peppermint | Food Loves Writing

And just like that, the holidays are over. The momentum we’ve felt since Halloween has ended, and we begin four long months with no national vacations, and, at least around here, bitter ice and snow. Our Januarys are cold and sad in Chicago. I like them least of all the months, every year barely willing myself through, anxious for rainy April and blooming flowers.

To begin, we take down our Christmas trees or menorahs, removing all remnants of the previous months of celebration. Am I the only one who hates this? I mean, sure, it can’t be Christmas forever. But don’t things seem powerfully colder without twinkling lights and colorful displays? Isn’t it, I don’t know, depressing to see stores pull out Valentine’s candy, when that is over a month away, as if it’s all we have to look forward to now?

I say someone needs to put a holiday smack-dab at the end of January. I mean it. We could take a day off for the inauguration or a president’s birthday or, why not, just because? This could be the thing to pull us through the winter, one more distraction from the dark days and frigid temperature. Mark it down: If someone pushes this agenda, it will be with my full support.

Anyway. Meanwhile, I’ve got to fight this seasonal depression how I can. And I’m starting with marshmallows. Take away the stockings and trees: I’ll still have peppermint-flavored clouds of sugar, which, when dropped in rich hot chocolate, are enough to make you feel all the warmth and joy of the holidays all over again. Airy confections, homemade marshmallows feel light and fluffy on your tongue and dissolve in moments. They’re ordinary—the kind of thing we sandwich onto campfire s’mores and use to candy sweet potatoes—and they’re also not—because people rarely make them anymore when you can buy large bags for a few dollars at the store.

The thing I like about making homemade marshmallows, I mean what makes me glad to have made them in my own kitchen, is that I appreciate them more now. Before following and adapting the below recipe, I didn’t know what marshmallows were made of, beyond sugar. And in truth, there’s little else involved: gelatin (of course), corn syrup, corn starch, peppermints for coloring. But the results of a few simple steps are downy clouds of sweetness, the perfect complement to an evening on the sofa, bundled under thick blankets and watching a favorite movie.

Here’s what you do: Line a 9 X 13 pan with aluminum foil and grease it. Then mix up some powdered sugar and corn starch in a small bowl, and sprinkle two tablespoons of that mixture onto the 9 X 13 pan.

In a separate bowl, you’ll dissolve gelatin into warm water, leaving it to rest while you heat sugar, corn syrup and crumbled candy canes (or red and white candies) and salt over the stove. Then combine the gelatin mixture with the stovetop mixture in the bowl of a standmixer. Blend for 15 minutes, spread into pan and top with the powdered sugar/corn starch mixture from before. Wait two hours, then cut into shapes, whether cookie-cutter stars or hearts or normal squares and rectangles (what I did).

[Oh, and one more tip: I learned, ahem, you really shouldn’t use plastic utensils, especially not your favorite plastic spatula, the perfect white one that’s just the right size for scraping down bowls and dipping into things. If you were to leave that plastic spatula inside your heating sugar, you’d turn around for a moment and turn back to find it curved and bent, its perfect white shape dissolving into the pot. The entire batch will have to be thrown out, taking with it your spatula, and you’ll curse and say all sorts of mean things to yourself while you wash the pan out to start again. Not exactly the holiday spirit, you know?]

Peppermint Marshmallows
Adapted from Little Birdie Secrets

Ingredients:
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1/3 cup cornstarch
2 envelopes unflavored gelatin
1 1/3 cup sugar
2/3 cup light corn syrup
1/2 cup crushed peppermint candy canes (about 6) or red and white candies
1/8 teaspoon salt

Directions:
1. Line a 9 x 13 pan with foil and spray with non-stick cooking spray. Into a small bowl, sift together powdered sugar and cornstarch. Sift 2 tablespoons of the powdered sugar mixture into pan and tilt to coat all sides. Leave excess in pan.

2. Place 2/3 cup water in a large bowl and sprinkle with gelatin. Let soften 5 minutes.

3. In a medium, heavy-bottom saucepan, heat sugar, corn syrup, candy cane and salt over medium heat until completely dissolved (about 7 minutes).

4. Pour into bowl with gelatin mixture and beat on high speed with electric mixer until light and fluffy (10-15 minutes).

5. Spread evenly into prepared pan. Smooth top and dust with powdered sugar mixture. Let sit at room temperature for 2 hours.

6. Lift from pan with foil. With a small, wet cookie cutter or knife, cut shapes and dip sides in sugar mixture.

7. Store at room temp, loosely covered.

christmas peppermint bark

I feel like I should start this post off by saying, Merry Christmas! So, Merry Christmas, all of you—whether you’ve been reading since this site began or if you’ve swung by just now, on the hunt for a festive candy. It is Christmas Eve, after all. And I do have the day off—a Christmas gift from my nice bosses and one I will celebrate with a morning trip to Sam’s Club and an afternoon of errands. My plans for the holiday are thus: resting, eating, spending time at home, maybe watching my favorite Jimmy Stewart movie while sipping some hot chocolate. These are simple pleasures, and I intend to make the most of them.

One of the things I like best about Christmastime, on its most basic of levels, is that it brings the reminder of simple memories and traditions from years before: the glittery, pine-scented living rooms of my childhood, created by our yearly trek to the tree farm, where my cold and tired parents would have to chop down a blue spruce or evergreen and tie it to the roof; the years where I begged to open presents early, when we’d unwrap gifts on Christmas Eve mainly to satisfy my impatient pleading; the school programs; the church choirs; the attention given to a cold and dark manger scene, away from tinsel and sparkling lights.

