Peppermint Popcorn Bark – Popcorn coated with white chocolate and crushed candy canes! O-M-YUM! This stuff is so dang addictive! Super easy to make and even easier to eat! Whip up a batch or three for easy homemade holiday gifts! People go crazy over this stuff! #popcorn #peppermint #dessert #candycanes
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Pin This RecipeEasy Candy Cane Coated Popcorn Recipe
It is finally Christmas baking time at my house, and this Peppermint Popcorn Bark is always one of the first things I make. It is SO good and SOOOO easy to make! Popcorn coating in white chocolate and candy canes. YUM! I love to whip up a few batches as gifts for friends. Everyone LOVES this stuff.
How to Make Peppermint Popcorn Bark
This popcorn is super easy to make. Start with popping popcorn. Next, you need to crush a box of candy canes. Finally, melt some vanilla almond bark or white candy coating. Add a touch of peppermint oil to the melted candy coating and toss everything together. Spread the mixture onto some wax paper or parchment paper and let the almond bark set up. Break the popcorn into pieces and enjoy!
- This recipe uses peppermint oil and NOT peppermint extract. Adding liquids to almond bark will cause the candy coating to seize up. Using peppermint oil won’t change the consistency of the candy coating and adds a lot of peppermint flavor. You can buy it at a cake decorating store, Hobby Lobby, online at King Arthur Flour, or with my affiliate link at Amazon: https://amzn.to/3505NNw
- The popcorn will keep for at least a week in an air-tight container.
- You can use any popcorn that you prefer. Microwave popcorn, air-popped or store-bought are all fine. I usually use plain microwave popcorn.
- I use a food processor and basically make candy cane dust with small pieces.
- If you don’t want to use almond bark, you can substitute an equivalent amount of white chocolate. You will want to add a tablespoon or two of shortening to the white chocolate chips to easier to melt and gives it a smoother, creamier texture.
Homemade Holiday Gift
I absolutely LOVE this popcorn! I make several batches of it during the holiday season to give some away to friends. Don’t worry, I also make a batch for myself. This stuff is too good not to indulge! Especially at the holidays.
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Peppermint Popcorn Bark
Ingredients:
- 2 (3.3-oz) bags microwave popcorn, popped (18-20 cups)
- 1 (6-oz) box candy canes, crushed
- 1 (20 to 24-oz) package vanilla almond bark
- ¼ tsp peppermint oil
Instructions:
- Place popcorn in a very large bowl – the biggest one you have. Pour crushed candy canes on top of the popcorn.
- Melt almond bark according to instructions on the package. Add the peppermint oil to the almond bark and pour over popcorn.
- Stir until all the popcorn is coated. Pour popcorn on wax paper and allow to harden. Once the popcorn has hardened, break into pieces and enjoy!
Notes:
- This recipe uses peppermint oil and NOT peppermint extract. Adding liquids will cause the almond bark/candy coating to seize up. Using peppermint oil won’t change the consistency of the candy coating and adds a lot of peppermint flavor. You can buy it at a cake decorating store, online at King Arthur Flour, or with my affiliate link at Amazon: https://amzn.to/3505NNw
- The popcorn will keep for at least a week in an air-tight container.
- You can use any popcorn that you prefer. Microwave popcorn, air-popped or store-bought are all fine. I usually use plain microwave popcorn.
- I crush my candy canes in the food processor – it is quick and it pulverizes the candy canes!
- If you don’t want to use almond bark, you can substitute an equivalent amount of white chocolate. You will want to add a tablespoon or two of shortening to the white chocolate chips to easier to melt and gives it a smoother, creamier texture.
Steph
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My 8 y/o granddaughter and I made this for an after-dinner snack for a group of 10 adults.
The best part of making the peppermint popcorn was placing the round peppermints in a sack and pulverizing them with a hammer.
She called it CHRISTMAS DUST for the popcorn.
It was a fun project and made her feel special to pass out the individual sacks to the adults.
It’s on our SOON calendar to make again.
Thank you for a fun grandma/granddaughter project that also tasted great!
Have you ever made this with other hard candies? Omitting the oil of course.
no
Have you tried mixing in the peppermint candy with the chocolate? It seems to work better for me when I make other recipes with melted chocolate and some kind of crumbs. Found this on Pinterest and it sounds right up my alley! Looking forward to making it.
Found this on Pinterest & just made some. I discovered that I need a MUCH BIGGER bowl than the biggest one that I've currently got. But my granddaughter had great fun pounding the candy canes with a hammer! Now we're waiting for it to harden (but we've gone into the kitchen several times for a taste already!). Thanks for sharing!
