Chocolate Covered Caramel Pretzels

I purchased some chocolate covered caramel coated pretzels from Aldi's this last holiday season and I was surprised how much I loved them. With many tasty foods I've had, I wanted to see if I could just make it myself and they are very easy to do, so I wanted to share how to make the caramel chocolate covered pretzel rods like I purchased from the store, but also smaller ones that are just great for snacking on.

Instructables 400

Ingredients:

1. Pretzels* - I used both rods and the regular twists
2. Caramel Candies + little water - don't forget that water (or cream or sweated condensed milk) or these will cool down to a rock hard consistency (I used about 20 caramels and they covered 6 sticks and 9 small twists)
3. Chocolate or candy coating (I think I used about 6oz to cover what I had and then a few more pretzels)
4. Any decorations you might want like sprinkles or I just used white Almond Bark
5. (optional) Paramount Crystals - can just be helpful with melting caramels and chocolates, this is similar to using coconut oil

Utensils:

1. Microwaveable container for Caramels and one for Chocolates - I like to use glass measuring cups
2. Spoon, knives or Forks - spoons are nice for helping coat everything and forks are handy for coating the small pretzel twists
3. Something to put everything on while it cools and hardens, I like to use a Baking Sheet + Silicon mat (they come off the mat sooooo well)

*Most pretzels should work for this, but I wouldn't recommend anything too small or too thin such as the small stick ones. Those will be much harder to coat and handle.

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We'll start with the caramel layer. Heat up your caramels, a little (about a teaspoon or so depending how much caramel you are using) water (or cream or sweetened condensed milk) and paramount crystals if you are using them. I like to start with 1 minute, stir, and then go with 30 second increments. Make sure to always check and stir as sometimes it is more melted than it appears.

I've seen people use tall glasses to help coat sticks, but you don't have to use that. I just used a regular glass measuring cup and and a spoon.

Stick your pretzel stick into the caramel and scoop up the caramel and drip it down the pretzel stick. I left some room to hold it with my hand but coated most of the stick. I would also take the back of my spoon and use that to smooth the caramel on. You want a nice coating but not too much because it will just drip off as it is hardening.

Once it is coated, put it on the silicon mat to set. Continue until you can't do any more sticks.

The pretzel twists are fairly easy. Leave the twists on the silicon mats. Take two spoons, one to scoop the caramel and one to help scrape it onto the pretzel. You'll only need about 1 tsp - 1 Tbs worth on each pretzel. Just keep going until you can't scoop up any more caramel.

Let all of these set.

Once the sticks are set, you can use clean hands or food safe plastic gloves to help shape the caramel sticks so it isn't as drippy on one side, but be careful if it's gotten really stiff that you don't break the sticks under the caramel.

One all of the caramel is set, you can melt your chocolate. Again, I like to start with 1 minute and then go in 30 second increments making sure to stir between microwave sessions. Remember, do not add water to chocolate, it will seize and no longer be usable to coat the pretzels.

I did the sticks in the same way I did the caramel.

Put the stick in the melted chocolate and scoop and coat it with chocolate. Smooth off excess with the back of a spoon, again, you don't want it to all drip off so you need it just covered. Also, I didn't do the whole stick, just covered the caramel, but you can coat the whole stick.

Set them aside to set.

The twist pretzels are very easy. Just drop it in the melted chocolate, use a fork or two to make sure both sides are coated, lift it and tap the fork on the container gently to help drip off the excess, and using the two forks, carefully set it back on the silicon mat.

If you are going to add decorations like sprinkles, make sure to put them on while the chocolate is still wet and melted.

I used some vanilla almond bark and just kind of draped it all over everything to add a little color to them.

Let them finish setting and you are done!

I think the sticks could be fun to have at parties, but the little twists are nice because they are small and snack sized. They are also much easier to make, so I would probably recommend those if you just want a nice and easy snack!

I also found the small twists kind of looked like hearts, so they could be good for Valentine's day if you want to use a red candy coating.