Peanut Butter Dipped Pretzels

My husband really likes peanut butter, so I like to try to make fun treats with peanut butter. I got him these peanut butter coated pretzels the other day from the store and figured it would be easy to make them myself. The day I went to make them, my mom showed me a different food project that included putting creamy peanut butter on the pretzels so I decided to incorporate that into this food project and the result is super tasty peanut butter dipped pretzels with a creamy peanut butter center.

While having the creamy peanut butter center makes this harder to make, it is worth the effort.

Instructable 288

Ingredients:

• Pretzels - I used mini ones and 1 package of peanut butter chips covered around 50 mini pretzels but this can vary, I coated all the pretzels that I had PB on and then just threw in plain pretzels until I couldn't coat any more
• Peanut Butter Chips - 10oz package
• Toppings - you won't need a lot for these as you'll just be drizzling it
  • Milk Chocolate Chips - you'll probably need about 1/2 to 1c to cover half the pretzels
  • Vanilla Candy Coating - 1 block of this was enough to drizzle all the pretzels
• Coconut Oil (optional) the peanut butter chips are pretty thick and this can make it much easier to dip the pretzels
• Peanut Butter - I prefer creamy, but you can try crunchy
  • You can combine PB and some powdered sugar to make the mixture easier to work with like in my Ultimate Peanut Butter Cookies - this will make it more like the middle of a Reeces Peanut Butter cup.

Supplies:

• Chocolate melting pot or double boiler - it will make it easier to coat the pretzels if you have something to keep the peanut butter chips melted while you are working
• Baking Sheet + Wax Paper - for putting the pretzels on to harden
• Fork and Knife - for transferring pretzels
• Plate - or something to put the peanut butter + pretzels on while they are in the freezer
• Little cups and spoons for melted toppings

To get started, you need to glob some peanut butter on the pretzels. This can be difficult because the peanut butter wants to, obviously, go through the holes in the pretzels. What I did was, thickly spread it over the top of the pretzels, quickly swipe some excess off the back, and then set it on a plate. I did this for all the pretzels and then stuck them in the freezer for an hour or so. The second time I made these I did this ahead of time and let them sit in the freezer overnight.

[If you want to do something different, mix chocolate chips of your choice (white, milk, dark, etc) in with the peanut butter chips.]

Once your pretzels and peanut butter are ready (or if you are skipping that) you can prep your peanut butter chips. If you use the little melting pot like me, it does take a while to melt them, so stick them in and then do something else while checking on it periodically and giving it a stir. Mix in a tablespoon or 2 of coconut oil when it is almost melted if you want to make it easier to dip.

Dipping is pretty straightforward, but the addition of the peanut butter on the pretzels makes this a little more difficult.

I recommend only taking about 5 peanut butter pretzels out of the freezer at a time. You want to keep that peanut butter as frozen as you can to avoid it melting in the pot.

When the chips are all melted it's time to coat the pretzels! The first time I did this I used a fork, but the peanut butter on the pretzels kept melting and leaking out. So I switched to a knife which helped a little, but you also have to work FAST. You can't give the peanut butter time to melt and ooze out.

The way I did it was, I dropped 1 pretzel into the pot (peanut butter side up), carefully (and quickly) folded the melted chips over the pretzel, scooped it up using a knife (or fork), tap the knife just a couple times against the side of the pot, and slide it off the knife onto the wax paper using a fork. You really cannot spend too much time doing this or it will take you forever and the peanut butter will melt. You'll be able to tell if the peanut butter is melting because you will start to see the hole in the pretzel. If that happens, you are going too slow and you need to speed up.

By the time you finish coating the pretzels, the first ones will already be hardened and you can start drizzling your toppings.

Melt your toppings in the microwave at half power for a minute, stir, then melt at half minute increments (half power) until melted. Remember to always stir because even if it doesn't look melted, it could be melted.

I just used a small spoon and carefully dragged it across the top of the pretzels with the melted chocolate and just tried to get a little each time. Your goal is to just get it drizzled, but you can put as much or as little as you want. You can also get fancy and pipe it on.

Let this harden. For me, the vanilla coating dried quickly but my milk chocolate wanted to stay soft so I actually put those ones in the fridge to help them harden.

In the first image above, I cut one in half so you can kind of see how the peanut butter is still soft and creamy on the inside!

The last image shows the original product I was going to imitate before deciding to add the extra peanut butter.