Chocolate Bark With Candy Cane – Turn your candy cane into beautiful yummy chocolate treats that are perfect for Christmas gifting!
In my recent CHOCOLATE HAZELNUT BROWNIES post, I wrote:
‘Homemade edible gifts are the best because it’s always so delicious as it’s coming from the heart. It also tastes great because the person who made it loved it and is confident you’ll most probably feel the same way too.’
The above is so true as this Chocolate Bark With Candy Cane recipe was inspired by a gift I received from a colleague. It was a small and simple gift but I absolutely loved it.
My colleague made it with dark chocolate and crushed candy canes. At the time, I was so impressed with how he made use of the candy canes. He crushed the candy canes and used it as a topping on the chocolate. I thought it was very clever, creative and ultra delicious!
My chocolate bark version has more toppings as I am a greedy guts. I used milk chocolate as the base, white chocolate for the drizzle and I added more candies! There are spearmint leaves lollies to give the bark chewiness and it looks great, very Christmassy. I also threw in clinkers because they are my favourite retro candies.
That’s the great thing about chocolate barks, you can pretty much throw in as many or little toppings you want. Choose from your favourite candies, nuts to rose petals, either way, your chocolate bark is guaranteed to look beautiful and taste wonderful.
If you have young children they’ll love making this with you. Their excitement will bring you so much joy and fill your heart with much warmth. So, it’s best to make a double batch, one batch for gifts and one for your household.
Chocolate bark brings me fond memories
It was December, a few years back and just a couple days away from Christmas. At this time I was working for a financial company. I was in my boxed office desk in the middle of reading a letter from a furious customer.
Her credit card got declined when she tried to pay for her Christmas shopping at David Jones. Apparently, it was our fault we tarnished her reputation and ruined her Christmas. and as a result, she demanded all her Christmas shopping for that year should be reimbursed.
‘Hell, she’s giving us too much credit!’, my colleague mumbled after he read her letter. We were interrupted when bags of nicely wrapped chocolate fell onto our tables. A guy in our team gifted all our team members homemade chocolate bark, he even gave one to a lady he absolutely hated.
At first glance, I thought it looked pretty but didn’t think twice about it. I actually thought it was store-bought until I munched on it. That’s when I paid more attention to his edible gift, I knew I loved it when I couldn’t stop eating the chocolate bark and finished it all once.
He used dark chocolate and crushed candy canes. I adored it, as chocolate and mint are one of my favourite combinations. His use of leftover candy canes was so creative, it made the bark look beautiful. It also added peppermint toffee-like flavour to the chocolate. So yum and so totally addictive!
His Christmas chocolate bark inspired me to create my own version with my favourite classic candies.
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Ingredients for Chocolate Bark With Candy Cane
For the chocolate base and the drizzle you can swap and choose whichever chocolate you prefer; milk, dark or white but do not use cooking (baking) chocolate as it won’t taste as nice.
Milk Chocolate (base) – Select your favourite ‘eating’ chocolate to use as a base. I used Cadbury milk chocolate as that’s one of our family favourites.
White Chocolate (optional drizzle) – I used white chocolate for drizzling. If you prefer to use only one type of chocolate just add more of this chocolate in lieu of the drizzle amount. So for example, if you wish to use only milk chocolate you’ll need 260gms of milk chocolate instead of 200gms and none for the drizzle.
Candy canes – I roughly broke up my candy canes and pulsed it in a food processor. You can also put the candy canes in a snap bag, wrap it up in a tea towel and smash them up using a rolling pin.
Spearmint leaves lollies (topping) – These are soft chewy gummy lollies shaped and coloured to look like leaves. They are covered in sugar and have a subtle minty flavour. The topping is optional and can be swapped for your favourite candies.
Pascall Clinkers (topping) – These are pink, yellow and green hard crispy ‘chalky like’ candies coated in chocolate. Each colour has a different flavour. The topping is optional and can be swapped for your favourite candies.
How to make Chocolate Bark With Candy Cane
STEP BY STEP GUIDE WITH PHOTOS
Prepare the candy toppings
Roughly break the candy canes into smaller pieces. Use a food processor and pulse it into crumbs. Carefully using a knife slice the clinkers thinly and halve the spearmint leaves lengthways.
Melt the chocolate
Line a flat baking tray with non-stick baking paper.
You’ll need metal spoons and microwave-safe bowls to melt the chocolate. Make sure no water is on the spoon or in the bowl, as a small amount of moisture may seize up the chocolate.
Place the chopped milk chocolates in a bowl and zap it in the microwave for 40 seconds intervals. At each interval stir the chocolate with the metal spoon and repeat until the chocolate has completely melted. Do the same for the white chocolate in a separate bowl (if using).
Spread the melted chocolate
Immediately pour the melted milk chocolate on to the lined baking tray. Tilt the tray in all angles to spread the chocolate thinly and evenly. Using a spoon drizzle the white chocolate on top (if using).
Add the candy toppings
Working fast lightly press the spearmint leaves, clinkers into the chocolate and sprinkle the crushed candy cane. Chill in the fridge for 3 hours or until chocolate completely hardens.
Break up the chocolate bark
Carefully lift up the chocolate bark and peel the baking paper off. Roughly break up the chocolate into shards.
Tips and other info
Gifting – The chocolate bark looks beautiful in a clear cellophane bag tied with a Christmas ribbon. Keep them in the fridge until ready to gift as they may melt in hot weather as the chocolate has not been tempered.
Storage – The bark will keep for a few weeks stored in the fridge in a covered container.
Whilst your here why not check out my other Christmas recipes Smoked Salmon Bruschetta, CHOCOLATE HAZELNUT BROWNIES, Prawn Halloumi Watermelon Salad and GINGER BANANA BREAD
Cooking measurements are in Australian standard spoon and cup measurements.
A Third-Party Application calculated the calories and nutritional information. Please use this as an approximate guide only.
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Cheers (I’ll drink to that) – Cat Tre
Chocolate Bark With Candy Cane
Ingredients
- 200 gm milk chocolate (chopped roughly) (NOTE 1)
- 60 gm white chocolate (chopped roughly) (NOTE 2)
- e40 gm candy cane (crushed) (NOTE 3)
- 50 gm spearmint leaves lollies (sliced lenghtways) (NOTE 4)
- 40 gm Pascall clinkers (sliced thinly) (NOTE 5)
Instructions
- Roughly break the candy canes into smaller pieces. Use a food processor and pulse it into crumbs. Carefully using a knife slice the clinkers thinly and halve the spearmint leaves lengthways.
- Line a flat baking tray with non-stick baking paper. Place the chopped milk chocolates in a bowl and zap it in the microwave for 40 seconds intervals. At each interval stir the chocolate with the metal spoon and repeat until the chocolate has completely melted. Do the same for the white chocolate in a separate bowl (if using).
- Immediately pour the melted milk chocolate on to the lined baking tray. Tilt the tray in all angles to spread the chocolate thinly and evenly. Using a spoon drizzle the white chocolate on top (if using).
- Working fast lightly press the spearmint leaves, clinkers into the chocolate and sprinkle the crushed candy cane. Chill in the fridge for 3 hours or until chocolate completely hardens.
- Carefully lift up the chocolate bark and peel the baking paper off. Roughly break up the chocolate into shards.
