Chocolate Dipped Pretzels

I love salty and sweet together. Trail mix with peanuts, chocolate candies, pretzels, raisins. French fries dipped into a chocolate milk shake (trust me. it's amazing). Chocolate and peanut butter in all forms. It's just yummy. So obviously, chocolate covered pretzels are right up there. They can also be an amazing and easy gift to give people for the holidays. Just dip pretzel rods in chocolate, sprinkle on some cute candy or sprinkles, and put into some plastic pretzel bags (you can find them at craft stores that sell confection containers and such). Tie a few together with a festive ribbon, and there you go.

So I'm just showing you what mine turned out to look like. I forgot to take pictures while I was dipping them, so you just get to see the finished product. Oops. But at least the directions will help guide you, and the pictures of the finished pretzels will help let you know you got it right. Haha. Have fun!

Ingredients:
-2 cups (or more) of chocolate chips or candy melts
-2 tablespoons of shortening
-various sprinkles, candies, etc to make them pretty (you can also use a different type of chocolate or candy to drizzle them, as I did for some of mine)
-lots and lots of pretzel rods (I used about 1 and a half bags)

Directions:
Lay out some wax paper on a baking sheet. This will be where your pretzels will rest to harden the chocolate.

In a small-ish microwave safe bowl (I used my 4 cup pyrex measuring cup), melt the chocolate with the shortening. To do this, pour the chocolate chips into the bowl, then add the shortening. Microwave for about a minute, then remove and stir. Continue heating this way until the chocolate is melted and the shortening has been well incorporated. It may take a few minutes, but DON'T OVERHEAT THE CHOCOLATE. It will be NASTY!

Once the chocolate is melted, dip a pretzel rod into the yummy goodness about half way to 2/3 of the way up the pretzel. You may need to tilt your bowl to allow the chocolate to come up that far, twirling the pretzel toward the side of the bowl so you get the coverage you need. Remove the pretzel from the chocolate and allow the excess to drip off. Lay the pretzel carefully on the wax-paper lined baking sheet, and sprinkle with your candy or sprinkles while the chocolate is still wet. Repeat this process until the baking sheet is full. Place the whole thing in the refrigerator until the chocolate has set, approximately 10 minutes.

Remove he pretzels from the fridge and place them individually into the pretzel bags.

I used the twist-ties that came with the bags to seal the pretzels in their little individual bags, then used a pretty ribbon to tie three of them together.

Aren't they cute? I printed out little sticker labels to put on them too.

So fun!

You could adapt this to any holiday-do pink and red sprinkles for Valentines day, do pastel colors for the spring and Easter, red white and blue for 4th of July and other patriotic holidays, black and white for formal occasions(or just do the different colors of chocolate drizzle trick). The possibilities are endless. I used white vanilla flavored candy melts for about a third of my pretzels, if you're not a huge chocolate fan. So have fun! I hope this gives you a great idea for the future. Yum.