To me, these reflections are a better holiday magic than the one I knew as a child, less glitz and glam, more depth and reality. I mean, in my earliest Christmas memory, I walked up to my bedroom, arms filled with presents, a pretty brunette doll with scratch-and-sniff chocolate cupcakes on top. I remember thinking, at the time, that life couldn’t get much better than this. And, as good as things seemed then, I was wrong: they have gotten better. In college, this season meant coming home, five fat weeks of relaxation and rest, where I could sleep in and go shopping and eat to my heart’s content. Since then, Christmas has meant a day off work. And yet it’s still more.

On our tree, for example, I find yearbooks of memories: a golden globe with my smiling four-month-old self and the words First Christmas. There’s a five-person ornament made of wood, labeled with our names, my grandma’s included, and strung from red yarn. Mixed with dozens of shimmering balls are a paper star with the words of Luke 2:11, a vintage Santa from the 1940s and a fair-haired angel with a silvery wand and a dress as dainty as spun silk.

Maybe you celebrate with your fist full of similar memories, be they prompted by tree ornaments, roaring parties or the annual family feast. And you know, the older I get, the more I want to carry on cookie baking, like Grandma did, but also the more I want to start new traditions, from only giving homemade gifts to planning months ahead of time or, here’s one to mark down, making peppermint bark.

peppermint bark closer

One would be hard-pressed to find anything quite as festive, holiday-wise, flecked with crumbled red-and-white candies, set between and atop layers of white and bittersweet chocolate. It crunches when you bite in, rich and refreshing. And on top of that, peppermint bark looks complicated—it’s like biscotti in that way. It’s the kind of gourmet confection you can make with little trouble, that’s forgiving of any mistakes, that is so addictive, you won’t need much time at all to gobble up an entire sheet.

I had already decided to make peppermint bark for Christmas gifts, like I did last year, but I was looking for a recipe that would layer chocolates for a more impressive presentation. So when I saw Molly’s recipe last week, I bookmarked it immediately. This is some good peppermint bark, people. Did you know Williams Sonoma sells it for $20-something per pound? Make it, and you’ll know why.

Peppermint Bark
Adapted from Molly Wizenberg at Orangette

You can use whatever you’d like to break up the peppermint candies (candy canes also work, by the way): I put them on a cutting board and banged with a hammer before loosening from their wrappers into a bowl.

Ingredients:
17 ounces white chocolate: look for cocoa butter in ingredients
30 red-and-white-striped hard peppermint candies, coarsely crushed
7 ounces bittersweet chocolate, such as Ghirardelli 60%, finely chopped
6 Tablespoons heavy cream
¾ teaspoon peppermint extract

Directions:
Turn a large baking sheet upside down, and cover it securely with aluminum foil. Measure out and mark a 9- by 12-inch rectangle on the foil. (I used masking tape to distinguish the area.)

Put the white chocolate in a metal (or other heatproof) bowl, and set it over a saucepan of barely simmering water. (Do not allow the bottom of the bowl to touch the water.) Stir occasionally until the chocolate is melted and smooth; if you take its temperature with a candy thermometer, it should register 110°F. Remove the chocolate from the heat. Pour 2/3 cup of it onto the rectangle on the foil. Using an icing spatula, spread the chocolate to fill the rectangle. Sprinkle with ¼ cup of the crushed peppermints. Chill until set, about 15 minutes (don’t rush this, like I did—you’ll regret it!).

Meanwhile, combine the bittersweet chocolate, cream, and peppermint extract in a heavy medium saucepan. Warm over medium-low heat, stirring frequently, until the mixture is just melted and smooth. Cool to barely lukewarm, about 5 minutes. Then remove the baking sheet from the refrigerator, and pour the bittersweet chocolate mixture over the white chocolate rectangle. Using a clean icing spatula, spread the bittersweet chocolate in an even layer. Chill until very cold and firm, about 25 minutes.

Rewarm the remaining white chocolate over barely simmering water to 110°F. Working quickly, pour the white chocolate over the firm bittersweet layer, using your clean icing spatula to spread it to cover. Sprinkle with remaining crushed peppermints. Chill just until firm, about 20 minutes.

Carefully lift the foil from the baking sheet onto a large cutting board. Trim away any ragged edges of the rectangle. (Don’t worry if there’s a lot of excess: more to snack on!) You can cut the bark crosswise into 2-inch-wide strips, cut each strip into 3 sections and slice them into two triangles or, what I prefer, just break away at it into small pieces.

Pack into an airtight container, with sheets of wax paper between layers of bark to prevent them from sticking to one another. Store in the refrigerator. Serve cold or, to emphasize the slight softness of the bittersweet layer, let stand at room temperature for 10 minutes before serving.

Note: This bark will keep for up to 2 weeks, if not more. If you plan to pack it in a tin or baggie with other holiday sweets, be sure to wrap it separately in plastic wrap. Or maybe wax paper and then plastic wrap, so that it doesn’t sweat. If you left it naked, so to speak, to mix and mingle with other cookies or candies, everything might wind up tasting and smelling like peppermint.

Yield: about 36 pieces, or more, if you cut them smaller