Holiday Peppermint Popcorn Bark
Sweet and salty, with a hint of peppermint, this Holiday Peppermint Popcorn Bark will be a hit at your next holiday get together.
The holiday season is in FULL SWING on the internet. Blogs are bursting with cookies, homemade gifts, holiday cocktails and giveaways. You name it and us bloggers have got you covered. I’m no different. I’ve got some great pepperminty festive recipes coming your way. And a couple with cranberries too.
First up is this holiday peppermint popcorn bark. It might look familiar to you. I basically took this holiday popcorn bark that I made for Valentine’s Day earlier this year and tweaked it to work for the winter holidays by replacing the melted white chocolate with melted candy cane Hershey’s kisses.
This creates a subtle peppermint flavor that pairs with the chocolate, popcorn and pretzels just perfectly. I chose to use dark chocolate red and green M&Ms, but you could also use the festive peppermint M&Ms if you’d like.
I made a double batch of this stuff last weekend to take to a gingerbread house party we went to. It was a big hit and I got multiple requests for the recipe. One thing to note. If you use microwave popcorn, use a lightly salted butter-free variety so the flavors don’t interfere with the intent of this treat.
One Year Ago: Pecan Pie Brownies
Two Years Ago: White Chocolate Cranberry Cookies
Three Years Ago: Holiday Bakeoff
Four Years Ago: S’mores Cookie Bars
Five Years Ago: Black Bean Cakes and Cinnamon Pork with Sweet Potatoes
Six Years Ago: Pizza Roll and Frito Candy
Holiday Peppermint Popcorn Bark
Sweet and salty, with a hint of peppermint, this Holiday Peppermint Popcorn Bark will be a hit at your next holiday get together.
Ingredients:
8 cups popcorn (equal to 1 bag microwave popcorn)
3 cups pretzel sticks, broken in half
8 oz candy cane kisses, unwrapped
1 1/2 cups dark M&Ms (or peppermint M&Ms)
3 oz or 1/2 cup bittersweet chocolate
1/4 cup sprinkles
Directions:
Pop corn according to package directions.
Put popped corn and pretzel pieces into a large bowl. Make sure to get all of the unpopped kernels out.
Melt candy cane kisses in a microwave safe bowl in 20 second increments, stirring in between, until melted.
Pour melted candy cane kisses over popcorn mixture and mix with your hands to coat completely. Pour onto a wax paper or parchment paper lined cookie sheet and sprinkle with M&Ms. Mix a little more to incorporate M&Ms.
Melt bittersweet chocolate in a microwave safe bowl in 30 second increments, stirring in between, until melted. Drizzle over popcorn bark. Sprinkle sprinkles over popcorn.
Allow to cool and break into large pieces.
Recipe from Beantown Baker
I am Jen the Beantown Baker. Engineer by day and baking maven by night. Hubby serves as my #1 fan and official taste tester. We got hitched back in 2006. Barefoot. In the sand. With the waves crashing behind us. It was one of the best decisions we’ve ever made. 
This looks amazing, Jen. I think both my husband and I are slowly becoming more lactose intolerant as we get older. Goat milk ice cream may be something we’ll try soon. Can’t wait to see what other non-dairy ice creams you come up with!
beantownbaker — June 19th, 2013 @ 10:23 am
Thanks! Like I said, coconut milk has been my go-to so far, but it’s definitely fun to try new milk varieties.
Looks incredible, I need to find a local goat milk supplier…
beantownbaker — June 19th, 2013 @ 10:24 am
Yea, I definitely want to find someone local to get my goat milk from. For now, I’m just happy that I can find it at all. Even back in Boston, it wasn’t on the shelf at my grocery store.