We sneak bites too! I like to call it "Quality Control".
I am making this tonight! Found you on Pinterest!
Sandra
The Adored Home
Hope you enjoy it!
Mine isn't hardening. Any solutions?
You could put it in the refrigerator.
I've been told that extract will ruin the bark, and to only use peppermint oil. Has anyone who has made this find that this to be true??
I use peppermint oil. You have to move really quick if you use the extract. It will start to seize up.
This is THE BEST!!! Everyone who I've ever made it for loves it!!! I have to make many batches of this as it goes FAST!!!
So glad you liked it! I can't make it fast enough during the holidays!
This is THE BEST!!! Everyone who I've ever made it for loves it!!! I have to make many batches of this as it goes FAST!!!
I also have not heard of almond bark. Do you think white chocolate chips would work, or does it have to be real white chocolate? Thank you!
It is a candy coating. You can substitute white chocolate.
Cajun Teacher – I need to try it with Chex – sounds delicious!
This is great with Rice Chex, too…or any Chex cereal that you would want to use…I just don't use the peppermint oil, only crushed peppermints!
I made this yesterday for our New Year's Eve party. Everyone loved it and several people requested the recipe! I crushed mints instead of candy canes and used regular popcorn popped in a paper bag instead of the store-bought kind. Thanks for the recipe! It was delicious!
AnneBelle – I don't think the peppermint oil is overkill. It is a small amount and doesn't overwhelm the popcorn.
I haven't been able to find the almond bark. I do have the white chocolate to try, but I also happened to come across the peppermint bark in the baking aisle and thought I'd give that a try as well. I am curious if that plus the oil/extract might be peppermint overkill, but I plan on trying a small batch with and and without to see how it goes.
How have I managed to miss out on this yummy yummy treat??? My neighbor just brought a big batch over as part of her Christmas goodies that she makes each year and it is awesome!! I googled it to find out how she made it & found your site. I'm going to be making a big batch of this tomorrow because we've already finished the bag that we received only about 30 minutes ago!!
I just made two batches one with white and the other chocolate almond bark. They both are so good. I just hope it will make it our party tomorrow. Thanks for sharing Stephanie. I will be making this every year! And I agree, it is very addicting!
I thought when reading over the recipe that it would end up being too pepperminty. Boy, was I wrong! I made a batch this morning. I ended up using 4 bags of popcorn. ONLY because the plain popcorn I found was bagged in the new microwaveable pop-up bowls, which are smaller than normal microwaveable bags.
The finished product was the PERFECT blend of salty, sweet, & minty! I made it with the intentions of giving to my neighbors & trust me, it ended up being very hard to give it away! I kept a bag for myself & hope it lasts til my hubby makes it home from work! This has automatically made the list of "Must-make candy at Christmas"
Cheryl – I used a 24oz package of almond bark. Your package is perfect.
I bought a package of almond bark at Aldi that is 1.5lbs; I doubt that is how much this recipe needs.
So could you tell me how many ounces of almond bark you use?
I just made up a bunch of this for Christmas presents for my husbands employees…we made the white almond bark and peppermint in one batch, then made another batch of oreos and white almond bark…and then went for it all with a batch of chocolate almond bark, oreos and peppermint candy!! It's the best one..I had to stop eating it to package it to give away…but I do think everything is better in chocolate!
Kelly – I haven't used chocolate almond bark, but I am sure it would be delicious!
Stephanie,
Have you ever used chocolate almond bark?
Cyn – you can find the peppermint oil/extract in the baking isle at the grocery store and Wal-Mart. It will be with the vanilla. You can also find it in the cake decorating section of Michael's or Hobby Lobby.
okay, so… I feel really stupid asking this question but, where can I buy the peppermint oil/ extract? I was looking online at Meijer… and it gave me ONE result… in it's bath and lotion department… and I don't think its the right one… is it? I'm so confused. I'm hoping to shop for the ingredients tomorrow. A little help please?
I made this tonight and i had the same problem! The almond bark got hard and chunky looking as soon as I added the peppermint extract. I read the back of the almond bark package and it says that if you add any liquid it will harden the melted almond bark. So, i had a play-dough consistency almond mark mixture and i mixed it with my popcorn using my hands, because it was impossible with a spoon. It turned out fine and tasted great!
can't wait to make this! made something similar last year but didn't have peppermint flavoring to it. Thanks for sharing!
Gonna make this tomorrow night. Can't wait to see how everyone likes it…super excited.
