I settled on a new variation on the no-bake, chocolatey treat... 'Pretzel Turtles'! After making them a couple weeks ago for co-workers and friends, I really wanted to make more because they are soooo tasty.
Just after pulling the rolo-topped pretzels from the oven. Shiny quality of chocolate means just warm enough to squish with pecan, but not too warm that caramel will ooze out and stick to fingers.
How to add an extra holiday touch? Sprinkles of course!
Pretzel Turtles
Ingredients:
- 20 small mini pretzels
- 20 chocolate covered caramel candies (ex. Rolos)
- 20 pecan halves
- Preheat oven to 300 degrees F (150 degrees C).
- Arrange the pretzels in a single layer on a parchment lined cookie sheet. Place one chocolate covered caramel candy on each pretzel.
- Bake for 4 minutes. While the candy is warm, press a pecan half onto each candy covered pretzel. Cool completely before storing in an airtight container.
Of course, there is a lot of variations on this special little treat. In addition to rolos, also tried hershey kisses and peanut butter cups. And as you saw above, I added red- and green-colored sprinkles to help them look more christmasy. Other ideas include drizzling white chocolate on top or topping with crispy m&m's instead of pecans.
These are peanut butter cups with red sprinkles only to help me keep track of which is which.
When using other types of candy you may want to adjust the amount of time you leave them in the oven. With peanut butter cups, I only needed about 1 1/2 minutes because otherwise the chocolate spills over the side of the pretzel. Hershey kisses were 1 to 1 1/2 minutes because they are smaller pure chocolate (nothing on the inside).