Ree Drummond's Yogurt Twist On Peppermint Bark Is A Breakfast Delight
Those who appreciate yearly celebrations surely enjoy the winter season for the abundance of festive treats and symbolic flavors that come with the holidays. Among the dinner parties, stringing of lights, and gift wrapping, there are countless seasonal cookies and confections to enjoy. Although YouGovAmerica declared chocolate chip cookies and fudge to be among the top five most preferred Christmas cookies of 2020, Americans also hold a strong fondness for other festive confections like peppermint bark.
In contrast to the French-born mendiants which are round chocolates adorning foods like figs, hazelnuts, almonds, and raisins to serve as symbols of the monastic church, standard chocolate bark is a thin broken chocolate bar studded with various fruits and nuts and typically holds no uniform shape (per Dessert First). National Today claims chocolate bark became extremely popular with the inclusion of peppermint by William-Sonoma in 1998. In the spirit of celebrating National Peppermint Bark Day, which happens to fall on December 1, National Today discovered that out of 2,000 Americans, 80% admitted to liking the festive holiday treat.
While your own peppermint bark recipe typically lives within the bounds of the winter festivities, famous Food Network chef and cookbook author, Ree Drummond has a method of bringing the same technique used to make peppermint bark into your morning breakfast routine, no matter the season.
From peppermint bark to yogurt bark
If you take a look at the "almost famous peppermint bark" recipe on Food Network, you'll see how the standard seasonal classic is made: Different types of chocolate are melted then spread on a pan, studded with candy canes, and left to set until broken apart and enjoyed in bark-like pieces.
In shifting gears to the everyday morning meal, not many people have tons of time to devote to homemade breakfasts during a busy workweek. Aside from The Pioneer Woman's 22 easy breakfast ideas, Ree Drummond also recommends yogurt bark as a fast, delicious option that happens to mimic everyone's favorite holiday treat. In one episode of "The Pioneer Woman" (via Food Network), Drummond shares four of her favorite breakfast meals that all include her trusted freezer. Among breakfast paninis and berry croissants, she outlines her step-by-step process of making frozen yogurt bark.
In the chef's Frozen Yogurt Bark recipe, she details mixing honey and greek yogurt together and spreading it thinly on parchment-lined sheets studded with various fruits and nuts. She then freezes the yogurt sheets and breaks them apart into pieces, keeping them frozen until needed for a quick breakfast. Sure Drummonds yogurt bark isn't exactly layered chocolate pieces, but the methods of preparation are quite similar, apart from the freezing. Interestingly enough, yogurt bark is becoming a desirable treat of choice for many health-conscious foodies.
Yogurt bark is a great alternative to chocolate bark
No one is denying the deliciousness of The Pioneer Woman's classic Chocolate Bark — it's super simple to make and you can customize the convenient treat for any special occasion. Yet, if you're out of quick breakfast ideas or need a healthier version of your favorite chocolate bark recipe, substituting frozen sweetened greek yogurt for chocolate may be your best bet.
Ree Drummond is not the only one touting the ease and deliciousness of frozen yogurt bark either. Inspired by the slew of recipe sharing, Jennifer Garner previously posted her version of the healthy treat on Instagram using her Once Upon A Farm whole food pouches. The Washington Post even agrees that frozen yogurt bark is worth making but offers a few useful suggestions like sticking with unsweetened yogurt so you can adjust the flavor yourself and making sure to spread the yogurt mixture super thin so it breaks apart easily before refreezing.
Though America's favorite peppermint bark may not be yogurt bark (yet), there's nothing wrong with adding some peppermint oil to your next round of sweetened frozen yogurt.