14 Days of Valentines: Day 8

For day eight of my 14 Days of Valentines, I took a stab at something I've been wanting to make for a while: peppermint bark popcorn. I had a recipe for this that I wanted to try for my Christmas challenge but never got around to it. The main reason is that I cannot find almond bark at any grocery store. I decided to give it a try with a valentine's day twist but instead of almond bark, I used melted white chocolate chips. The consistency wasn't exactly what I was looking for but I'll experiment with something else next time and go from there. For now, here's what I tried.

 Ingredients:
1 bag of microwave popcorn
1 12 oz bag of white chocolate chips
1 tsp of peppermint extract
1 bag of crushed chocolate peppermint candy canes
Valentine colored m&ms and sprinkles

First pop the popcorn in the microwave and spread it out on a cookie sheet on top of wax paper. I needed two cookie sheets. I then divided the crushed candy canes between the two pans. Next melt the white chocolate chips in the microwave. I did a cup at a time. For the first cup, I tried adding some peppermint extract to the melted white chocolate. It seemed to give it a tougher texture which made it hard to mix the popcorn in. For the second cup, I left out the extract. It was still difficult to mix with the popcorn but not quite as bad. Finally I added the valentines sprinkles and m&ms. So I basically have two batches, one with the peppermint extract and one without. Finally, I let it cool for 15 minutes and then divided it into cute heart baggies. This could make a great gift or goodie bag at a V-day themed party.