Christmas Recipes: Peppermint Bark & Candy Molds

Another belated Christmas project. There was an evening before Christmas when I was completely done in; I'd had it with Christmas and all the demands of the season and the loss of sleep and the similar loss of time to do anything I wanted to do, so right then, even though my husband was sleeping and the baby was crying, all I wanted to do was assemble bags of peppermint bark and candy mold treats to give away and not take care of anything or anyone else because somehow the peppermint bark would take care of me me me me me me me me meeeeee so too bad, family! IF I DON'T DO THIS, CHRISTMAS WON'T EXIST. 

 That's the trouble with traditions.

I admit that eating at least half a cookie sheet's worth of peppermint bark over the course of just a few days did help, but it did not dissolve the unnecessarily sky-high levels of stress that entered our home in preparation for Christmas. In fact, it contributed as I tried to both lengthen our list of family traditions and execute all of them with extravagance.

Merry Christmas. Here's my recipe. Use with caution because I'd actually never done this before and made it up, so you're probably better off looking up a real recipe somewhere else.

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PEPPERMINT BARK RECIPE

woof woof

Ingredients
Vanilla candy melts
Dark or milk chocolate candy melts (or both)
Crushed peppermint candy or candy canes (I bought those huge ones from the dollar store and smashed them with a hammer)

Directions
Melt the chocolate candy melts according to instructions. Pour and spread a thin layer (1/8"?) evenly on a cookie sheet or pan lined with foil or parchment paper.

Before it sets, pour on the layer of vanilla [somehow] evenly over that. (Note: This is where I went wrong; I let the chocolate set before pouring on the vanilla so when it all cooled and I went to break it in pieces, the chocolate layer broke off and separated from the vanilla layer.)

Before the vanilla sets, sprinkle the peppermint over the top with a spoon or your fingers or a sprinkling contraption.

Let cool completely. Setting the chocolate in the fridge or outside in the cold works really well, and really quickly. Then break or cut the bark into pieces with a large, sharp, potentially lethal knife.