Chocolate Pretzel Rings

Well, I might not have the candy-making talent my mother has, but I do love candy and always include it in my Christmas baking every year. This recipe is one I'd sampled at a bake sale once and loved. The sweet and salty combo is a winner, I think. I found the recipe in a magazine and decided to make it.

This is the second year now that I've made this for Christmas, but it's easily switched out for any holiday or occasion (or non-occasion!) just by switching the colors of the M&Ms. In fact, when I made this last year, I just bought a king size bag of M&Ms at the grocery store, rather than buying a big bag. I didn't pay attention and ended up buying the breast cancer bag - so all my Christmas treats had various shades of pink M&Ms. Woops!

The Recipe

50 pretzel rings
1 package (8 ounces) Hershey kisses
50 M&Ms

Place the pretzels on a greased baking sheet, and place a Hershey kiss in the center of each ring. Bake at 275 for 3 minutes or until chocolate is softened. Remove from the oven and place an M&M on each, pressing down slightly so chocolate spreads to fill the ring. Refrigerate for 10 minutes or until chocolate is firm.

I am either blind or impatient...I am never able to find the pretzel rings. So I just use the mini pretzel shaped pretzels. (Know what I mean?) Since this was for Christmas, I did manage to get red and green M&Ms this time.

I use my big Texas sheet cake sized pan, and I just count the pretzels as I cram them on the sheet - trying not to leave much space. Then I count the kisses and M&Ms to match.

The most time-consuming part of the whole thing is unwrapping the kisses! This would be a great project for a kid - but I don't have one. And I find it best to not allow the cats to participate.

Last year I used both hugs and kisses, but the hugs melt much faster, and they weren't as neat in the end. So this year I stuck to kisses. I also saw at a bake sale that someone had used the red and white striped peppermint flavored kisses. I'm not a big peppermint fan, but they did look pretty.

You can see by looking below that when they come out of the oven, the kisses retain their shape, but they're much shinier because they've begun to melt. If you have very many on the pan, you'll want to make sure they're good and soft because by the time you get around to the last one, they'll have started to harden again.

Just place the M&M on the point of the kiss and press down. The kiss will smash out and "grab" onto the pretzel.

And there you have it! Finished project! Pretty quick to make and a great little snack food.