Peppermint Bark Oreo Pops

Alright, so first of all…try to ignore the subscript under the title of this blog that says “Light food that doesn’t skimp on flavor”….because this recipe definitely isn’t light. But, come on…its Christmas! No matter how healthy you like to eat, there are certain occasions in which you have to let that go and indulge in junk food. Christmas is DEFINITELY one of those occasions.

If you are so strict with your eating that you won’t even cheat around Christmas, then…well…just do it anyway just this once so you can try these Peppermint Bark Oreo Pops. They are so Christmasy and delicious! If you have read my “About Me” page, then you know I am absolutely in love with Christmas. It is my favorite time of year BY FAR. So making holiday treats like this is so much fun for me.

I’m really not much of a baker, I barely know anything about it. So when I make desserts like this, they are rarely difficult or complex. This recipe is so easy. Anyone can make it. This December has been a little strange because my husband, Seth, has been out in the field since December 2nd. He is home on weekends, so that is better than nothing, but it has still been pretty quiet around the apartment. However… I refuse to let my Christmas month be sad, so I am overcompensating with constant Christmas music, Christmas movies, Christmas baking (if you can call it baking), and decking out my apartment in decorations. So despite his absence, it has still been an awesome Christmas!

So on that note…Peppermint Bark Oreo Pops. These things are so good. I loooove peppermint bark. I make it every year. So this year I wanted to do something a little different with it, and I thought these would be tasty. And they definitely were.

So you start by chopping three 4 oz bars of white chocolate. I just used Bakers chocolate.

You don’t have to “shave” the chocolate, but you do want it to be in relatively small pieces so it melts faster.

Fill a medium pot with a few inches of water, and place a heat proof bowl on top (glass works). This is called a double boiler, and it’s a great way to melt chocolate. If you don’t have the materials to do this, just microwave the chocolate in small increments of time, stirring often, until it is smooth and melted.

Bring your water to a simmer, and stir the chocolate very often as it melts. Try to not let the water boil against the bottom of the bowl, it should just be gently simmering beneath it.

Meanwhile, throw about 15-20 peppermints in a large ziplock bag and, using a rolling pin, take your anger out on the little candies and whack them repeatedly until they are transformed into peppermint dust/tiny peppermint pieces. If you don’t have a rolling pin, you can use a pan to do this.

Poor peppermints. This picture is actually a bad example, the pieces should be smaller than this. It should be more like peppermint dust with various little tiny pieces of peppermint.

So once your chocolate is completely melted and smooth like this–

–stir in 1/2 teaspoon of peppermint extract. Try your chocolate. If you think it needs more peppermint flavor, add a little more extract. I thought 1/2 teaspoon was a perfect amount.

Now it’s time to prep your Oreos!

Stick a skinny Popsicle stick into the middle of each Oreo while you are lightly squeezing both sides together so it doesn’t pop apart. Push the Popsicle stick up a little into the Oreo frosting, but not so much that it pokes through the top. I’m not sure any of that made sense…so I took pictures to show you what I mean.

It’s super easy. This recipe made 16 Oreo pops for me, so I would start with prepping that many and then if you have left over chocolate, go ahead and prep a few more at the end.

Now line a baking sheet with parchment or wax paper. Take an Oreo and dip it into the chocolate, using a spoon to help you cover the entire cookie with chocolate. Towards the end, I basically just put the Oreo into the bowl and spooned chocolate onto it until the Oreo was sufficiently covered because the chocolate wasn’t deep enough to dip the whole cookie.

Continue dipping your cookies until they are all done, and then sprinkle a little bit of your crushed peppermint onto each one.

And that’s it!

If you are eager like me and don’t want to wait for the chocolate to set up on its own, you can pop the baking sheet in the freezer and they will be ready in just a few minutes.

**If you are planning on transferring them to the freezer or fridge, make sure you use the baking sheet and not just plain parchment/wax paper. If you don’t, the Oreo pops will slide all over the place when you lift the paper, and they won’t be nearly as pretty. I learned this the hard way…**

Once the chocolate is set, you are ready to go!

Enjoy!

One more…this one has my Christmas tree in the background!

Ah, Christmas…

Here is the recipe: