Saturday, February 11, 2017

Chocolate Pretzel Hearts and Shamrocks


Have you ever looked at the shape of a pretzel and thought "this looks just like a heart"? I never had until today, and when it hit me, I knew what I had to do - get out the chocolate!

Here's how I made Valentine's Day chocolate heart pretzels: I put 1/4 cup of white chocolate chips in the microwave for 30 seconds, stirred, 30 seconds more, stirred...melted perfection! Then I used a fork (you could use a spoon, a butter knife, another pretzel, etc) to fill 8 mini pretzels with melted chocolate (I recommend putting the pretzels on parchment paper before adding the chocolate), only leaving the outer edges of the pretzels visible...which looks just like a heart! Finally, I added red sprinkles for some extra Valentine's Day flair. Then I melted more white chocolate exactly the same way as before, but after it was melted, I stirred in 2 drops of red food coloring to make the chocolate pink. I filled 8 more mini pretzels with this chocolate and added white sprinkle sugar on top.

But then I had another idea. While looking at the heart pretzels, I pushed a few together and knew I had to try creating a shamrock for St. Patricks Day!


Here's how I made chocolate pretzel Shamrocks: I repeated the chocolate melting process for the hearts but added 2 drops of green food coloring this time. I pushed 3 mini pretzels together and one mini pretzel stick in the center (the picture should make this easier to understand). Then I filled the pretzels with chocolate and covered the connecting area between the pretzels with chocolate so that when the chocolate dried, I was able to pick the entire shamrock up lollipop-style.

I think these treats would be perfect for a school party, a boxed up homemade-candy treat for your Valentine or a quick way to cure a craving for something salty and sweet.

Happy eating!