Each year, my mom and I make different Christmas cookies and exchange them. Most years they last well beyond New Years. Sometimes they do not make it out of the driveway after holiday get-togethers. I remember as a child doing this each holiday and her exchanging them on Christmas Eve with my aunts at our grandparents’ house. Pretzel Chocolate Candies, Peanut butter balls. Peppermint bark. Decorated cut-outs. Fudge. Peanut butter fudge. So many cookies! This year, each week leading up to Christmas, I am going to showcase one of our families’ favorite cookies in a blog. This week is all about Pretzel Chocolate Candies.
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Published November 25, 2021
Updated March 25, 2022
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Sweet and Salty Treats
By design, I have a sweet tooth. I like savory foods, but sweet and a hint of salty is literally my favorite snack. Making sweets is never a chore for me. Last night our two oldest, Samuel and Matthew, helped me make pretzel sweets before dinner. With a few purchases of a few varieties of delicious chocolates and pretzels the last time I went grocery shopping, I felt the need to make these yummy treats. It is always difficult though to keep the candy or chocolate unopened in the cabinets and hidden, or safe, before being used.
It is nice having sweets around at the holidays. Between Thanksgiving and Christmas and New Year’s, we actually go through a lot of desserts. I consider it a win when we gain the “Holiday 15”. Maybe… It gives me a reason to exercise; or start to exercise. Or not. This year however, my mom, sister, sister-in-law and I are going to do a fun weight loss challenge. I know myself; I could use an incentive to maybe pass on a few desserts, especially these Pretzel Chocolate Candies.
Cost to make these Pretzels
Compared to most desserts, this one did cost a bit more than expected. That was because I bought the name-brand candies when I saw them at our local ALDI. I could have gone with the off-brand ones and saved a few dollars. Had I done that, I only would have used caramel-filled and regular milk chocolate kisses. By using the Peppermint and Sugar Cookie flavors, it leveled this dessert up! Having more than one variety is great for those who want to have a taste of something different.
Chocolate Kisses $3.25
Hershey’s Sugar Cookie Kisses $3.25
Hershey’s Peppermint Kisses $3.25
Pretzel Circles $1.69
M&Ms $3.75
The total cost of these Pretzel Chocolate Candies was $15.19.
That made a total of 231 pretzels to snack on! That makes each piece cost $0.06. Not bad!
Pretzel Chocolate Candy Recipe
Ingredients
1 bag pretzel circles
1 bag Rolo
Bags of Hershey’s kisses, peppermint and sugar cookie
Plain M&M’s
Parchment Paper
Large Baking Sheets
Directions
1. Firstly, preheat your oven to 225 degrees. Do not have the oven any higher as you will want to SLOWLY melt the chocolate, so it all stays in their own pretzels.
2. Secondly, lay a sheet of parchment paper onto a large baking pan. Just make sure it is parchment paper and not wax paper. Aluminum foil may work; however, I did not try to use that one this time. If you have made these before and used Aluminum foil, let me know if it works well! Might be cheaper as parchment is quite costly in comparison.
3. Thirdly, spread an even layer of pretzel circles on the parchment paper. This is a great step for kids! Trying to see who can load and organize a tray the quickest, or who can get the most pretzels onto the sheet. I found these pretzels at ALDI! They were unbelievably reasonably priced at $1.69 a bag. Check out two different options for buying these special pretzel rings.
4. Fourthly, unwrap candies you desire, and lay them in the center of the pretzels. This step honestly took the longest as each individual candy had to be unwrapped.
If you are able to find chocolate in bulk that is already unwrapped, go for those and save yourself the agony of unwrapping one, eating one, unwrapping one and placing, unwrapping one and eating it, unwrapping one and placing… Matthew and Samuel sure tried their share of chocolate while we unwrapped for sure!
5. Then place the baking sheet into the oven and cook for 3-5 minutes. The milk chocolate kisses take longer than the ROLO, so keep a watch on your time! For instance, you will want the chocolate kisses to be melted just enough that their tips can be squished down and not staying solid.
6. Finally, carefully and slowly remove the pan from the oven and place one M&M in the center of each chocolate; making sure they are melted and not still too solid. Squish the M&M down into the melted chocolate so it all gets onto the pretzel. If you do not have the melted chocolate touching all sides of the pretzel, it could fall out and then you will be sad. It was fun to watch Matthew and Sam having a fun time racing to see who could get more M&Ms onto the chocolates before they got too stiff.
7. Let them rest on the parchment paper until completely cooled, around 1-2 hours. The most difficult part of this recipe is waiting for them to cool so you do not burn your mouth on melted chocolate. When they are cooled and no longer melty, but the chocolate is solid, pick up the parchment paper and transfer them to a Tupperware container that has a lid. They will store this way great!
That is it! This is literally the most delicious and easy recipe for a quick candy exchange or snack! My favorite are the ones with the ROLO, as chocolate with caramel is my #1 favorite candy. Our kids all had a different favorite.
Sam loved the sugar cookie, Matthew liked the peppermint, Levi liked the sugar cookie and Elliana honestly liked whichever she was given. She was easy to please! Below is a picture of the bag of pretzel rings that I bought from ALDI. They have SO many seasonal items, and just make sure to stock up because at ALDI when an item is gone, you may not see it again for a year.
Have you used Instacart lately? About once a month I use it if we are too busy or if we have a sick kid in the house and we want to keep our germs to family. The fact that you can choose a store, order online and then have them delivered right to your door is just the best. If you have not tried it, here is a code to then receive $10 off!!! Click HERE to give it a try and use the code PURRC348C1 for the discount!!! https://www.instacart.com/store/
Stay tuned for next week when I share another family favorite Holiday dessert recipe!
~Monica
Recipe for Pretzel Chocolate Candy
Ingredients for Pretzel Candies
1 bag pretzel circles
1 bag Rolo
Bags of Hershey’s kisses, peppermint and sugar cookie
Plain M&M’s
Parchment Paper
Large Baking Sheets
Directions for Pretzel Candies
1. Firstly, preheat your oven to 225 degrees.
2. Secondly, lay a sheet of parchment paper onto a large baking pan.
3. Thirdly, spread an even layer of pretzel circles on the parchment paper.
4. Then unwrap the chocolate candies you desire and lay them in the center of the pretzels.
5. Then place the baking sheet into the oven and cook for 3-5 minutes.
6. Finally, remove the pan from the oven and place one M&M in the center of each chocolate, making sure they are melted and not still too solid.
7. Let the Pretzel Chocolate Candies rest on the parchment paper until completely cooled, around 1-2 hours.
