Quick and Easy Chocolate Pretzel Bites for St. Patrick’s Day

I know I said I was done with St. Patty’s Day, but I had to add one of my favorite treats – it’s so easy and quick that it just can’t be left out. This really may be the one of the quickest recipes I have. I’ve made this a number of times when I needed something at the last minute. Salty and sweet, I seriously don’t think you can ever go wrong with chocolate and pretzels. When I say these are quick, they are so quick that writing about them probably takes longer than making them. Here’s what you need…

Get yourself some small pretzels (I like the squares, but you can really use any shape), chocolate melting discs (some people use Hersey’s Kisses or even Rolo’s – you can easily do either) and some M&M’s. Here we go…

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Put a piece of foil on a cookie sheet and lay out however many pretzels you want to make.

Next put a chocolate disc on each pretzel.

After you’ve put a piece of chocolate on each pretzel, put it in to the oven. Baking time will vary based on your oven and what type of chocolate you use. I’ve had it take less than a minute, I’ve had it take two minutes (this tray did). I’ve never had it take too much longer than that, so stay close to the stove and ignore your kids until you take these out of the oven. When you give some to the kids later, they will totally forgive you.

You just want to melt them so that they are soft. You are not trying to cook them until they melt all over the pan. That would be a mess, and a mess would not be quick. I usually give mine a little touch to make sure they are ready.

Get your M&M’s ready. You will want to put them on to the chocolate right after you take them out of the oven. Some of them may crack, but that’s okay. They will still taste good, I promise. “Drop” an M&M on to each piece, and than lightly press it into the chocolate.

You will want to work fairly quickly, as the chocolate can start setting up. Usually my eight year old helps me do this. Unless I’m feeling lazy, and than she does it all. I figure learning to make chocolate pretzels will probably be more useful to her in life than geometry.

Let them cool. If you are in a super hurry, pop them in the fridge for a few minutes. Otherwise they take around an hour or so, but again, that totally will depend on what type of chocolate you use.

These are crazy good, especially considering how easy they are.

Put some in a cellophane bag or other container (I used the 49 cent containers I found at Michael’s) and you have a quick and easy gift. These will be going to school with my daughter tomorrow for her teacher.