In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream the butter and sugar together.

Mix in the vanilla and salt until incorporated. Slowly add in the flour, a little at a time, mixing until fully incorporated. Your dough will be pretty thick (that’s OK!), but should be smooth and all the ingredients evenly combined.

Cover a cutting board with a large piece of wax paper. Place the dough in the center, press it down flat, and cover it with another piece of wax paper. Roll the dough into a rectangle (about 8’x10′) between the two pieces of wax paper. I used an acrylic glass to roll mine out, but use a rolling pin if you want to be all fancy and pretty about it. Chill the rolled dough for at least 10 minutes.

Place your candy canes in a quart-sized ziploc bag. You can either roll them with a rolling pin to crush, or you could go with a few well-aimed whacks of a mallet. The sons love any excuse to whack something with the meat mallet. Tiny hole will appear in the bag though, so perform this operation with care, or at least on a cutting board to minimize mess.

Line a cookie sheet with more wax paper. Melt your white chocolate according to the package directions. Pour about half of the melted chocolate out onto the wax paper and use a spatula to spread it into a rectangle a little bit bigger than the dough.

Remove one piece of wax paper from the dough, place that side down onto the spread chocolate, and then remove the top piece of wax paper. Pour the remaining melted chocolate over top of the dough and use a spatula to spread it to cover the dough, making sure to meet the edges of the bottom layer to seal the dough inside. Sprinkle the top with the crushed candy canes.

Chill until set, about least 30 minutes, or if you’re more patient than we were, leave it on the counter top to set itself. Because the cookie dough is so moist and won’t set firm, breaking this bark apart will most likely result in the chocolate separating from the dough. We can’t have that, so it’s best if you gently cut it into wedge shaped pieces. Store in the refrigerator for up to 5 days, but serve them at room temperature.