Wednesday, December 03, 2008

Fun pretzel "candy"

I LOVED this recipe. It is so easy that small children can help as long as there is an adult or older child melting the white chocolate (which can get a little hot). My husband dislikes pretzels but he said this is a winner.

You will need one bag of pretzel "twists, one bag of M&Ms, and one or two packages of white dipping chocolate (two if you plan to make the entire bag of pretzels into candy).

You don't need this many M&M's, they also went into another recipe, some were poured into my glass candy dish, and others were placed into a jar to be given as a gift!

Just place the small pretzel "twists" on a tray of some kind covered with either parchment paper or wax paper.

Melt the white dipping chocolate according to directions (see next paragraph). I only used half of it at a time to keep it from hardening too soon. Spoon the white chocolate into each pretzel (don't be stingy, you need enough for the M&M to sit in easily).

Added:  I now often use white chocolate chips for this most of the time, especially the Ghirardelli brand.

Then quickly place one M&M on top of each pretzel while the white chocolate is soft. Obviously the peanut M&M type won't work here.

Let sit until they harden which doesn't take too long but you can also put them in the frig to harden quickly.

This takes awhile if (like me) only one person was making it. But it would be great family fun for a group.

I made two "batches" that covered the cookie sheet with one bag of white dipping chocolate. I'll make the rest tomorrow. People will love receiving these as a gift.

Homemade cocoa mix

Front of cocoa jar

Back of cocoa jar (with instructions)

I made cocoa mix as one of the gifts for my husband's siblings this year. It's something I know they'd appreciate.

The container for the cocoa mix is very inexpensive and it came from Target. I added a Christmasy touch to it.

The front has the "To" and "From" sticker and the back has the directions on a label.

The recycled jelly jars contain miniature marshmallows and Christmas M&Ms. I love those jelly jars, whenever my husband finishes that brand of jelly, he knows to put it in the sink to be washed and not in the recycling bin!

Here are two cocoa recipes. I used one with Nestle's Quick. It was similar to this recipe but I had to "tweak" mine a lot. This one looks a lot better. My recipe was so large that I had to use my bowl I make bread in at times.

Homemade Cocoa Mix

1 (3 lb.) box Nestle Quick (they are less weight now)
1/2 to 1 c. powdered sugar
1 (8 qt.) box powdered milk
6 to 8 oz. coffee creamer powder

Combine all ingredients. To make a cup of hot chocolate, add 1/3 cup of the mix to a cup of boiling water. This keeps indefinitely in a covered container.

The last time I made this, I added about 1/4th a cup of cocoa to the mixture to make it richer.

Here is a recipe using Hershey's cocoa:
2 c. nonfat dry milk powder
3/4 c. sugar
1/2 c. Hershey's cocoa
1/2 c. powdered non-dairy creamer

Mix in large bowl combine all ingredients; blend well. Store tightly in covered container (16 servings). Single serving: Combine 1/4 cup mix to 3/4 cup boiling water.

For mocha flavor, add 1/4 to 1/2 cup instant coffee (I'd make it decaf)

These two recipes were from Cooks.com. There are many variations available by doing a web search.