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peppermint bark
Pretty peppermint bark makes a sweet, swirly treat–and a tasty gift!
Gather Cooking Equipment
- Dry measuring cups
- Aluminum foil
- 13-by-9-inch metal baking pan
- Large zipper-lock plastic bag
- Rolling pin
- 2 medium microwave-safe bowls
- Oven mitts
- Rubber spatula
- Plastic wrap
- Cutting board
- Chef's knife
Prepare Ingredients
SMASH: Place candy canes in zipper-lock plastic bag. Seal bag, making sure to press out all air. Use rolling pin to gently pound candy into small pieces (you should have ½ cup pieces).
MELT: In bowl, heat semisweet chips in microwave at 50 percent power until mostly melted, 2 to 3 minutes. Stir until smooth. In second bowl, repeat with white chips.
LAYER CHOCOLATE: Use rubber spatula to scrape melted semisweet chocolate into foil-lined baking pan and smooth top (make sure to get all the way to corners of pan). Pour melted white chocolate over top.
SWIRL: Drag tip of clean rubber spatula through chocolate to create swirls. Make sure not to swirl too much!
Food for Thought
Fun Fact: How Did Candy Canes Get Their Shape?
People enjoy lots of different treats for Christmas, but one of the most popular is the candy cane. Candy canes used to be just straight sticks of candy. But when people started using them to decorate their Christmas trees, some say that the J shape was introduced to make them easier to hook onto branches. At first the candy canes were bent by hand, which led to many of them breaking. In 1919 the Keller Machine was invented—it automatically bent the straight candy sticks around a wheel into a cane shape.
