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Homemade Peppermint Bark

Posted on December 22, 2011 | 1 Comment

At Christmas I love homemade goodies! And they make such a wonderful and thoughtful gift as well.

Chocolate and Vanilla Peppermint Bark

I thought that I would share a very simple and fun recipe to make peppermint bark. This is a general recipe that can be adjusted so that you can make as much or little of as you would like. All you need is the following:

vanilla and/or chocolate bark

mint extract

peppermint candy (you can use candy canes, such as I did, or the mint candies)

microwave proof bowl

spatula for stirring and scraping

Place your candy bark into your microwavable bowl. Microwave the bark on high for about 30 seconds. Remove the bowl and stir. Keep repeating this until all of the candy bark is melted. Next, add the mint extract, just a couple of drops at a time, stir it in. Depending upon how much bark you are making at a time, and how strong you want the candy to be you may use more or less. Remember that you will be adding crushed candy in as well, so you may want to make the strength a little less than what you want it to be when it is done.

After you have reached the desired flavoring, crush your candy (I place my candy in a plastic ziploc style bag to do this). Mix some of the crushed candy into the bark until you have as much as you need to make sure it is distributed throughout the mixture. Make sure thatyou save some of the crushed candy for the topping.

Place some wax paper on a cookie sheet and spread the candy bark mixture evenly on top. I usually spread it to about 1/4″ in thickness. Then sprinkle the remaining crushed candy on the top, making sure you have some pieces of candy that are a little larger. It just makes it look a little more festive! Let the candy sit until it hardens. Then break it into pieces. You can store it in a plastic bag, or wrap it up in plastic wrap until you are ready to eat (or give it away!).

Vanilla Peppermint Bark

Chocolate Peppermint Bark

Now you have a festive treat to use for your holiday gatherings or to package up and give for a gift!

Thanks for coming by!

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Posted in Christmas, Food, Frugality, Gifts, Holidays, Homemade

Tagged candy, Christmas candy, food gifts, peppermint bark

Candied Lemon Peel

Posted on March 25, 2009 | 2 Comments

Hard Candied Lemon Peel

This is the first time that I have made candied lemon peel, and I have to say it was quite fun! You can make this confection as something that is soft and chewier, or hard, depending to what stage you cook it to. I made mine hard, I just wanted to see how it would come out. It tastes great! Here is the recipe:

6 lemons (approx.)

1 ½ c sugar

1 ½ c water

6 tbsp. light corn syrup

Granulated or extra-fine sugar (used to coat the candied peel)

Remove the peel

Step 1: With a sharp knife, score the skin of the lemon into quarters, then peel it off with your fingers. Keep the white pith attached to it.

Step 2: Lay each quarter of the skin on a cutting board and with a heavy knife, cut on the bias, in uniform strips about 1/8 to ¼ “ wide. You should end up with 3 cups of strips.

Lemon peel slices

Step 3: Place the peel in a saucepan and cover with a generous amount of water. Bring to a boil, cook for 1 minute then remove and drain. Do this step 2 more times. After the 3^rd time, replace the peel in the saucepan and cover once again with fresh water. Bring to a boil and cook for 20 minutes. Then drain and set aside.

Boil the peel

Step 4: Next make the syrup: combine the sugar, water and corn syrup in the saucepan. Boil for about 2 minutes. Add the lemon peel. Simmer briskly, stirring occasionally until the syrup is considerable reduced, then watch constantly.

Syrup

Step 5: Now decide on whether you want the candied peel tender – cook down until there is about 2 – 3 tbsp of syrup left. For medium-firm – leave only a spoonful of syrup before removing, and candy-like peel – cook until the syrup is on the point of hardening (or hardball stage) Note: When it is close to hardball it starts cooking up quickly. Watch it closely so that there won’t be any scorching.

Boil Peel in Syrup

Step 6: Take a fork and arrange the candied peel on a bed of sugar on a jelly-roll pan. If you’ve cooked it to hardball stage, this is a little difficult. I had to spread it little by little, and let it cool some. I then pulled pieces apart with my fingers, they worked better than the fork. But be careful, it can be hot!

Step 7: Keep tossing it in the sugar until cooled. If you did the soft peel, place them on cake racks and leave them to dry. I was able to place the hard candied peel into a jar fairly quickly.