Dinner Tonight - December 28th and Holiday Pretzel Recipe

For dinner tonight we had soft shell tacos, corn and seasoned rice.  Seemed like a nice meal combination as we are kind of tired of the holiday leftovers of ham.  As for dessert, we still have some of my holiday pretzels. 

Here is what the pretzels look like:

They are quite labor intensive but since I only make them at Christmas, they are a special treat.  Melt a bag of caramels with 1 tablespoon of water.  Dip pretzel rods in the caramel, about 4 at a time, and place on a cookie sheet that has been sprayed with cooking spray.  Put the tray in the refrigerator for about 4 minutes.  This cools the caramel and allows you to "mold" the caramel around the pretzel.  After you mold the caramel to the pretzel, return the pretzels to the fridge.  I do this entire process at once. 

Then melt chocolate or almond bark.  After it has melted I let it cool down a bit.  If you dip the pretzels in the melted chocolate when it is quite hot, the chocolate will roll right off of the pretzel.  After it has cooled, but is still a liquid, dip the pretzels in the chocolate.  Place on a cookie sheet sprayed with cooking spray and then sprinkle the dipped pretzels with crushed M & M's.  Do about 3 at a time and put them in the freezer immediately.  I place mine on the back porch since it is usually below freezing when I am making them.  Then after they have solidified, drizzle the opposite chocolate or almond bark over the top.  So if you have dipped the pretzels in chocolate bark, drizzle them with the white almond bark and so on.

Yes, it takes time.  This year I made around 75 of these to give away as gifts and for our own holiday celebration.  I think this would also make a great gift for a special someone at Valentine's day especially if you use the Valentine colored M & M's.