chocolatey cheer part 1

At Christmastime I love love love to make chocolate covered pretzels...I have no idea why.  I don't even like chocolate and am not too keen on pretzels either.  However, I absolutely love to make chocolate covered pretzels to give as gifts.  They are simple and fun to make...not to mention inexpensive!  The perfect gift for all!

You will need:
Candy coating (make your own almond bark stuff...I use chocolate and vanilla flavor coating)
Pretzels (twists, sticks, rods...whatever you wish!)
Fun sprinkles for decoration!

Find a small bowl or dish to melt your chocolate in.  You want a smaller dish so that your chocolate will be deeper, a thin layer in the bottom of a large dish will be hard to dip the pretzels in.  Break off a few pieces of your almond bark and put in the dish.  Melt the chocolate in the microwave on high for 45 seconds.  Using a spoon, press down the chocolate as best you can.  You may need to melt the chocolate for a little longer, if it is not completely melted.  You want there to be no chunks of hardened chocolate, just smooth and creamy!  Do this for both the chocolate and vanilla...if you are using both.

I make a few different kinds of chocolate covered pretzels, which I will share with you over the next couple days.  Today, I am going to share with you the mini twisted pretzels.

Once I have my candy coating melted, I get my wee little pretzels ready.  Just dip the pretzels into the chocolate and there you have it! I tip the container on its side a bit to make the candy coating deeper.  I just dip half of the pretzel so that I don't have to fish it out of the candy.  Then, place the pretzel on a cookie sheet covered with wax paper.

This is the time you want to add the fun sprinkles.  I bought some that were peppermint flavored...to add Christmas to the pretzels.  Those I just sprinkled over the candy.  I bought other sprinkles that are holly berries and leaves.  I put two leaves and one  berry on each.  I must say those are my absolute favorite!  They are adorable!

After you have decorated the pretzels put the pretzels on the cookie sheet into the freezer for a short while.  This will help the candy to harden better and faster.  Once you take the pretzels out, store in an air-tight container.

I have made some before that were half white chocolate and half regular chocolate.  I just dip the pretzel half way in the first candy and once the candy was hardened dip the uncovered half in the second candy flavor.