Cooking with Kennedy - Patriotic Edition!

Welcome to Cooking with Kennedy - Patriotic Edition! Today, we are going to make some festive holiday bark. This bark will have the colors of our American Flag in honor of our country. So let's get right to it! 

Red White and Blue Bark 

INGREDIENTS:

• 16 oz bright white candy melts or equal amounts of white chocolate

• 6 oz royal blue candy melts

• 6 oz red candy melts

• Red, white and blue M&M's pieces

• Handful of Oreo cookies crushed into bite-size pieces

• Red, white and blue star sprinkles

• Red, white and blue jimmies

• Cooking spray

• Water

INSTRUCTIONS:

• Place Oreo cookies into a resealable plastic bag, seal and gently hit with a rolling pin to break cookies into small pieces. Set aside.

• Line an 11x15  jelly roll pan or regular 9x13 pan with aluminum foil and spray very lightly with cooking spray. Set aside.

• Place a small saucepan with about 1 inch of water on the stove and heat on LOW until barely simmering.

• Pour bright white candy melts in a large glass bowl. This glass bowl will need to fit inside the saucepan so that the bottom of the bowl does NOT touch the water.

• Place the bowl over the top of the saucepan, creating a double boiler. 

• Use a rubber spatula to stir candy melts until melted and smooth. Do not allow any liquid to come in contact with the candy melts.

• Pour red candy melts in a small microwaveable bowl.

• Pour blue candy melts in another microwaveable bowl.

• Microwave the blue candy melts at 70% power, in 30-45 second intervals, until nearly melted. 

• Remove bowl from microwave and stir to let the residual heat melt the remaining bits.

• Repeat this process with the red candy melts.

• Pour melted white candy melts into the jelly roll pan.

• Use a rubber spatula to smooth into an even layer.

• Alternate drizzling melted red candy melts and blue candy melts in vertical lines over the surface of the melted white candy melts. You can also just spoon bits of red and blue over the surface if you don't want to do the vertical lines.

• Using a small wooden skewer or butter knife to swirl a figure-eight pattern of the red and blue colors with the white. 

• Repeat over the entire pan. Note: You're not looking for a pattern here, just pretty swirls.

• Sprinkle swirled candy melts with oreo pieces, M&M's, star sprinkles and jimmies.

• Refrigerate for 1-2 hours, or until hardened.

• Once hardened, lift edges of aluminum foil to remove bark from the pan. 

• Separate the bark from the foil.

• Break into pieces.

• Keep refrigerated until ready to serve.

Source:  The Chunky Chef https://www.thechunkychef.com/red-white-blue-bark/