A quick, easy, irresistibly delicious treat that makes a wonderful holiday gift.
Two of my favorite things about the holiday season: holiday parties and gift giving.
As you may have read in my almond butter chocolate chip cookie post, love to decorate for the holidays. Our apartment is a full out Christmas wonderland: the mantel is decorated with lights, ornaments, and greenery, the tree is up, sparling from the gold, glittery ornaments and lights, and there is other whimsical Christmas décor in every room in our apartment. I love the warm, magical feel of our apartment this time of year, especially at night when its dark outside, but our apartment is still aglow from all of the Christmas lights.
This is the perfect time of year to have guests over to our apartment to share our holiday cheer. I also love throwing parties (a skill/passion I learned from my mama). So last weekend, I invited over my my sister-in-law and her boyfriend, and my other brother and sister-in-law (and my adorable 4-month nephew) for a family holiday cocktail party.
I decided to do an app spread that included my roasted red pepper and sundried tomato hummus, roast beef and fig crostini’s (recipe coming soon), and sweet potato round with ricotta, walnuts, cranberries, and honey (recipe also coming soon). I also had a signature cocktail for the girls and plenty of beer and whiskey for the boys. Luckily, the apartment was already decorated, so I only need to pick up festive plates and napkins and pick out cute serving platters from my collection to prepare for the party.
The last touch to make the holiday party complete was creating a cute, meaningful party favor. I love surprising my guests with a thoughtful little gift to thank them for coming over. This is the season for giving. I also believe food is the way to anyone’s heart, so my party favors usually include something edible. I decided to make chocolate peppermint bark – my favorite treat during the holidays. Bark is a delicious but easy to make snack, which was necessary as I already had a lot of work to do with the appetizers. Best part: this treat only needs 3 ingredients to make two different kinds of bark: dark chocolate peppermint bark AND milk chocolate peppermint bark.
Let’s get to cooking.
The 3 ingredients needed to make this treat are dark chocolate chips, ghirardelli peppermint chunks (which I found at target; if you cannot find this, you can use white chocolate chunks), and crushed candy canes.
First, let’s make the dark chocolate bark. In a microwave safe bowl, add two cups of dark chocolate chips. Set your microwave to 50% power. If you use full power, you will overcook the chocolate. Melt your chocolate in 30 second increments, stirring in between each blast, until the chocolate is fully melted. It will take about 2-3 minutes. I melt my chocolate in the microwave instead of using a double boiler because the microwave is an easier, less messy way to do it. Once the chocolate is fully melted, use an offset spatula to spread the chocolate in a thin layer on a cookie sheet covered with a silapat mat (if you do not have a mat, use parchment paper or cooking spray). Sprinkle the white chocolate peppermint chunks (which is cut into smaller pieces) and the crushed candy canes. Put in the refrigerator for an hour to set. Once the chocolate is hardened, take out of the refrigerator, carefully remove from the cookie sheet, and break into different size chunks.
For the milk chocolate bark, add 1 cup dark chocolate and 1 cup white chocolate peppermint chunks to a microwave safe bowl. Follow the exact same process as the dark chocolate bark. The only difference is I only sprinkled crushed candy canes on the top of this bark since the white chocolate chunks were already in the bark itself. The milk chocolate bark will bee lighter in color than the dark chocolate bark (so you can tell the difference between the flavors).
It is perfectly acceptable to eat the bark yourself. It is delicious. No judgment here!
If you are going to give the bark as a gift, I would recommend packaging it in cute Christmas bags so it is pretty and festive to give to your friends/family. I found a lot of great options for Christmas treat bags at Target. I choose the red and white snowflake bags because it matched the red and white candy cane chunks in the bark. For the finishing touch, I tried the bags shut with ribbon and curled them with the blade of a pair of scissors (a typical wrapping technique).
Voila. You’re done! Now you have a pretty, delicious, a memorable gift to give to your family and friends this holiday season.
Trust me. This is a gift people will want. The bark is chocolatey and crunchy, has the perfect amount of peppermint flavor, and literally melts in your mouth as you eat it. Your guests will think you spent tons of time in the kitchen creating this masterpiece.
I was thrilled to share this gift with our family at the end of our holiday party. It is the perfect little surprise to end the night. A sweet way to show your loved ones you care.
I hope you and your friends/family enjoy it as well!
3 Ingredient Chocolate Peppermint Bark
A quick, easy, irresistibly delicious treat that makes a wonderful holiday gift.
Ingredients
- 3 cups Dark Chocolate Chips
- 1 1/2 cup White Chocolate Peppermint Chunks Ghirrarrdelli
- 4 Candy Canes crushed
Instructions
Dark Chocolate Peppermint Bark
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Melt 2 cups of the dark chocolate chips in a microwave safe bowl in increments of 30 seconds, 50% powder, stirring after every 30 second interval, until chocolate is completely melted and smooth.
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Spread the chocolate out flat on a greased cookie sheet with an offset spatula or knife to make a even, thin layer.
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Sprinkle crushed candy canes and 1/2 cup of the White Chocolate Peppermint Chunks on top of the melted chocolate layer.
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Refrigerate for an hour.
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Remove from refrigerator and carefully remove chocolate bark from the cookie sheet. Break the large chocolate piece into smaller chunks.
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Serve and enjoy!
Milk Chocolate Peppermint Bark
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Melt 1 cup dark chocolate chips and 1 cup white chocolate peppermint chunks in a microwave safe bowl in increments of 30 seconds, 50% powder, stirring after every 30 second interval, until chocolate is completely melted and smooth.
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Spread the chocolate out flat on a greased cookie sheet with an offset spatula or knife to make a even, thin layer.
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Sprinkle crushed candy canes on top of the melted chocolate layer.
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Refrigerate for an hour.
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Remove from refrigerator and carefully remove chocolate bark from the cookie sheet. Break the large chocolate piece into smaller chunks.
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Serve and enjoy!
Recipe Notes
If making this for a gift, I recommend placing a few pieces of both the dark and milk chocolate peppermint bark in a festive holiday gift bag (I purchased mine at Target) and sealing with pretty ribbon. Your gift recipient will be impressed by both the wrapping of and taste of the gift!
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