Peppermint Cookie barks – a delightfully fun and easy holiday treat that is a festive addition to cookie gift tins or just to serve your kids with a delicious mug of hot chocolate! As for us, we ate it with our evening cup of tea. The husband, who is not a big fan of minty stuff, enjoyed it too since this wasn’t overly pepperminty! If you are not so big on the mint flavor, you can easily switch it out to red and green M&Ms or any fun additions of your choice.

Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease a 13 by 9 baking pan with nonstick cooking spray or butter and line with parchment paper. Spray the parchment paper with cooking spray or brush with butter and set aside.

Whisk together flour and salt in a bowl and keep aside. In another bowl, using a electric mixer, beat butter and sugar till light and fluffy. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as required. Mix in the vanilla extract and egg yolk. Now slowly mix in the flour mixture on low speed till it resembles a crumbly mix.

Transfer the dough mix to the prepped pan, spread out evenly and pat to flatten. Using a fork, poke holes on the cookie dough.

Bake it for about 24-26 minutes till the cookie crust starts turning golden brown. The sides will puff up a little.

Take the pan out of the oven and sprinkle the chocolate chips all over. The heat from the cookie will start melting the chocolate chips. Use a spatula to spread the melted chocolate all over. If required, you can put the pan back in the oven for a minute.

Immediately, sprinkle with the chopped candies.

Let the cookie bark cool down a little and once it is cool enough to handle transfer it to a cooling and let it cool completely and make sure that the chocolate has set.

Use a knife to cut into small pieces. Store leftover in an airtight container.