Eat: Chocolate-Dipped Peanut Butter Pretzels

 

Merry Christmas, everyone! Today is a day for many things. For me, it is a day to celebrate Christ's birth while also spending time with my family and friends, eating way too much food, and rocking my favorite red sweater. However, today is decidedly not a day for blogging! With that in mind, I'm going to keep this post short (in its length) and sweet (in its recipe).

I first set out to make these Chocolate-Dipped Peanut Butter Pretzels for my coworkers but quickly doubled the recipe so my family could enjoy them as well. This doubling, coupled with a few modifications on the original recipe, resulted in a decently long kitchen session. I'm sure that if I make them again, the process will be faster. Regardless, the final product is delicious! These little guys are salty and sweet and crunchy and soft. So everyone is bound to like something about them!

Happy holidays to you all! I'm looking forward to trying all sorts of new recipes in 2012!

TOTAL TIME:2 hours (including inactive cooling period)
YIELDS: 60+ candies
MY SOUNDTRACK: Battles

1 jar of creamy peanut butter (I bought the cheapest I could find!)
2 tablespoons of butter, softened
1+ cup powdered sugar
Flour, as needed
Bag of bite-sized pretzels
1-2 bags of semi-sweet chocolate chips

Combine the peanut butter and softened butter in a large mixing bowl. Gradually add the powdered sugar. Your goal is to get the peanut butter blend to be easily rolled into small balls without being sticky and getting all over your hands. I had to keep adding and adding sugar until I finally started adding flour to avoid insanely high sucrose levels. The amount of peanut butter that you use will determine how much sugar and/or flour you will ultimately need.

Scoop out teaspoon-sized portions of the peanut butter blend. Using your hands, roll each bit into a small ball (it does not need to be perfectly shaped) and sandwich it between two pretzels. Repeat this until you run out of peanut butter, placing each new sandwich onto a baking sheet.

Place your tray(s) of pretzels in the refrigerator for an hour.

Pour the chocolate chips into a double boiler and melt over low heat. Dip one pretzel at a time into the melted chocolate, covering only half of it. Allow excess chocolate to drip back into the pan and place the pretzel onto a piece of parchment paper. Repeat for the remaining pretzels.

Store the pretzel bites in the refrigerator or freezer until serving time.