Peppermint White Chocolate Bars

I like to experiment in the kitchen and learn how to make things that most people buy that can be made at home instead. Somewhere along the line I realized I could make my own chocolate bars, and that was quite exciting. If you can make your own chocolate, the sky is the limit for flavor combinations! Luckily, it is relatively easy too!

The key ingredients to making chocolate are cacao/cocoa butter, milk powder (if making milk chocolate or white chocolate), cacao/cocoa powder (if making milk/dark chocolate), sugar, and vanilla, and then any add-ins you want. I would say the hardest part would be finding a good quality milk powder you like. Thankfully, our whole goat milk powder is an excellent milk powder and comes from grass-fed goats, so I used it for this recipe. It also makes milk and white chocolate an option again for those who have cow milk allergies or sensitivities.

This delicious recipe for peppermint white chocolate bars is sweet, creamy, and refreshing. You can buy silicone chocolate bar molds or even use different shaped molds that you can get at Michaels or Joann’s.

I ended up making a double batch and filling one chocolate bar mold and one mold that was shaped like mini spoons. I then stirred the chocolate spoon in our clean hot cocoa for a peppermint kick. It is a nice way to switch things up!

Other things you can do with the chocolate, besides eat it (of course!), is melt it and mix with some of our goat cream for a white chocolate peppermint ganache, maybe to top your homemade goat milk ice cream cake, or make white mocha coffee syrup. I encourage you to be creative!

I expanded on the base white chocolate bar recipe from Alpha Foodie. Her website is great for learning how to make chocolate. I would also recommend her article on how to temper chocolate here. I haven’t attempted it yet, but plan to some time soon. Tempering chocolate will help to make it harder and more shelf-stable at room temperature. It also gives it a glassier/shinier look and a nice snap. It would probably make it more stable if you were going to melt it and dip something in it (more so if this were milk chocolate and you were dipping strawberries in it).

Without tempering the chocolate, it is best to leave this in the fridge for up to a few weeks. You can even buy chocolate bar wrapping paper and give this away as gifts.

Peppermint White Chocolate Bar

Total time: 15 minutes
Yield: 1 large white chocolate bar

Ingredients:

• 40 g whole goat milk powder
• 40 g cacao/cocoa butter, cut into smaller even chunks for melting
• 20 g powdered sugar
• 1/4 tsp Watkins Organic vanilla powder
• 3/4 tsp peppermint extract*
• Optional: crushed candy canes

Instructions:

1. Use a kitchen scale to measure out each ingredient ahead of any cooking. I put the milk powder, cacao butter and sugar all in their own bowls.
2. If you want crushed up candy canes, put them in a ziploc bag and pound on top of a cutting board with a rolling pin. Add the candy canes in the bottom of the mold.
3. Bring a pot of water to a simmer with a double boiler on top. You don't want to boil the water, just simmer.
4. Pour in your cacao butter and stir with a metal spoon or silicone spatula until fully melted.
5. Mix in powdered sugar, then milk powder, then stir in vanilla powder and peppermint extract (might be best to remove the pan from the burner while mixing. If it seems to be thick, put it back on the burner to help melt it)
6. Optional: Transfer the melted chocolate mixture into the blender and blend on high for 30 seconds to a minute or so. This will help reduce some of the grittiness and make a smoother bar. 
7. Pour liquid chocolate into molds. Let set in the fridge for a few hours to set up. Enjoy! You can keep in the fridge for up to a few weeks.

Notes:

It is recommended to sift in the sugar and milk powder. I did that the first time I made this recipe, but my sifter is difficult to use, so I just put it in the blender and didn't do any sifting the 2nd time. It won't be as smooth as a chocolate bar that you can buy from the store, as chocolatiers use a special machine to grind the chocolate for hours to make it really smooth.

If you can't use a blender (which is difficult unless you double the recipe), the chocolate will be fine, just slightly more gritty.

*I have only made this as a double batch (for 2 chocolate bars) and used 1 1/2 tsp + 1/8 tsp peppermint extract, which is slightly more than what is listed for a single batch. Play around with it and see what tastes best to you.

Vanilla powder is used in this recipe as anything with a water content can cause the chocolate to seize up. That means you wouldn’t want to use, or should be very careful using, liquid extracts, like vanilla extract. The peppermint extract used is an oil based one.