Can you think of a better way to use up extra or broken candy than making a bark?

In the process of making my gingerbread showcase submission, as some of you may have read, I had a mishap. I had built what was going to be an arbutus tree with candy canes, as I was finishing it off I broke the poor thing and caused myself a mini melt down with it.


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Check out the how I built it and the rest HERE.

There was a lot of work in that tree as well as a lot of material, especially after I broke the second one. So I put all the pieces off to the side in a bowl, while it couldn’t be used to make another tree I figured it could become something else.

I decided to do what you do with broken candy canes, turn them into peppermint bark … but not exactly. I had made my tree from a combo of regular candy canes and cherry candy canes for no other reason than I felt like it. When sampling the tree trimmings I was surprised to note that they actually tasted great together, especially with the chocolate involved.


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Barks of any kind are super easy to make and really can be made of whatever you can dream up. The addition of the cherry makes it not a standard peppermint bark so it needs a new name to honor my fallen tree in its new life, I call this Arbutus bark!

I started by taking my sad tree bits, tucking them in a bag and hammering them to smithereens. I weighed them and measured them after to take note. The ratio of chocolate to candy in the end was good but in the future I would probably put in less of the candy cane.


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Arbutus Bark Recipe

  • 2 cups or 350g Candy bits

  • 2 cups White chocolate wafers

  • ¾ cup Dark chocolate chunks

 


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I melted my white chocolate in a double boiler, once it was smooth and shiny I added in all the candy into the pot. I wanted the chocolate on the pieces to melt off as well as the colour to mix into the chocolate.

When it looked good, I spread it out on a piece of parchment paper I had placed on a cookie sheet. I spread it out as thin as I could and put it aside.

While it was setting I melted my dark chocolate and spread it out thinly on my cutting board, when it was set I scraped it off to make flakes and put it on top of my still warm white chocolate.


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After the chocolate was completely set we took the hammer to it again, this time the kids took turns and did this part for me with a little guidance.


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Everyone was happy with how it turned out including me. I don’t really like peppermint bark but I do like this arbutus bark, not only because it’s many days of work that I ended up smashing with a hammer but it’s pretty tasty. I can definitely see us making it again in the future, maybe it’ll even be a new tradition that has a fun back story.


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