Chocolate Covered Pretzels

pretzel rods

chocolate chips (semi-sweet, milk, or dark)

white chocolate bark or candy coating

wax paper

tall, straight glass

fork

Pour chocolate chips into the glass.  Microwave for 30 seconds to a minute.  Stir with a pretzel (this will be difficult at first--don't force it).  Continue to microwave 15-30 seconds at a time, stirring between each, until chocolate is melted and smooth.  Using the pretzel, pull chocolate to the rim of the glass and begin twisting the pretzel, leaving a generous amount of chocolate.*  Place on waxed paper.

After you have dipped all the pretzels and lined them up on waxed paper, microwave a block of white chocolate bark for 15-30 seconds, stirring with a fork until melted and smooth.  Drizzle back and forth over the pretzels.  Let dry for a couple of hours or overnight.**

Bag one or two pretzels in Wilton Pretzel Bags (they can be found at Walmart in the cake decorating aisle).  They come with silver ties, but I usually tie the tops with curling ribbon and a little Christmas card.

I've found you can get about 20-24 pretzels per bag (dip the broken ones too though!) and that you need about 1 12 oz bag of chocolate chips per pretzel bag.  Kathryn and I dipped four bags of pretzels in about 35 minutes, resulting in 92 pretzels!

*If you like TONS of chocolate, just dip the pretzels and pull them right out of the chocolate.  But this will make it necessary to use A LOT more chocolate.  I prefer a lighter coat of chocolate--and I even like the pattern made by twisting the pretzel out of the chocolate.

**Warning!  You have not tempered the chocolate, so it may bloom!   It's still okay to eat--but if you pass them out within the next day or so, they're usually fine and get eaten before any blooming happens.  But no guarantees here.