Layered Peppermint Fudge
Three bands of creamy holiday bliss! Today’s Layered Peppermint Fudge is an easy seasonal treat that is just as exciting to look at as it is to taste.
Growing up, there was a peach orchard just a few miles away from my house. The owners of the orchard had a little store with a restaurant that they ran out front called the Peach House. We would visit on special occasions, particularly for mother-daughter lunches.
There are many things I remember about the Peach House… All the peachy products they sold in the store, the colorful salads they served at lunch with a huge slice of fresh pineapple, their amazing herbal iced tea, but most of all, their fudge counter.
Nearly every time we visited, we would leave the store with a little slab of fudge carefully wrapped in paper and placed in a white box. The box would sit out on the counter so that each time a family member walked through the kitchen, they were tempted to pinch off a little bite of fudge. So as you can imagine, our slab of fudge never lasted long.
The Peach House offered all sorts of fudge varieties: peach of course, pecan praline, triple dark chocolate, cookies and cream fudge, just to name a few.
Yet the peppermint fudge was always my favorite.
Making fudge at home is much easier than you might think.
There are recipes out there that call for many ingredients, tempering chocolate, and candy thermometers. Yet my basic go-to fudge recipe requires only two ingredients: sweetened condensed milk and chocolate.
In today’s Layered Peppermint Fudge recipe we’re using more than 2 ingredients, 6 (including food coloring) due to the layers. But essentially it’s the same recipe.
- One layer of classic 2-ingredient chocolate fudge.
- One layer of white chocolate fudge with peppermint extract and a drop or two of food coloring to make it pink.
- One layer of 2-ingredient white chocolate fudge.
- Crushed Red Band peppermint sticks on top!
I love making this recipe in my large Swiss Diamond Nonstick Stock Pot because it makes the clean up so easy.
Swiss Diamond’s nonstick surface made with real diamonds is safe, healthy, and eliminates microscopic pores in the surface, so it’s almost impossible for food to stick to the cookware. Sticky foods like fudge and caramel simply rinse out of the pot with water!
I used the same Swiss Diamond stock pot for all three layers of the fudge, rinsing in between, then starting the next layer. Each layer is so fast to make, that even though you’re preparing three separate types of fudge, it comes together very quickly.
Pour each layer into a baking dish, then sprinkle chopped old-fashioned peppermint sticks on top. Nostalgic peppermint sticks are soft like butter-mints, and melt in your mouth.
You’ll notice in the recipe that I used white almond bark instead of white chocolate in today’s Layered Peppermint Fudge.
The biggest difference between white chocolate and almond bark is that almond bark is made with vegetable fat instead of cocoa butter. I find almond bark retains its white color when melted, while white chocolate tends to turn thin and yellow. However they are interchangeable in this recipe.
I’ve made peppermint fudge many times over the years, but this gorgeous Layered Peppermint Fudge is my new favorite.
The delicate bands of white to dark chocolate flavors and kiss of peppermint, make it a marvelous holiday gift!
Layered Peppermint Fudge
Ingredients
- 3 cans sweetened condensed milk 14-ounce cans
- 3 cups semi sweet chocolate chips
- 6 cups chopped white almond bark about 34 ounces
- 1 teaspoon peppermint extract
- 1-3 drops red food coloring
- 3/4 cup chopped red band peppermint sticks
Instructions
- Line a 9x13-inch baking dish with parchment paper (or foil) and coat the paper with nonstick cooking spray. Place a large Swiss Diamond non-stick saucepan over medium-low heat. Pour one can of sweetened condensed milk into the pot and add the chocolate chips. Stir until the chocolate has melted into the sweetened condensed milk. Then pour the mixture into the prepared baking sheet. (If you use darker chocolate, the mixture will turn into a thicker paste that must be spread into the dish, not poured.)
- Rinse the pot out with water and dry with a paper towel, then set back over the heat. Pour another can of sweetened condensed milk into the pot. Add 3 cups of chopped white almond bark, 1 teaspoon peppermint extract, and 1-3 drops of red food coloring. Stir until the almond bark melts. Then pour the peppermint layer over the chocolate.
- Rinse the pot out with water again and dry with a paper towel, then set back over the heat one last time. Pour the last can of sweetened condensed milk into the pot. Add 3 cups of chopped white almond bark and stir until the almond bark melts. Then pour the white chocolate layer over the peppermint layer.
- Place the pan in the refrigerator and chill until firm, 1-2 hours. Then lift the fudge out of the pan by the edges of the paper. Cut into squares. Keep in an airtight container until ready to serve.
Nutrition
More Holiday Treats
Peppermint Rice Krispie Snowballs
Salted Caramel Eggnog Brownies
Disclosure: This post is sponsored by Swiss Diamond Cookware. All opinions are my own.
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So pretty!
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I’m assuming you need to chill between each layer? I poured my peppermint layer on top the chocolate layer and they just mixed together. I guess I’ll have a 2 layered instead of 3!
Amanda, Oh no! I didn’t chill between layers. (Although that’s not a bad idea!) You must have worked REALLY fast, because mine had time to set a bit before each layer went on.
I actually never got it to harden in the fridge, even overnight. I am thinking I used the wrong kind of condensed milk-I tried using fat free but I think I will try it again with regular.
Hi! I love how elegant your peppermint fudge looks, and I would love to post a picture of it on my blog. With your permission, I’ll give the link to your site, redirecting viewers here. If you could please let me know how you feel about this, I would be delighted! Thank you, and Merry Christmas :)
Where do you find the White Almond Bark and Nostalgic Peppermint Sticks? I didn’t have any success at Kroger today. Plus they were out of Peppermint Extract. I want to make these for a party this Friday! :) Thanks!
Hi Jan! Almond bark should be in the baking aisle of any major grocery chain. :S Walmart would have it. I found the “Red Band” old fashioned peppermint sticks at my regular grocery store as well, but they would be sold anywhere you might find old-fashioned candy… a general store, or even Cracker Barrel.
Thank you, Sommer – We do have a Cracker Barrel near here. I will try there. Yes, I was surprised Kroger didn’t have the ingredients. I looked in the baking aisle and in the “seasonal” aisle… where the Christmas candy was.
My store had the almond bark in the produce area near the bulk nuts!
Hi Sommer, I have put this in a post for tomorrow and used your photo and linked it back to you. I hope you don’t mind. If you want me to take it down let me know and I will.
Thanks Julie
This has got to be the prettiest fudge ever! Love it!
I wanted to share that I made this last night and it turned out wonderful! Silly me though.. I purchased all the chips and condensed milk thinking I had food coloring.. but I couldn’t find it. So I had to improvise. Luckily I already had a bag of Andes peppermint crunch baking chips. This is what I did for the peppermint layer: 2 cups white chocolate chips, 1 cup of the peppermint chips, 1/2 tsp peppermint extract and condensed milk. The peppermint chips gave it the nice pink color. I used white chocolate chips in this recipe instead of the bark (couldn’t find a kind I liked) and it worked out fine on both layers for anyone wanting to know. Coloring and consistency was great. I topped off the fudge with a handful of the peppermint crunch chips instead of the candy canes. Thank you for this recipe! It’s delish!
My favorite sticky holiday treat is the white chocolate “trail mix” my mom and I make. It is even better frozen!
We love peanut brittle over the holidays
I love toffee