Easy Sugar-free Peppermint Bark (Dairy-free Option)

This Easy Sugar-free Peppermint Bark is the perfect dessert to enjoy throughout the Holiday season and beyond. It’s a delicious and creamy bark that’s a traditional Christmas treat you can enjoy while staying on your low-carb or keto diet.

It tastes so good that even those not watching their carbs will love this dessert. And I’ve included ways for you to customize this recipe to be dairy-free too.

Whatever way you choose to make this bark, it’s going to be so much healthier than any peppermint bark you can buy.

What Is Peppermint Bark?

Peppermint bark is a traditional Christmas treat that’s made of layered semi sweet chocolate and white chocolate that are both flavored with peppermint oil and then topped with crushed candy canes. 

Ingredients

Following is a simplified list of ingredients needed for this bark. For more details, scroll down to the recipe card where you can get all of the important details.

• sugar-free dark chocolate, sugar-free dark chocolate chips, or homemade chocolate chips
• sugar-free white chocolate, white chocolate chips, or homemade white chocolate
• peppermint extract (or peppermint essential oil)
• coconut oil (optional, but recommended)
• sugar-free peppermint candies or sugar-free candy canes

Instructions

Following are simplified instructions. For more details, scroll down to the recipe card where you can get all of the details.

• Crush the candy canes. (Photos 1 & 2)
• Melt the chocolate bar or chocolate chips with the coconut oil. Stir in extract. (Photos 3 & 4)
• Spread the bottom chocolate layer. (Photo 5)
• Melt the white chocolate. (Photos 6 & 7)
• Spread the white chocolate on top of the dark. (Photo 8).
• Sprinkle the crushed peppermint candy on top of the white chocolate layer. (Photo 9)
• Let the bark set.
• Cut or break into pieces. (Photo 10)

Variations

The traditional version of layering this sugar-free peppermint bark recipe is my favorite, but, but you can make any of the following variations too:

• Make 2 white layers with a dark layer sandwiched between them. Or make 2 dark layers with a white layer in between.
• Crush extra candies finely and work some of them into the dark chocolate layer (or both) before spreading them into the pan.
• Swirl the keto white chocolate into the dark chocolate rather than making distinct layers, as mentioned in the section about how to prevent the layers from separating.
• Skip the candies completely or sprinkle crushed chocolate mint cookies, instead of candy, on top of the bark.
• Leave out the peppermint extract and just put the crushed candies on top. 
• Of course you can make this recipe using regular chocolate and white chocolate, as opposed to making it sugar-free. The directions are the same. You could even make the bark with one sugar-free layer and the other regular if you don’t have the sugar-free chocolate available or just want to cut the sugar content in half. It’s a super flexible recipe!

How to Prevent Chocolate Peppermint Bark from Separating

When you make a layered bark, sometimes the layers can come apart when cutting or breaking the bark. Here’s how you can prevent that from happening.

1) Don’t let the bottom layer cool completely before putting the second layer on top. You want the dark chocolate layer to be slightly firm so that the white chocolate layer doesn’t sink into the bottom later, but not so firm that it’s completely hardened. The bottom layer should be a little warm and soft to the touch, rather than cold and hard.

2) Let the finished bark come to room temperature before you cut or break it into pieces.

3) This isn’t necessary, but if you really want to take care that your bark doesn’t separate, make sure that if you’re using quality chocolate with cocoa butter in the base, then choose white chocolate made with cocoa butter as well. The reason for this is that the vegetable oils and cocoa butter kind of repel each other so you’re more likely to have separation.  

4) Use a sharp knife to cut the bark if not breaking it with your hands).

5) Run the knife under hot water before cutting the bark.

5) Let the finished bark chill / harden completely before cutting or breaking it.

6) Heat the chocolate carefully when melting. Exposing the chocolate layers to more than gentle heat might destabilize them and cause them to separate more easily.

6) The easy way to avoid layers separating is to simply skip making the layers and swirl the chocolates instead. Of course, that kind of defeats the purpose since there aren’t any layers but I’m sure you get the point.

Here are a few options for the chocolates:

• Lily’s White Chocolate Bars
• Lily’s White Chocolate Chips
• Lily’s Chocolate Bars
• Choc Zero Chocolate Bars

Of course, you can use this recipe for Homemade Chocolate Chips and this for Homemade White Chocolate. They work great and you can use whatever sweeteners you like.

Where to Buy (or How to Make) Low-carb Chocolate

You can either buy or make sugar-free chocolate for this bark.

Lily’s makes really nice sugar-free dark chocolate and white chocolate, so that’s a great option to try.

Or you can make these Homemade Chocolate Chips and this Homemade Vegan White Chocolate works well for homemade versions.

