How to Make a Great Chocolate Pretzel Recipe
Chocolate pretzel recipes are so delicious! The contrast of sweet from the chocolate and salty from the pretzel makes a winning combination every time, and folks from young to old enjoy the flavor. Learn how to make a great chocolate pretzel recipe...there are two candy recipes using pretzels below. The first one is super easy, and the second chocolate pretzel recipe is more complicated, but both are fabulous in their own right!
For the first recipe, Pretzel Hugs, you won't need much. The ingredient list for this white chocolate pretzel recipe is short, and includes:
- 1 bag of Hershey's Hugs (these are white chocolate with milk chocolate stripes)
- 1 (1-pound) bag of plain M&Ms
- 1 bag of round pretzels (if these are difficult to find, you can use the traditional-shaped pretzels, but not the giant ones)
- Preheat the oven to 170°F. If your oven does not read that low on the dial, 200°F is also OK.
- Line a jelly roll pan (a cookie sheet with sides, basically) with foil or parchment paper and lay out the pretzel rounds in a single layer.
- Unwrap the Hugs and place one in the center of each pretzel round. A 3-year-old is an ideal helper for placing the Hugs into the pretzel rounds. If you prefer, you can enlist the help of your 3-year-old (as I did!) to unwrap all the Hugs beforehand and just have them at the ready in a bowl or on a plate.
- Once the oven is ready, put the pan in the oven for 3-10 minutes, watching closely to see when the Hugs are melted. The original recipe I saw called for 3-5 minutes, but I found that it took closer to 10 for them to melt.
- While the candies are in the oven, open your bag of M&Ms and pour them into a bowl so they are easy to grab.
- After the Hugs have melted, remove the pan from the oven and place on a cooling rack.
- Working quickly, take one M&M and press it gently into the center of each melted Hug (be careful, as these are HOT!). Do NOT let that 3-year-old help with this step.
- Let them cool at room temperature on the pan. Once completely cool, you can remove and store in an airtight container. Do not refrigerate.
Note that I do not recommend using regular Hershey's Kisses, as no matter what temperature or duration you try, they do not melt properly and simply dry out. I also do not recommend the caramel-filled Kisses, as the caramel oozes out and bubbles and boils in the oven, rendering a sticky mess that is next to impossible to remove from the parchment.
This second recipe is for Chocolate Almond Pretzels, and is more complex than the simple Pretzel Hugs above. Well worth the time spent, though!
Ingredients
- 2/3 cup unsalted butter; room temp
- 1/2 cup almond paste; room temp
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1 large egg white
- 2 teaspoons almond extract
- 2 cups flour
- 1 cup (heaping) confectioners' sugar for rolling pretzels
- 1/2 pound semisweet chocolate
- Melted Almond Paste (ingredients follow, recipe below)
- 8 almonds; blanched
- 1/4 cup unsalted butter; soft
- 1 cup (heaping) confectioner's sugar
- 1 egg white
- 2 teaspoons almond extract
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325°F.
- Line baking pans with parchment or waxed paper.
- Cream butter and broken-up almond paste (recipe below) with sugar in electric mixer.
- Add egg white and extract and blend.
- Add the flour and blend well.
- Cover bowl and refrigerate one hour or longer.
- Dust rolling surface with confectioner' sugar.
- Use a generous teaspoon of dough and roll into a 6-inch rope.
- Place on baking sheet and form into pretzel shape.
- Bake about 10 minutes; don't allow to color.
- Melt chocolate in a double boiler over hot (not boiling) water. Stir to smooth.
- Dip half of each pretzel in chocolate, then drain on wire rack with a pan underneath (scrape chocolate drippings and re-use). Store in airtight container.
Almond Paste
- Using the steel blade of the food processor, grind almonds to a fine powder.
- Add butter in chunks and process to blend.
- Add sugar; process.
- Beat egg white stiff with a whisk or electric mixer, then drop into almond paste.
- Add extract. Process just to blend ingredients.
- Store paste in an airtight container in the refrigerator. Almond paste will "ripen" and flavors will develop.
If you have a favorite chocolate pretzel recipe you'd like to see published on RecipeLion, please submit it to us here. We'd love to hear from you!
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