Repeat, stirring every forty five seconds, until it is melted and smooth.

Don’t cook for more than 45 seconds at a time. We just want it melted and it can actually burn.

Smooth and creamy!

Now I add just a bit of peppermint oil. Normally you would add anywhere from one to two drops. I just put a few drops in a cap and poured it in. Be very sparing with this stuff because it is extremely strong.

Put a dab or two behind your ears and I bet reindeer come a running!

Now add a bit of food coloring. I held on to all of my kid’s baby spoons and I use them all the time for things like this! There are two ways of doing this, I am going to show you both in this tutorial. You use whichever you prefer.

Stir that up just a wee bit, not too much because you want a swirl here, rather than pink.

Spread into prepared pan (on top of waxed paper)

Have kidders sprinkle crushed candy canes over top.

Now we’re going to melt our second batch of chocolate and pour that over the first layer.

This time I took out a cup of chocolate and dyed it really good on its own.

Then I dolloped it onto the top layer.

and gave it a good swirl with a butter knife.

then let the kidders finish it off by sprinkling the rest of the crushed candy canes over the top and let cool!

Let it cool until hardened and then break into bite sized pieces. Enjoy!

Peppermint Bark

2 Packages Almond Bark (white candy coating)

1-2 drops peppermint oil (can be omitted)

1 box standard sized candy canes

Place almond bark in large mixing bowl and microwave for 45 seconds, stir. Repeat until completely melted. Add peppermint oil. Pour onto waxed paper lined baking sheet or countertop and spread out until approximately ¼ inch thick. Place candy canes in zipper seal bag and let kids crush them. Sprinkle over top and allow to cool. Break into small pieces and store in airtight container or place in gift bags.

And here is a Merry Christmas from Brady’s third grade class. My two are in the bottom right corner. It was pajama day at school.

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