This idea, one of the most ingenious and simplest of ideas, was not my own. At least not entirely. In recent years, it’s been a habit of mine to keep a barrel of peanut butter filled pretzels in the back seat of my car – you never know when you’re going to get hungry. And now that I’ve joined the real world and began working, I keep a barrel in my desk drawer. I introduced a coworker to them and got him addicted. Shortly after, he shows up with a bag full of homemade chocolate covered goodies that look suspiciously like my pretzels. They were. And boy are they good. I snazzied them up a little by adding a pinch of sea salt but raw sugar would be great too. These pillow-shaped treats beg you to dive headfirst into the barrel and take a nap!
80 peanut butter filled pretzels
16 oz dark chocolate
sea salt or raw sugar, to garnish
Directions:
1. Break the chocolate into bite-sized pieces or smaller and place in a microwave safe bowl. Set the microwave to medium heat (about 50% power) for 5 minutes. Check the chocolate after 2 minutes and stir then return to the microwave, checking/stirring every 30 seconds. When only a few small chunks remain, simply stir until all chocolate has melted. If you want a thicker chocolate coating, you want the liquid chocolate to be thick and can put it in the refrigerator for a few minutes to help achieve this. If you want a thinner chocolate coating, keep heating the chocolate in the microwave to keep it thin.
2. Line a baking sheet(s) with wax paper. Drop the peanut butter filled pretzels into the bowl of chocolate, 2 or 3 at a time. Use a fork to turn the pretzels and ensure they get coated. Remove them with the fork and place on the baking sheet. After about 20-30 pretzels, stop to sprinkle the sea salt or sugar on top before the chocolate begins to harden. Repeat for the remaining pretzels. If the chocolate gets too thick at any point, reheat in the microwave for 20 seconds.
3. Place the baking sheet(s) in the freezer for about 15 minutes. Get out a large sealable container and cut a few pieces of wax paper to the shape of the container to make layers for the treats to sit on. Once the chocolate has set, remove the treats from the freezer, place in the container and store in the refrigerator.