Holiday Cheer

It's that time of the year. I love Christmas time, we are off of school and there are so many great crafts and recipes. It's the time for gift giving, so I have an excuse to get crafty and spend some time in the kitchen making holiday boxes for loved ones. I've recently gotten into stamps and am slowly acquiring a small collection. There are so many wonderful holiday stamps and great for creating gift tags and cards. One of my favorite holiday crafts are candy cane reindeer. I remember having these hung on our Christmas tree since I was a little kid. They are so simple and so cute. They are simply a candy cane, red pom pom, google eyes, brown pipe cleaner, and tacky glue. So easy and so cute.

This year I decided to try to make a peppermint bark. It is one of my favorite holiday treats. I really love peppermint flavor and when it is mixed with chocolate, pure yum. Usually it's just a layer of dark/milk chocolate, a layer of white chocolate, and crushed peppermint sprinkled on top. It gets messy because you need to melt the chocolate in a double boiler and it takes a while because you need to cool each layer. I decided to spice things up a bit and make a fancier peppermint bark. I found a recipe from Bon Appetit for peppermint bark with a shortbread cookie bottom. It sounded perfect. The buttery cookie gives a nice touch to contrast the sweet chocolate. It also creates another pretty layer in your treat. I also recently discovered peppermint Hershey's kisses. They are delicious red and white swirls of white chocolate, peppermint flavor, and crunchy sprinkles. Rather than the typical crushed candy canes, I decided to chop up these yummy morsels and sprinkle them on top. They end up melting and creating a really pretty red and while pattern on top. Then I drizzled some extra white chocolate on top and a toss of red sprinkles, and voila, spruced up peppermint bark. This recipe is great as a gift, put them in a pretty tin or a holiday box and pass them on to all of your favorite people.

Peppermint Bark Cookies 
adapted from Bon Appetit

• Nonstick vegetable spray
• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 large egg yold
• 12 oz. bag bittersweet chocolate chips
• 1 bag peppermint Hershey's kisses, chopped
• 1 oz. white chocolate, melted

Preheat oven to 350°F. Spray 13 x 9 x 2-inch metal baking pan with nonstick spray. Line bottom of pan with long strip of 9-inch-wide parchment paper, leaving overhang on both short sides of pan. Whisk flour and salt in medium bowl. Using electric mixer, beat butter in large bowl until creamy, about 2 minutes. Gradually beat in sugar. Continue beating until mixture is light and fluffy, stopping occasionally to scrape down sides of bowl, about 3 minutes. Beat in vanilla, then egg yolk. Gradually add flour mixture, beating on low speed just to blend.

Drop dough by tablespoonfuls into prepared baking pan, spacing evenly. Using moistened fingertips, press dough to form even layer over bottom of pan. Pierce dough all over with fork.

Bake cookie base until light golden brown and slightly puffed and edges begin to come away from sides of pan, about 30 minutes. Place pan on rack; immediately sprinkle bittersweet chocolate over. Let stand until chocolate softens, about 3 minutes. Using small offset spatula, spread bittersweet chocolate over top of cookie in thin even layer. Immediately sprinkle chopped peppermint candies over.

Stir white chocolate in medium metal bowl set over saucepan of simmering water until melted and smooth. Remove from over water. Using fork, drizzle white chocolate all over cookies. Chill until white chocolate is set, about 30 minutes.

Using paper overhang as aid, lift cookie from pan and transfer to work surface. Using large knife, cut cookie into irregular pieces.

DO AHEAD: Can be made 1 week ahead. Store in refrigerator in airtight containers between layers of waxed paper or parchment paper.