Here is a very, very last-minute food gift that takes literally five minutes to make, and yet everyone you share it with will love it (and you). Too good to be true? No -- it's just chocolate-dipped pretzels.
The other very nice thing about this pretzel project is that it is quite inexpensive. All you need are pretzel rods, chocolate chips or another chocolate good for melting, and some sprinkles or coarse sugar.
Here are a few tips for making these salty-sweet treats.
• We really like the Newman's Own brand of pretzel rods for this project; they are short and chunky, so you get a better ratio of chocolate to pretzel.
• We used a bag of chocolate chips and a bag of pretzel rods; they should be pretty evenly matched.
• Some chocolate chips, like the ones we used here, are not going to get very liquid -- even when melted down completely. If you want a smoother chocolate finish, use a little edible paraffin wax in the chocolate. This will make it much more liquid and also help your chocolate go farther.
• Melt the chocolate over low heat or in a double boiler. Dip each rod in and twirl as you pull it out. Sprinkle with sugar or Christmas candy sprinkles and put down on a sheet of aluminum foil to cool.
• We used big sugar sprinkles, flavored with peppermint oil. We found these in the baking aisle at a craft store.
That's it! They cool in just about ten minutes or so. We packed a half batch into a small glass and took them to a dinner party, where the kids made a big dent in them before the meal started -- much to the chagrin of their mothers.
Also, when we say that these just take five minutes, we're not exaggerating. We made these very, very quickly at the last minute. Once your chocolate has melted, it just takes a few minutes to dip and sprinkle.
Do you ever make chocolate dipped pretzels? What sort of sprinkles or flavorings have you used?
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How do you keep the chocolate from getting that grey coating after a couple days?
My mom used to make these every year! YUM!
spossberg look up tempering---the key if you don't want to temper is not messing up the chocolate that is already in temper, ie get it just barely melted not too hot, often chocolate chips will continue to hold their shape even when fully melted if you haven't stirred so low heat and stirring are your friends.
I made these last year for our neighbors and friends. But I used the really long rods. And I did a mixture of dark chocolate and white chocolate cover pretzels and for the toppings, I alternated between crushed candy canes, coconut, chopped peanuts and sprinkles.
Spossberg, what kind of chocolate are you using? I didn't develop a grey coating on it, even after a week. I usually placed about 5 cups of chocolate chips with about a tablespoon of butter in a pyrex bowl and microwave it for 3 minutes. It will be partially melted but once you stir the chocolate for a couple of minutes, it is completly melted and it has a nice shine to it.
When I made these last week, I added a little bit of vegetable oil to make the chocolate more liquid, and they would NOT set! I even left them in the fridge for more than 48 hours, and as soon as you took one out, it would go all gooey. I wanted to mail these as gifts, so obviously this just won't do. Is it the vegetable oil? Does butter cause the same problem? Should I add nothing at all to the chocolate and just deal with the consistency?
I would not add butter or oil this will screw you up -- either keep the chocolate plain or add some paraffin.
The mess of melted chocolate is minimal and this recipe is so easy, whatever mess there is, will be finished & cleaned up soon.
The grey finish could be caused by lower-quality chocolate, which sometimes contains wax and fillers (and could taste like crayons!). Make sure you pick a good brand of high-quality chocolate, since the chocolate really stands out in a recipe like this.
I've never had luck adding butter or anything to chocolate chips- I melt them in a glass bowl, 30 seconds at a time and stirring frequently to make sure they don't burn. You usually don't need to melt them fully, just stir and the remaining lumps will melt from the heat of the bowl.
Thank you! I was going to make biscotti, but I think this better suits my time available for baking.