This looks amazing and I love that you used goat milk..so interesting!
i had to give up gluten a few months ago and just realized a few weeks ago that i also must give up dairy. i am not sure if it is lactose or casein that i am intolerant of, but i love that you are doing stuff that i may be able to eat someday! (also, we bathe Olive is goat’s milk. it’s great for her eczema!).
beantownbaker — June 20th, 2013 @ 6:58 am
Going dairy free isn’t too bad honestly.
Oh wow, bathing in goats milk sounds so luxurious!
Oh wow, this looks so perfect! I’d love to try this soon 🙂
Sounds delicious, I’ve not thought about using goats milk in ice cream before but would love to try it!
beantownbaker — June 24th, 2013 @ 8:24 pm
You should definitely try it!
Thank you so much for posting this!! I gave up cow dairy in the winter (makes me break out) and have been glaring at my ice cream maker, because sorbets are just not the same and coconut ice cream is good, but so coconutty! I’ve been wondering if I could make ice cream with goat’s milk and now I know I can! The canister just went into the freezer 🙂
beantownbaker — June 24th, 2013 @ 8:23 pm
Nice – glad I could help. I don’t find coconut milk very coconuty… I assume you drink goat’s milk so you’re familiar with the flavor? It definitely has a distinct taste.
Goat milk?? I bet it goes fantastic with chocolate. I love this combination, I can’t wait to try it, yum!!
In the ingredients, you say condensed goat milk, but the directions say heavy cream. Which did you mean? Really excited to try out this recipe!
beantownbaker — July 22nd, 2013 @ 1:14 pm
Sorry about that. I used condensed goat milk, not heavy cream. I’m updating the recipe now.
Hello,
I want to place an order from you to our store in The Netherlands.I want to know if you can ship here and accept credit card as a form of payment.
Reply back asap
Thanks
beantownbaker — September 4th, 2013 @ 9:27 am
I don’t sell anything.
My wife and I raise a couple of dairy breed goats for home milk use. I don’t find that the milk tastes goaty, it’s actually richer and better tasting than cows milk in my opinion. Although before we discovered that we should pasteurize the milk asap after filtering, we did notice a musky kind of taste…… but with pasteurization started within a minute or two after milking, our milk is just as good or better than the flavor of cows milk. I just ordered an icecream maker. We will definitely use this recipe. Thanks for posting it.
beantownbaker — September 25th, 2013 @ 4:15 pm
Fresh goat milk is not something I have tried. I would love to get my hands on some though!
I’m looking forward to trying this! We got hooked on Laloo’s goat milk ice cream several years ago, but it’s been increasingly difficult to find, and very expensive ($7.79 a pint as of 2 days ago). It would be great if I could find a homemade alternative.
beantownbaker — January 2nd, 2014 @ 1:36 pm
I agree – Laloo’s is good, but quite expensive. Let me know what you think of this recipe if you try it out.
GOOD NEWS!! Laloos is filling the pipeline and more flavors are coming soon to you your local Whole Foods store.
I have dairy goats so will toss in my 2 cents worth 😉 Not all goat milk is the same!!! If you like the goaty taste, go ahead and buy your milk at the store. Personally I find the goaty taste vile and disgusting! So for those who want to try goat milk but don’t like that nasty goaty taste, you want raw milk, and the breeds vary in taste a lot. Nigerian Dwarf goats have the highest butterfat and do not have the goaty taste. Their milk is really good! Nubians are second best. It would be worth your while to find a local source of nice raw milk from either of those breeds. Healthier too, as raw milk has all the nutrients nature intended.
With rare exceptions – goat’s milk should not taste goaty. I can’t comment about grocery store milk, but would urge you and your readers to look for direct-from-the-farm sources. There are a few goats with funny tasting milk – and those work great for making blue cheese! If a goat is healthy, has a good diet with the right balance of vitamins and minerals (very important!), and the milk is handled in a clean manner with quick cooling, it should have a rather sweet taste. I have Nubians and like Cindy above, appreciate the high butterfat. If you’re looking for a milk source – try realmilk.com. There’s also tips there for buying safe milk.