Layered Peppermint Crunch Bark

Whoa.  The Christmas train is fast approaching the station and I'm hanging onto my hat as the winds blast by.  The stockings are hung, the tree is aglow, the advent calendar is started and I've made my inaugural batch of Chocolate-Gingerbread Cookies, things are officially on countdown.  One of my favourite things about Christmas is the total unabashed enthusiasm for the kitchen I feel at this time.  Every gift I give is another excuse to spend time in my kitchen, and loading the oven up with cookies makes you normal, not crazy at this time of year.  So while my recipe binder spits out recipes like receipts on boxing day, I'm just (very happily) baking to keep up with demand.

Week ten in the Christmas cookie series brings us this layered peppermint crunch bark.  Now, I knew I'd like this recipe, it's chocolate bark for pity's sake, but I had no idea how over the moon I'd be.  From my first sample to the subsequent ten bites I shoved in my mouth, I just couldn't stop!  This isn't your ordinary chocolate bark, that is for sure.  A base white chocolate layer is sprinkled with finely crushed peppermint candies (candy canes!) and then topped with a soft semi-sweet chocolate layer.  After it cools the final layer of crunchy white chocolate and crushed candies are added and the whole bar chills until hardened.  When you take a bite there is crunch, a soft crunch from the white chocolate and a hard crunch from the candy.  But it's the smooth chocolate layer that oozes in between it all that sets this bar at a gold level.  I promise you won't get away with just one bite, you'll be in love just like the 157 other people who reviewed the recipe.

Baking notes:
-I made a half batch, 17 oz of white chocolate costs a lot $$$! (like $8 for me)
-I used 6 candy canes to make 3 oz and bashed them around.  I don't like large chunks of candy canes, so I broke mine down a lot.

The recipe for Layered Peppermint Crunch Bark can be found on the epicurious website.

51/569