It's a cool, dreary day today here in Utah, so I officially deem it Fall. My favorite season! Fall also equates to pumpkins in my book, so I thought I'd post these cute little pretzel pumpkins today.
Aren't they cute?! Couldn't be easier either- melt chocolate, color orange, dunk pretzel. OK, there are a few more steps, but really, it's easy! I love pretzels and chocolate together too- sweet and salty is a great combination.
Pretzel Pumpkins
- 1 bag mini pretzels {you won't use the whole bag, only about 1/4}
- 1 bag M&M's candy, needing only the green ones {fun separating activity for kids!}
- orange food coloring, I used about 1/8th tsp of Wilton's gel colors
- 1 bag White Chocolate chips, melted slowly {directions below}
- 1 TBSP shortening, to thin out chocolate
First step is to melt the chocolate. I used 10 oz of baking chocolate squares, but you can use a bag of white chocolate chips- the process is still the same. Before you even put it in the microwave, add about 1 TBSP shortening. You need to thin out the chocolate prior to dunking the pretzels or else the chocolate will be so thick you won't even be able to tell it's a pretzel under there! Shortening is the ONLY thing that will do this- don't add water, butter, etc. Shortening!
Go slowly! White chocolate seizes easily, and you don't want to coat your pretzels with grainy chocolate, right? Go slowly and stir minimally. I put mine on for 1 minute, stirred gently, then put it in for an additional minute. When I took it out, the chocolate still looked solid. It wasn't! Add your orange coloring and stir gently, until it's nice and smooth.
I've tested out a few ways to coat pretzels in chocolate and none of them really work as well as simply using your fingers. So I took a picture above of my elaborate technique.
Once you've dunked your pretzel, adding a nice coating, lay it out on a piece of wax paper. While it's still wet, take a green M&M and set it in the crook of the pretzel, on it's side. See? Now it's a cute little green stem.
If you see a few bare spots on your pretzels, while they're still wet, dab some more chocolate on them using your finger.
I love how these end up looking like Jack-O-Lanterns! See the little face? Eyes? Mouth? Am I just dreaming this up?
Feel free to color another 2 oz of white chocolate green and melt in a plastic baggie. Squish it around to spread the green, then add some curly stem pieces. I did a few then deemed it too much work...
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Also- check out the Peppermint Chex Mix- it's another 3-ingredient recipe that's super easy and fun for the holidays!
