Showing posts with label holiday treats. Show all posts
Showing posts with label holiday treats. Show all posts

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Tasty Treat ideas for the holidays Part Two! White Chocolate Candy Cane Pretzels!

What up yo!?
Please don't look at me with those mean eyes! I know it's been a few days since I said I was gonna post part 2 and 3 of the Tasty Treat ideas for the holidays. But, but, I was busy! Honest I was! I swear I wasn't watching Dexter marathons 'till the wee hours of the morning. I was doing majorly important grown up stuff. Ahem... moving on...

Here is another recipe, it's pretty similar to the original post of Chocolate covered pretzels two ways. (Ha I said 2 ways)

Behold! White Chocolate Candy Cane Pretzels!







You will need:


Two 11.5 oz bags of white chocolate chips, I used Ghirardelli white chocolate chips and it was the BEST white chocolate I have ever tasted! Yummy!
One 12 oz bag of pretzels
6 candy canes, crushed ( just use a big 'ol candy cane stick crushed up)
Two teaspoons of vegetable oil
A few wooden skewers
A microwaveable bowl
Spoon to stir chocolate
parchment paper


Directions:

1. Place parchment paper over where pretzels are to dry (Over a cookie sheet, plate, or even over the table itself)
2. Crush the candy canes (without the wrapper for cryin' out loud!) in the food processor or just place them in a ziploc back and whack away till they're crushed.
3,. Pour half a bag of chocolate chips into a microwave safe bowl. Add half a teaspoon of vegetable oil and microwave in 30 second intervals until melted. That means every 30 seconds stop the microwave and stir the chocolate, then let it go for 30 seconds more, then stop and stir, and so on until chocolate melts. My chocolate usually never takes more than 1:30 to melt but your microwave oven may differ. Please be very careful to not burn the chocolate as it will get hard and bitter. I only melt half a bag at a time because I can only work so fast before the chocolate begins to harden, but if you have help just follow the same instrucitons and do one whole bag at a time adding one teaspoon of vegetable oil per bag of chocolate chips.
4. When the chocolate is melted, start dipping pretzels in until fully coated. I use the wooden skewers to help me turn the pretzels and coat them well, but you can use anything you want even a fork. Drip off any excess chocolate and place pretzels on parchment paper to dry.
5. While pretzels are still wet, sprinkle with crushed candy canes.
6. Allow pretzels to dry and set for at least 4 hours. Now, I know that sounds like a long time but you can cheat (Shhhhhhhhhh!) and speed up the process by placing the pretzels in the fridge for 30 minutes and voila! 

I saw Walgreen's selling white chocolate or milk chocolate covered pretzels with crushed candy canes so I decided to make my own. You could certainly try this with milk chocolate if you want.
The end result is very cute and classy.

7. You can package pretzels in cute little treat bags, gift boxes, plastic containers, or even in cellophane tied with a colorful ribbon. And speakin' of ribbon! I published an article on 101 things to do with ribbon! So check that out!

This recipe makes approximately 6 good sized gifts depending on how many pretzels you want to give per person.

Here are some more pics!


Yummy candy cane stick!

Crush it up baby!




Pretty Peppermint Pretzels! Say THAT 3 times fast!





Hope you like the recipe and the idea, let me know if you try it out how it comes out!

XOXO Enjoy!


P.S. I'm reviewing a program about cake and cookie decorating and will be posting a review soon so stay tuned for that!


Saturday, November 26, 2011

It's been a few days but i'm back with some tasty treat ideas! Part One

Sup 'ma peeps!

It's a few days since Thanksgiving but as promised here are some pics and recipes for some tasty treats that would make great, inexpensive gifts for the holidays! This will be part one because there are three different treats. Hope you enjoy as much as I did!

Chocolate Covered Pretzels, Two Ways








You will need:


Two 11.5 oz bags of chocolate chips, I used Ghirardelli milk and white chocolate chips
One 12 oz bag of pretzels
Two teaspoons of vegetable oil
One ziploc baggie to drizzle white chocolate
A few wooden skewers
Several microwaveable bowls
Spoons to stir chocolate
parchment paper


Directions:

1. Place parchment paper over where pretzels are to dry (Over a cookie sheet, plate, or even over the table itself)
2. Pour half a bag of chocolate chips into a microwave safe bowl. Add half a teaspoon of vegetable oil and microwave in 30 second intervals until melted. That means every 30 seconds stop the microwave and stir the chocolate, then let it go for 30 seconds more, then stop and stir, and so on until chocolate melts. My chocolate usually never takes more than 1:30 to melt but your microwave oven may differ. Please be very careful to not burn the chocolate as it will get hard and bitter. I only melt half a bag at a time because I can only work so fast before the chocolate begins to harden, but if you have help just follow the same instrucitons and do one whole bag at a time adding one teaspoon of vegetable oil per bag of chocolate chips.
3. When the chocolate is melted, start dipping pretzels in until fully coated. I use the wooden skewers to help me turn the pretzels and coat them well, but you can use anything you want even a fork. Drip off any excess chocolate and place pretzels on parchment paper to dry.
4. While pretzels are still wet, add Christmas sprinkles, colored sugar, nuts, or anything else your heart desires. (Except bugs, or sticks, or rocks but why would your heart desire that? What's wrong with you!?)
5. Allow pretzels to dry and set for at least 4 hours. Now, I know that sounds like a long time but you can cheat (Shhhhhhhhhh!) and speed up the process by placing the pretzels in the fridge for 30 minutes and voila! What I did was half the pretzels I added sprinkles to and the other half I added melted white chocolate drizzle on top. Very cute and classy. You could also do a reverse "zebra" pretzels dipping the pretzel in white chocolate and drizling milk chocolate on top.
6. You can package pretzels in cute little treat bags, gift boxes, plastic containers, or even in cellophane tied with a colorful ribbon.

This recipe makes approximately 6 good sized gifts depending on how many pretzels you want to give per person.

Here are some more pics!



           This would be a great project to do with the kids!




                             These are the sprinkles I used!




               Drizzilin' white chocolate. Do the drizzle, yeah!


                                 Purdy!


Pretty Christmasy huh!?


Here's some ideas on how to store these pretzels for giving as gifts:









Hope you found this recipe and tips helpful! And please check out part 2 and part 3 coming up shortly!

XOXO