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. 
I’ll take any leftovers! They sound amazing. I keep saying dessert recipes with bacon and bookmarking them, but I haven’t tried any yet. Adding this one to the list now too. 🙂
These look so terrific. I love the flavor combinations!
I’m intrigued!
interesting! I have a recipe for chocolate bacon fudge or maybe pb bacon fudge but I’m afraid to try it
The frosting sounds amazing. I honestly still can’t bring myself to get behind bacon in desserts. Maybe someday I’ll try a bacon cupcake if I’m given one though. 🙂 I can only resist so long.
YUM! These look so good! I haven’t tried the bacon / sweet combo yet, but I’m sure I would love it!
This looks delicious but I’ve got to ask….what is a pirate party?
Fun and Fearless – It’s exactly like it sounds… Everyone dresses up as a pirate (or something related – Hubby and I went as Treasure maps last year). They even hire this guy who looks like Captain Jack Sparrow to come and there’s a prize for best costume. One of the best parties of the year!
Sounds great! The problem I’ve seen with bacon is that sometimes it is chewy in cupcakes. That’s not good. I like that this recipe says to cook until crispy. Extra crispy for me!
My favorite candy bar is bacon chocolate!!! I can’t wait to try this 🙂
Wow, those look and sound amazing!
oh yum. after putting bacon in last years cookies this might need to be next 🙂
I’m so curious to try bacon in baked goods, but do you think turkey bacon would work?
Corrine – I’m sure turkey bacon would work if you could get it nice and crispy. I’ve heard that if the bacon isn’t super crispy, it has a really weird chewy texture in baked goods.
Thanks Jen! I’m going to give it a try!
This has just about everything that I would want to go together. Awesome recipe!
This is certianly a unqiue mixture of tastes and textures, but it comes together nicely. Definatly a must try!
Chocolate..caramel…bacon…PERFECTION.
I am infatuated with the perfect smoky/salty addition of bacon into sweet baked goods. So delicious. Of course, I’m kind of a fan of adding bacon into just about anything.
Great pics, def wanna try these out!
Sorry the cupcakes didn’t turn out like you wanted. Have you ever tried the bacon/chocolate cupcake at Cherry Bomb Bakery in Brighton? They are fantastic!