I just made it and it turned out perfect! I used one cup of regular popcorn in our popper, generic vanilla candy coating, and no peppermint oil as I am too cheap, lol. I'll be trying it out on my coworkers tomorrow and if it disappears, this is my gift for friends, etc.
kristina – you could have overheated the almond bark (I've done it before) – it will get super hard if you overheat it. The almond bark will seize up a bit when you put the extract in, but just pour it over the popcorn and stir it around. It will coat the popcorn just fine. You could also use peppermint oil – the almond bard won't seize at all with the peppermint oil. (I buy a new bottle of peppermint oil every year just for this recipe)
Tanya – you can absolutely use regular popcorn. I just don't have a popcorn popper.
Can regular popcorn be used instead?
Am I the only one that struggled with this recipe?? I melted the almond bark as instructed. Then, I put my teaspoon of peppermint extract in…. It made the almond bark harden again!! No amount of heat or time in the microwave would get it back to it's creamy consistency. What did I do wrong?!?
Lindsey – almond bark is a white candy coating. They sell it at the grocery store near the chocolate chips. It melts much easier than white chocolate.
Sorry, I'm not familiar with 'almond bark' as a pre packaged product – does it actually have almonds in it? Or is it just white chocolate?
This is so awesome. I would love to make some with the kids.
This is a great idea! I love popcorn and peppermint, especially during the holiday season! Great simple gift to give to family and friends too!
Yeah…I had never heard of "Almond Bark" which is apparently just melting chocolate (white or dark/original) and it's probably a regional thing. Usually if you call something almond bark, it's the chocolate with chopped almonds in it…so I was so confused. You can get white chocolate disc melts at craft stores or candy supply stores (Michael's has them in their candy/baking section. Other colors too!)
This looks fun i've never experimented with popcorn but i might give this a try, will have to find a substitute almond bark but sure i'll find something 🙂
Fotf – you can use white chocolate
The bowl is made by tag limited. I just recently found one on amazon. Mine is a small dip bowl and the antlers are dip spreaders. Both of them come out. It's called a Merry Moose bowl and not anything to do with a reindeer. (=
Jamie – I have the same problem! Love this popcorn!!
This stuff is amazing! I made some for my brothers, but I am finding it hard to not eat all, myself. YUM!
I made this for a little gathering and it was a HIT! Thanks for sharing your ideas!
It should keep several days – probably at least a week. I've never had any leftover after a couple of days!
This looks amazing, and I'm wanting to make it tonight. Do you know how long it would keep in an airtight container?
This works great with crushed pretzels in place of the popcorn! Just made some for my office treat swap…yum!
This works great with crushed pretzels in place of the popcorn! Just made some for my office treat swap…yum!
Made this yesterday it was a great hit!! Sooo easy to make and what a great taste 🙂 Thank you for sharing 🙂
Just made this to give as a little extra to my daughters teacher and bus driver, it was so easy & delish!
Thanks for sharing your creative foodie mind :0)
Staci
oh.my.yum! I just made this and it is so easy! Hopefully there will be some left for gifts!
Just made this and it is delicious! Super quick and easy too. Thanks so much!
Where is that adorable bowl from?
I just found this on Pinterest and had to come by and pin it! What a great treat for Christmas!
Best wishes,
Natasha @ Keeping the Christmas Spirit Alive,365.
Carrie – I use a 24oz package of almond bark
What is almond bark exactly? Im Australia and haven't heard of it before.
It is a type of white chocolate made with vegetable oils instead of cocoa butter with added flavoring and color. Tastes almost vanilla like.
It is a type of white chocolate made with vegetable oils instead of cocoa butter with added flavoring and color. Tastes almost vanilla like.
Since almond bark comes in different size packages, when you say "1 package" do you know about how many ounces or if it's the smaller or largest size packages? Thanks!
I LOVE the bowl! Where did you get it?/Who is it by?
All your peppermint treats are seriously giving me cravings.
It's pink! lol
That is cool though and very nice of you to do for your dad!
Laralee – I used plain popcorn. I think the buttered popcorn would be fine too.
Stupid question – what kind of popcorn do you usually use. And, buttered or not? I plan to make this to take to a family Christmas party Saturday night! I know the kiddos will love it. THANKS!
Ah, and now I've found the perfect neighbor gift. Thank you!
That's the coolest idea! I love your twist!
Looks great and simple enough that even I could do it! Thanks Steph, I'm for sure going to give this a try.
Oh my goodness! Talk about a to-die-for Christmas treat! Can't wait to make this at home. 🙂
Thanks for the great idea! A keeper!
Neat, festive treat. 😉
That's sweet of you! Luv that reindeer bowl.
Interesting popcorn recipe.