Vegan White Chocolate Peppermint Bark
A healthy vegan and paleo peppermint bark made with homemade vegan white chocolate and dark chocolate! The easiest holiday treat everyone will love!
Vegan and paleo white chocolate peppermint bark?! Did I hear that right? Yep, it’s real. Just like unicorns and fairies and mermaids.
Alright, sorry, I had to! But seriously, this peppermint bark is completely vegan, completely paleo, and 100% real. Incredible, right? I thought it was going to be harder than it is, but let me tell you, this was EASY PEASY. Lemon squeezy 😉
Now, granted the crushed peppermint sticks on top are not paleo, so if that doesn’t jive with you, feel free to nix it because there’s a hella lot of peppermint flavor in the white chocolate. However, if you have no medical recommendation by the doctor that you should avoid all sugar…I mean, why not live a little?! 😉
My food philosophy has very much changed over the years, and for once I have complete freedom (which oh by the way, does not mean that I’m over mindlessly eating all of the time or *gasp* overeating and binging! I used to fear that like the plague, which is why I set rules around myself, but now I realize the rules were pointless- once I trusted my body, I found peace and freedom and realized I wasn’t going to be out of control. Fear of being out of control doesn’t make you in control. Okay rant over). So for me, I’m choosing to add crushed candy canes on top of my vegan peppermint bark because it’s the holidays, and that’s fun for me 🙂
If you haven’t noticed by now or if you’re new here, I absolutely love dropping these little tid bits about food philosophy in these posts. I refuse to let anyone go down the path of fear when it comes to creating beautiful food that you’re about to eat. Cooking from a place of love heals and create. Cooking from a place of hate or fear only hurts and makes you sick. More on that in another post 😉
So back to this peppermint bark. How in the heck did I make that white chocolate vegan?! Well, I took a look at a white chocolate bar in the grocery store, and the ingredients (aside from the fillers), were pretty basic: cacao butter, milk, sugar, and vanilla. The only thing I needed to make vegan was the milk (cacao butter is dairy/animal free, much like coconut butter!).
I do recommend tempering the white chocolate a little bit. This means bringing it up to a heat and reducing slowly while stirring to allow the crystals to separate to create a thicker white chocolate.
Now a few more tips about this vegan paleo peppermint bark:
Do not forget the parchment paper on the baking sheet! You can use silicone or wax paper. I have not tested tin foil, so I can’t vouch for that. But just remember to place something down or else you won’t be able to peal your chocolate off the baking sheet!
I also recommend letting the chocolate layer sit outside of the fridge/freezer prior to pouring the white chocolate layer on. Don’t worry, your chocolate will set. But if you freeze it prior to the white chocolate layer, your peppermint bark may not come out even. The white chocolate will harden faster against the cold dark chocolate layer.
As always, I recommend using a peppermint essential oil for real and pure peppermint flavor, but an extract will work as well!
That’s it! I hope you love this peppermint bark 🙂 Have a lovely holiday!
Vegan White Chocolate Peppermint Bark
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 20 minutes
- Total Time: 40 minutes
- Yield: 12 1x
- Category: Dessert
Description
A healthy vegan and paleo peppermint bark made with homemade vegan white chocolate and dark chocolate! The easiest holiday treat everyone will love!
Ingredients
Vegan White Chocolate Layer
- 3/4 cup organi cacao butter
- 2 tbsp coconut flour (can sub in corn starch or potato starch if not paleo)
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 3 tbsp lightly colored maple syrup
- 1 tsp peppermint extract or essential oil
Dark Chocolate Layer
- 1 cup dark chocolate chips (I chose unsweetened)
- 1/4 cup maple syrup (if unsweetened)
Peppermint Decoration
- 2 large candy canes (crumbled)
Instructions
- Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set in the freezer.
- Begin with the dark chocolate. Place dark chocolate chips into a microwave safe bowl and microwave for about 1 minute and 10 seconds, stirring every so often. If you prefer the stove top, simply heat in a small sauce pan and stir until melted.
- Once melted, stir in maple syrup if you chose unsweetened dark chocolate (100%).
- Remove baking sheet from freezer and lightly pour melted chocolate onto the parchment paper, spreading with a spatula until about 1/4″ thick.
- Set aside (do NOT place back into the freezer).
- Now move onto your white chocolate. In a small saucepan, heat cacao butter on medium-low until melted and thick.
- Stir in coconut flour, vanilla extract, peppermint, and maple syrup until well combined.
- Remove from heat and allow to set for 10 minutes in the fridge.
- Once, it starts to harden again, pour slowly onto the dark chocolate layer. Spread evenly across the layers.
- Sprinkle the crumbled candy cane over the peppermint bark and place in the freezer for at least 20 minutes.
- Cut with a knife and serve!
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