White Chocolate Peppermint Bark

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas... Yes it's that time of year, well if you ask Rory it's not that time of year until Christmas Eve, however he is a bit of a scrooge and I figure if everyone else is getting excited about Christmas then why can't I? We have Christmas concerts, bonfire/fireworks night tomorrow at work so I'm getting that festive vibe and our plan for after work is to get together for an early celebration, so I figured it was time to pull out the first of the Christmas recipes. 

If this doesn't make you think Christmas, nothing will!

My original intention with this recipe was to go all white chocolate but after a bit of hunting on the web I discovered the "top deck" version so I decided to go with that instead. 

Adding in the candy cane crumbs

Melty, chocolatey, minty, crunchy goodness

Adding the white chocolate layer

Sprinkling the candy cane chunks

Cutting...

Top Deck Christmas Bark

Serves: 30
Prep Time: 2 mins Cook Time: 10 mins (plus time for the chocolate to set)
500g milk chocolate
500g white chocolate
10 candy canes
Mint essence

1. Line a baking try with wax paper. Smash all the candy canes I used a meat tenderiser for this and it did the job quickly and perfectly then separate the larger chunks from the smaller crumbs
2. Place milk chocolate in a saucepan and melt over low heat. I know my mother is cringing when she reads this, knowing I've gone against everything she ever taught me about melting chocolate and using a double boiler but a) I don't have one and b) this worked just fine, I made sure that I stirred constantly just in case...
3. Add a couple of drops of mint essence I wouldn't have done this if I had real candy canes, but unfortunately they don't have those here and instead I had things that looked like candy canes, thanks to some brilliant hunting and gathering by Rory. So to ensure it has the right taste to go with the look, I added it in.
4. Stir the finer candy cane crumbs (reserve 1/4 to sprinkle on top) into the chocolate then pour into the baking tray. Place in the fridge to set.
5. Melt the white chocolate.
6. Pour over the top of the set milk chocolate and then sprinkle the larger candy cane crumbs on top. Lightly press down on the candy cane coating to ensure they'll set into the chocolate.
7. Place in fridge. When set use a hot knife and cut into pieces.

On reflection I would have used a bigger baking tin to create thinner layers but I really wasn't sure if I had enough chocolate to cover that surface area. Oh well next time!
This was possibly the easiest recipe ever, the challenge came in the cutting, I've never been great at cutting chocolate and as Rory volunteered to do the honours I left him to it. (It also means I can blame him for the less than perfect edges :) )