Celebrate National Pretzel Day with these easy and delicious chocolate caramel pretzels!
Ingredients:
1 bag of pretzels rods
1 bag of wrapped caramel candies (2 candies per pretzel)
2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chunks
1 tbsp vegetable shortening
1/2 cup white melting chocolate & piping bag (optional)
Directions:
Remove the caramels from the wrappers and microwave 2-4 caramels at a time in a small dish for 10 seconds. (Don’t melt them –just soften them up a bit.)
Roll the caramels out into 4 inch lenghts and attach 2 lengths together.
Twirl the caramels around the pretzels. If they’re not sticking, you can put a tiny drop of water on each end of the caramel and gently affix it to the pretzel end.
Leave about 2 inches plain at one end of the pretzel so you can hold onto it to dip it in the chocolate.
Melt the chocolate chips in the microwave. Add 1 tbsp of vegetable shortnening to help thin down the chocolate and make it easier to dip the pretzels. (I didn’t have a deep dish, so I just used a bowl and scooped chocolate onto the pretzels using a spatula.)
Gently tap off the excess chocolate and place them on wax parchment paper to dry. Place in the refrigerator to help them firm up.
Optional – Drizzle with white chocolate for extra tasty goodness! I just placed 1/2 cup white chocolate chunks into a plastic piping bag and microwaved it until the chocolate melted and was a nice consistency to drizzle over the pretzels.
Photo & recipe courtesy of: http://bakingmadesimple.wordpress.com/2011/02/09/easy-chocolate-caramel-pretzels/
