Celebrating Friendship This Valentine’s Day with M&M’s® Red Velvet White Chocolate Bark

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All opinions are mine alone. #RedVelvetLove #CollectiveBias

Valentine’s Day is typically known as the day you tell your sweetheart you love them. Okay, we all know it’s a made-up holiday, despite the fact that there really was a St. Valentine. It’s a great time for retailers, but it’s also a nice opportunity to tell some of those “other” people in your life how you really feel about them: your friends.

I always give my husband and kids a little something on Valentine’s Day – cards, candy, you know the drill. And even though the kids used to do class Valentine’s treats when they were younger, they don’t do it anymore. I thought it was kind of nice that they had the chance to tell their friends how they felt about them (even though they were expected to give them to the entire class… even the kids they didn’t really like all that much). Adults just don’t have anything similar – a special way to tell our friends how much they mean to us.

I’m not sure where I would be without the incredible friends I have. I turn to them more than I do my family sometimes. They are the ones that share my struggles and triumphs with me… and they are my sounding board for new ideas, family issues, and even parenting tips. This Valentine’s Day I wanted to make sure they know what they mean to me. My friends ARE my family. They are that important. I decided to make them something special from my heart: M&M’s® Red Velvet White Chocolate Bark.

I picked up all the ingredients I needed for my complete Valentine’s project at Walmart. There is something about walking down the candy aisle and seeing the crazy amounts of candy available. It’s like I just want to buy them all… which would make my kids really happy… and which is why I went shopping on this particular trip without them.

I love the holidays when all the fun flavors come out. I’m dying to try the M&M’s® Red Velvet… and I also picked up some Dove® Promises. I also picked up a few other items to present my M&M’s® Red Velvet bark in. I’m so excited for this project.

There really isn’t much to this recipe, but there are a few tips I’ll give you as well.

Ingredients:

2 bags of white chocolate chips (the better quality, the better your bark will taste)
1 9.9 oz. bag of M&M’s® Red Velvet (or you could use the milk chocolate, peanut or peanut butter varieties)

Direction:

There are two ways of melting chocolate: either in the microwave or in a double broiler on the stove. For chocolate chips, it will be much faster to use the microwave and your chocolate will come out creamier. The trick is to put both bags of chips into a large microwave-safe bowl and set your timer for 1 minute. After a minute, the chips will look intact, but when you mix them with a spatula, they will start to melt and blend. You may need to stick the bowl back in the microwave for another 10 – 20 seconds, but do not do it any more than that. Chips WILL burn if they are microwaved too long. (I learned that the hard way.) Better to do a few seconds at a time than to have a bowl of burnt chocolate. What a waste!

Spread the creamy white chocolate onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. You can use aluminum foil if you don’t have parchment paper… but I love parchment paper for baking so I highly recommend you have some around at all times.

DO NOT MIX THE M&M’s® in with the white chocolate. You will regret it. They will start to melt (which will make your bark a huge mess) and they will be coated in the white chocolate which won’t look so pretty.

Stick the entire cookie sheet in the refrigerator to let the chocolate harden. Meanwhile… you can work on the other special treat for your friends.

I admit it… I love candy. I always have a little something around for when I’m working. I like a sweet snack every now and then… who doesn’t? I know my friends are the same way so I wanted to do something to let them know how much they  mean to me… and I wanted to give them something that would be around long after the candy is gone.

I had seen Sharpie decorated dish ware on Pinterest and I’ve always wanted to try it myself. I thought this would be the perfect time. I bought some cute little candy dishes at Walmart and I got my Sharpies out to decorate them. The beauty about this is that you can do dishes, mugs, platters… any kind of clean, white porcelain. You can use any Sharpie color you want as well, although I’m using black because some of the other fun colors don’t show up as well. I found a few special Friend Quotes online and used them on my candy dishes.

Make sure the surface is completely clean. Be creative!

When you have your design completed, set the dish ware on the center rack of your oven… a cold oven. Then you’ll turn the oven to 350 degrees. You want the dishes to warm up with the heat so a) they won’t crack and b) the marker gets baked in really well so it won’t smudge off.

Bake for 30 minutes and then turn the oven off and leave the dishes inside the oven to cool for at least 30 minutes. Take them out and you’re done. The marker will be baked in and shouldn’t be able to be washed off. I would NOT recommend putting these in the dishwasher, however. Why take a chance?

Now the fun part!

If you are an M&M® fan, you should follow them on Facebook and Twitter and Instagram and YouTube… because who doesn’t want to watch all those adorable M&M commercials. 

See more great M&M’s® Red Velvet recipe and party ideas at myconfectioncorner.com/valentines-day where you can also download a coupon to save on your M&M’s® purchase.

So tell me… how do YOU celebrate Valentine’s Day with your friends?