Minty Perfection: Peppermint Bark

Noel and I looked at each other in dismay today when we realized that we were down to our last two pieces of peppermint bark. See, I had decided that the 591 cookies were not enough, because I wanted to keep at least a few for ourselves (um, and by a few I mean about 75) and I had so many people I wanted to give food gifts to this year, that 500 or so for giving away just wasn't going to cut it. So after a few days of recuperation from the cookie insanity, I decided to tackle some more recipes; most notably this recipe for peppermint bark.

I feel that calling the bark a success is probably justified, because it tastes AMAZING. It's mostly soft, but a little bit crunchy, and it's cold and minty and chocolatey and delicious! I gave most of it away layered in between sheets of wax paper in cute little red and green buckets, and it was kind of ridiculously adorable. Noel and I rationed the few squares left for us sparingly, but sadly they didn't last as long as we wanted them to.

However, it was a pain to make. Now that I know how much time is involved, I'd probably still give these another shot because they're so devourable, but I will admit that I was quite grumpy at them the afternoon I was trying to make them. I followed the recipe exactly, but my first batch came out really soft, and all the layers smeared together as I was trying to spread one atop the other. So with the second batch I allowed twice as much cooling time for each step, and it worked a lot better, resulting in the photogenic version that you see in these pictures, but also resulting in me being in the kitchen for several hours.

All in all, I'd recommend making them, especially if you're a peppermint-chocolate lover, but just be prepared to spend almost double the time that her recipe suggests. Oh, and I highly recommend putting all the unwrapped candies in a large, thick ziploc bag, and letting your husband smash them with a hammer. It's a lot faster than trying to crush them with a can or jar as suggested, and plus it made my husband happy to be allowed to smash things.