Peppermint Bark Recipe

Three cups of semi-sweet chocolate chips, two and a half cups of white chocolate chips, a quarter teaspoon of peppermint extract and about twenty mini candy canes crushed.

None of these amounts are precise. You are covering a sheet pan in two layers, so a bit more or less of either chocolate changes the thickness and nothing else. The extract is the one to be careful with.

Semi-sweet chips into a microwave-safe bowl. Heat in 30 second bursts, stirring after every one, until it is smooth.

The stirring between bursts is not optional. Chocolate holds its shape long after it has melted inside, so a bowl that looks solid can already be liquid underneath. Keep microwaving on looks alone and you will scorch it.

Line a sheet pan with parchment paper or a silicone mat, then pour the melted chocolate down the middle of it.

The lining is what makes this recipe work. Chocolate poured straight onto metal welds itself there and you will be chiselling. On parchment the whole slab lifts off in one piece.

Push the chocolate out toward the edges with a spatula. An offset spatula is easier here than a flat one because the handle stays up out of the chocolate.

Aim for around a quarter inch. Thin bark snaps cleanly. Thick bark is a workout to break and awkward to eat.

Nudge the edges into something close to a rectangle rather than leaving the natural blob shape.

This matters more than it sounds. The white layer goes on top of this one, and lining a second pour up against a straight edge is easy where matching a wavy one is not.

Now refrigerate 15 to 20 minutes, or 5 to 10 in the freezer.

Start this when the first layer has a few minutes of chilling left.

Same method, shorter bursts. White chocolate has more milk solids and sugar and less cocoa butter, which makes it seize and turn grainy at a lower temperature than dark. Go 25 to 30 seconds at a time and stir more often than feels necessary.

A quarter teaspoon of peppermint extract into the melted white chocolate, stirred through until it is evenly distributed.

Start at a quarter teaspoon even if you love peppermint. Extract is concentrated and there is already crushed candy cane going on top, so the mint arrives twice. Too much reads as toothpaste and there is no undoing it.

Pull the pan from the fridge. The chocolate should have gone from glossy to matte and feel firm and cold when you press it.

Cold matters here, not just set. A properly chilled base is what stops the two layers blending when the warm white chocolate lands on it.

Pour the melted white chocolate over the chilled dark layer, working down the middle and letting it spread outward under its own weight.

Scrape the bowl properly. What is left clinging to the sides is the difference between covering the whole slab and running out two inches from the end.

Work the white chocolate out to meet the edges of the dark layer with the offset spatula, using light strokes.

Press hard and you will scrape through into the layer underneath and pull dark streaks up into the white. Stay light and let the spatula skate.

Sprinkle the crushed candy cane across the white chocolate while it is still wet.

Timing is the whole trick. The white chocolate is the glue, so the pieces have to land before it sets. Wait too long and they will sit on the surface and fall off the moment someone picks up a piece.

Press them in gently with your palm, then chill 45 to 60 minutes in the fridge or 30 to 45 in the freezer.

Once it is hard, lift the whole slab out by the parchment and set it on the counter. Start the first break with the tip of a knife, then use your hands.

The first crack is the hard one. After that it splits along the lines it wants to, and the irregular shards are the point of bark. Nobody wants it cut into squares.