Tag: Pretzels

Sweet & Salty Christmas in July White Chocolate Bark

Merry Christmas in July! Have you been indulging in any holiday activities to get you into the holiday spirit super early? I’ll admit, I have watched a few Christmas movies thanks to Hallmark Channel’s Christmas in July stunt. Nothing too crazy though. If you are a crafter, now is the perfect time to start on any Christmas crafts/gifts you plan on making. And of course, there have been sales, but instead of calling them Christmas in July sales retailers have been terming them Black Friday in July sales. Not everyone is keen on celebrating or even mentioning Christmas before Thanksgiving!

Initially I was stumped on what to make to celebrate. I toyed with the idea of a Peppermint Shake along the lines of last year’s refreshing No Churn Peppermint Chip Ice Cream. And then I thought of forgoing the whole thing and not making anything. But then I remembered I had a bag of red & green mini M&M’s I bought during the holidays last year that I was planning on using to decorate Gingerbread Cookies that I never made. Thankfully they hadn’t expired – it’s scary sometimes how long candy can last – so I decided to make a super simple and festive chocolate bark with them.

Along with the M&M’s I used chopped pretzels and nonpareils to decorate melted white chocolate. If you are not a fan of white chocolate, you could easily swap it out for either semi-sweet or milk chocolate. Making chocolate bark is one of the simplest things you can make, and the M&M’s and nonpareils can be swapped out for any holiday. After melting white chocolate chips in the microwave, I spread the chocolate on a parchment lined baking sheet about 1/4-inch thick and then sprinkled it with the M&M’s, chopped pretzels and nonpareils. I lightly pressed everything into the chocolate and then placed it in the refrigerator for about 20 minutes so the chocolate could harden.

And then I just haphazardly broke it apart and stored it in the refrigerator for an occasional sweet treat! Come the holidays though this would be the perfect treat to serve guests or to gift.

Sweet & Salty Christmas in July White Chocolate Bark

Ingredients:

1 12oz. bag white chocolate chips

1/2 cup green & red mini M&M’s

1 cup mini pretzel twists, chopped

Holiday nonpareils

Directions:

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Place chocolate chips in a microwave safe bowl and melt in 30-second intervals, stirring between each until chocolate is melted and smooth. Spread on the prepared baking sheet to about a 1/4-inch thick.

Sprinkle the M&M’s, chopped pretzels and nonpareils over the chocolate and lightly press into the chocolate.

Place in the refrigerator for 20 minutes, or until the chocolate hardens, and then break into pieces.

Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator.

*If you want your bark saltier sprinkle with sea salt before refrigerating.

Recipe first appeared on Bead Yarn & Spatula

Chocolate Covered Pretzel Rods

Sweet & Salty is as good a combination as you can get and there’s no better way to get satisfy that craving for both than with chocolate covered pretzels. If you’re looking for a last minute treat to give your loved ones this Holiday season these may be the answer. You only need three ingredients to make them, pretzels, chocolate and a topping (if you choose). Now, when I’ve made chocolate covered pretzels in the past I’ve used the mini pretzel twists and while they taste good I always have an issue with getting the excess chocolate to drip off… It never does. I never end up with pretzels that are nice and evenly coated with chocolate, there is always one or two spots that has a little too much. As I mentioned, they taste good, but, I am just not 100% happy with how they look. This year, I decided I would make chocolate dipped pretzels rods rolled in sprinkles. Figuring that the sprinkles could easily cover any imperfections with the chocolate. Which it did!

Now, I know a lot of directions for chocolate covered pretzels call for a bit of shortening to be added to the chocolate when melting, I have never done this. From what I have read the shortening creates a smoother and more manageable consistency of chocolate – which I suppose would be ideal for the chocolate covered pretzel twists – but, I have also read that it can alter the flavor of the chocolate and that sometimes the chocolate doesn’t harden as well, so I stick with plain old chocolate. If I find that the chocolate is beginning to thicken too much while I am working with it I pop it back in the microwave for a quick 10 seconds just to get it smooth again. Not much longer because I don’t want to scorch the chocolate. Oh, and I melt my chocolate in the microwave as well. I have melted chocolate in my own make-shift double boiler – I place a bowl over a saucepan of simmering water – but, I find the microwave quicker and with less clean-up. I simply pour a bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips into a microwave-safe bowl (I normally use a silicone one) and heat it for 1 minute. I give it a good stir and continue melting the chocolate in 30 second intervals, stirring the chocolate between each zap in the microwave. I don’t melt the chocolate completely in the microwave. Once it begins to melt stirring it will help melt the rest of the chocolate into a smooth mixture. For dipping pretzel rods you want to use a small bowl that is pretty deep so you can get a lot of the pretzel rods coated in the chocolate. As you go along and find yourself with less and less chocolate but pretzel rods remaining you can use a spoon/knife to spread the chocolate on to the rod.

Once the chocolate is ready I pour my sprinkles onto a rimmed baking sheet and push them to the center of the pan. Using a baking sheet will make it easy to roll the pretzel rods in the sprinkles. I set up another baking sheet with wax paper to place the rods on once they are dipped and sprinkled. And then I simply dipped a rod into the chocolate and then rolled it in the sprinkles. I then placed it on the wax lined paper so it could set and once I was done I placed the entire pan in the refrigerator to be sure that the chocolate would harden.

Here are some tips that may help you get a good coating of chocolate on your pretzels… If you have too much chocolate and it’s just not dripping off use a butter knife to smooth it out, or, another pretzel rod. I did the latter a few times. I simply rolled the pretzels next to each other over the bowl to coat the one without the chocolate. For those rods that I wasn’t planning on rolling in sprinkles I actually rolled it on a sheet of wax paper to smooth the chocolate out and then placed them in the refrigerator so the chocolate could harden and then drizzled them with the red and green chocolate the following day. To do so, I melted candy melts and then poured it in squeeze bottles and drizzled the chocolate over the pretzels and once again placed the sheet back in the refrigerator so the drizzle could harden.

My apologies for not having step-by-step pictures, but, I made these late at night (a lot later than I had planned since my car decided to act up that day and I had to be towed from work to the mechanic and then have a friend bring me home… thankfully my car was fixed and back on the road the following day!) and I have learned that late-night pictures are not good for blogging!

So, to recap, all you need for these Chocolate Covered Pretzels is a bag of pretzel rods (I used a 12oz bag that had about 30 good (unbroken) pretzel rods), a 12oz. bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips, and to decorate sprinkles, candy melts, chopped nuts or coconut. You will also need wax paper, at least 3 baking sheets and a bowl to melt and dip the chocolate.

Happy Dipping & Rolling!