Impress your guests this Christmas with our allergy friendly Chocolate Peppermint Bark! This recipe is easy to make and it’s dairy free, gluten free, vegan, nut free, and top 8 allergen free.
Since we’re in the thick of December, it’s time for everything peppermint chocolate! Minter is here ?
All memes aside, I really do love chocolate peppermint flavored treats, it’s one of my favorite flavor combos year round and not just at Christmas.
And PS: I have a few more chocolate peppermint recipes coming up this month ?
Once I discovered several brands of allergy friendly white chocolate, my candy-making world changed. The possibilities were endless! I decided to have some fun with the dairy free white chocolate and make some Peppermint Bark with 2 kinds of chocolate. So fancy 😉
Read on for tips on how to make this allergy friendly Chocolate Peppermint Bark!
How to make allergy friendly peppermint bark
Based on the ingredients we used, this peppermint bark is free of the top 8 allergens. Some starlight mints or candy canes are made in a facility with nuts (like Brach’s), so if you have severe allergies you’ll need to make sure you’re reading all the labels for any ingredients you use.
If you can’t find dairy free/allergy friendly white chocolate chips in your area (or if you’re not a fan of white chocolate), you can skip using the white chocolate and just use all semi-sweet chocolate or dark chocolate in this peppermint bark recipe.
For the molds for this candy recipe, I used some silicone mini loaf pans that I had on hand and they worked really well for this recipe. Silicone pans work amazingly well for chocolate recipes like this since you can remove the chocolate from them so easily. Silicone mini muffin pans work great, too!
We bought the Wilton silicone mini loaf pans at our local Joann’s, but then I cut them apart since I was experimenting with using them in a slow cooker for mini loaves at one time, the they look different in the photos, but I use the Wilton ones.
If you don’t have silicone pans and want to use regular loaf pans or muffin pans instead, line your pans with parchment or wax paper to make it easier to remove your peppermint bark from the pan.
Or if you want to make individual servings without having to cut them, you can use a regular mini muffin pan lined with foil liners if you don’t have a silicone mini muffin pan (a regular sized muffin pan will work as well.
Another option is to just pour out your chocolate onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper like I did with our Almond Toffee Coffee Chocolate Bark recipe. It will result in a thinner bark, so it’s great option if you prefer your candy bark to be more thin than what we show in our photos.
The white chocolate in this recipe doesn’t set up very hard or crisp, it’s more like a fudge texture than a crisp tempered chocolate texture. I don’t mind this at all, but if you want your bark crunchy, you can store this in the fridge instead of at room temperature.
The Nestle Simply Delicious brand of white chocolate chips that we use is more soft than the Pascha dairy free white chocolate chips, too, so if you want a crisper bark, you can use the Pascha white chocolate or the No Whey! dairy free white chocolate bars.
Check out our other dairy free candy recipes perfect for the holidays!
- Gluten Free Toffee Squares (aka Cheater Toffee)
- Gluten Free Holiday Pretzel Bark (Dairy Free)
- Almond Coffee Toffee Chocolate Bark
- SunButter Buckeyes
- Chocolate Peppermint Bark
- Peppermint Patties
- Almond Butter Cups
- SunButter Jam Cups
Dairy Free Chocolate Peppermint Bark
Ingredients
- ¾ cup allergy friendly chocolate chips (I used Nestle Simply Delicious for both white chocolate and regular chocolate)
- 1 ½ cups allergy friendly white chocolate chips
- 6 allergy friendly starlight mints, crushed (about 2 Tablespoons crushed candies) (or other peppermint hard candy or candy canes)
Instructions
- In a small bowl placed into a saucepan with a little water (double boiler style), melt the chocolate chips.
- Pour the chocolate into the bottom of a silicone loaf pan, several silicone mini loaf pans, or into the bottom of a silicone mini muffin pan. Just pour it in till it's about 1/8-inch thick.
- Place the chocolate layer in the fridge to set while you melt your white chocolate.
- Using the same double boiler method, melt the white chocolate chips. Once the white chocolate has melted completely, remove from the heat and allow to cool slightly while you crush your peppermint candies.
- Place the starlight mints (or whichever peppermint candy you are using) into a small ziploc bag and crush with a rolling pin or mallet. You might have to double bag it if it creates holes in the bag.
- Pour the slightly cooled (but not set) liquid white chocolate over the chocolate in the pans that has set, layer it about twice as thick as the regular chocolate.
- Sprinkle the crushed peppermint candies on top of the white chocolate and place in the fridge until set.
- Cut into squares and store in an airtight container for up to 3 days. Enjoy!
Nutrition
Sarah Jane Parker is the founder, recipe creator, and photographer behind The Fit Cookie. She’s a food allergy mom and healthy living blogger based in Wyoming. Sarah is also an ACSM Certified Personal Trainer, ACE Certified Health Coach, Revolution Running certified running coach, and an ACE Certified Fitness Nutrition Specialist