Where to Buy Sugar-free Peppermint Candies or Candy Canes

There are a few options for where to buy the peppermint candies for the candy topping.

Dr. John’s has cleaner ingredients (they use vegetable juice for color), but they don’t sell candy canes so they’re a little harder to crush.

Brach’s also has sugar-free peppermint candies, but I don’t like their ingredients as much.

There are also organic candy canes that aren’t sugar-free, but they are all natural so you could use these if you aren’t being strict about carbs. I

Sugar-free candy canes are an option but they’re pricey, so for this dish, I recommend using candies.

Recipe Notes

Chocolate Bars vs. Chips: Using chocolate bars instead of chocolate chips will make the bark less likely to separate, due to stabilizers in most chips. However, as you can see in the photos, I used white chocolate chips and it turned out great.

Chocolate Quality: Using a high-quality sugar-free chocolate and white chocolate (both with cocoa butter base) will make this bark taste best and also not separate as easily, but use what you can afford.

Frozen Bark Notes: If storing the bark in the fridge to set, you might want to let the peppermint bark sit at room temperature before serving, depending on how you like your bark. The bark tastes great frozen, but the flavors are more pronounced at room temperature and if you make a thicker bark, it will be easier to eat when thawed.

Pan Size: The pan size will determine how thick or thin you make this bark. I personally like my bark thinner, but one of our boys loves thicker bark.  This recipe will make a really thick bark in an 8×8 pan and it will still be pretty thick in a 9×9 pan as well. For the most thin bark, you can divide this recipe in half or spread it thin on a large baking sheet with parchment paper. A 9×13 pan is a great size for the recipe as it is.

Layer Separation Prevention: See the section on how to prevent the bark layers from separating for important tips to keep this keto peppermint bark from separating when you cut or break it.

Candy Canes or Peppermint Candies: You can use either peppermint candies or candy canes for this recipe, but the candy canes will be easier to crush.

Microwave Option: I choose to not use a microwave, but you can certainly use one to melt the chocolate if you’d like. If doing so, put the chocolate in a microwave-safe bowl with the coconut oil and microwave it in 15-20 second intervals, stirring between each time.

Coconut Oil Measuring Tip: You can melt the coconut oil before measuring if you like, but the measurements won’t change. It’s just easier to measure coconut oil when it’s liquid or soft.

Storage

You should be able to store this keto chocolate bark at room temperature or in the fridge for at least several weeks. The components are shelf-stable for at least that length of time. You can also store it in the freezer for longer if you’d like.

Fun Ways to Use Peppermint Bark

Yes, you can just eat this bark, but here are some really creative things to do with this yummy treat. Use this bark broken into larger or smaller pieces

• As an ice cream mix-in
• As an ice cream topper
• Paired with marshmallows and graham crackers in s’mores
• As a chip alternative in regular or no-bake homemade cookies
• Is a mix-in for fudge
• As an ingredient in homemade muddy buddies
• Melted on sweet popcorn
• Added to pancakes or waffles
• Sprinkled on cake or cupcakes
• As a hot chocolate topping

This isn’t really another creative use, but you could put the bark in small bags with ribbon as one of your healthy stocking stuffers. (Just don’t have the fireplace on when this or any other chocolate is in stockings.)

Special Diet Customizations

How to Make This a Dairy-free / Vegan Peppermint Bark

My son was born with a life-threatening dairy allergy (amongst other allergies), so I know how hard it is to avoid certain foods, especially during the holiday season.

Thankfully, this bark can be made dairy-free by choosing chocolates without dairy.

Finding keto vegan white chocolate is hard, but here’s one option.

Alternatively, you can make these homemade white chocolate chips. I’m still perfecting the recipe, but as is, they will still work with this recipe.

Here’s one dairy-free dark chocolate option for the bottom layer.

How to Make This a Paleo Peppermint Bark

To make this into a paleo peppermint bark, you’d want to make this homemade white chocolate using a paleo-approved sweetener and either make the chocolate layer yourself with paleo ingredients or buy paleo chocolate for the bottom layer.

More Sugar-free Treats You’ll Love

These treats are great for eating or gifting for Christmas or throughout the year.

• Healthy Dark Chocolate Bark – so simple and so tasty
• Sugar-free Kettle Corn – a fun and easy treat
• Bean Fudge – so rich and creamy and delicious, no one will guess it’s made from beans
• Matcha Bark – a delicious bark made with a superfood powerhouse
• Eggnog Cookies – lightly flavored with eggnog and a light eggnog glaze
• Almond Crescents – a seriously delicious healthier remake of the traditional Christmas cookie
• Snowball Cookies – melt-in-your-mouth deliciousness

I’d love to hear what you think about this easy peppermint bark.
Please do leave a comment and let me know!