Weekend Treat
Festive Foods: Peppermint Bark and More
Guest food writer Amanda Mahnke shares Patch readers with thoughtful and tasteful gift-giving ideas.
Peppermint bark and chocolate bark are favorite treats for many at this time of year. Making "bark" is simple, quick, and something that can easily be personalized for the tastes of each person on your list. Essentially, bark consists of chocolate chips or discs that are melted, then spread thin on a baking sheet lined with wax paper. To the melted chocolate, you add whatever mix-ins you want—crushed candy canes, nuts, pretzels, cookie pieces, cranberries— and then freeze the chocolate until hard, at which point it is broken into chunks or cut into pieces. Since chocolate bark is easy to make in small batches, it is easily adapted for the tastes of those to whom you're giving it. If your neighbor loves peanut butter, try mixing in peanut …
