Initially, I planned to make chocolate covered pretzel rods. As Christmas approached, I realized that making enough for all the teachers (6 in total) would take up a lot of space. When I saw a recipe for pretzel hugs in my blog reader, I knew it would be perfect. They were super easy to make and didn’t take up too much space in the fridge before they were gifted to the teachers.
I used 3 bags of Hershey Hugs so we had a bunch of pretzel hugs leftover after the gifts were all made. I set them out on Christmas and they were snapped up in a flash!
Pretzel Hugs
Ingredients:
– 1 pkg of Hershey’s Hugs
– 1 pkg red and green M&Ms (I used peanut AND plain.)
– Square shaped pretzels
Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 200 degrees.
2. Line a cookie sheet with wax paper and place a single layer of the pretzel on the paper.
3. Remove all foil wrapping from each hug and place one on the center of each pretzel.
4. Place in the oven for 3 – 4 minutes until the hug starts melting.
5. Take it out of the oven and immediately press 1 or 2 M&Ms onto the top of each hug.
(It’s nice when your 4 year old decides to pick up the camera and document the process. Perhaps I have a future blogger on my hands?!?!)
6. Let the cookie sheet cool for a while and then place it in the fridge for the pretzel hugs to set.
I packaged these in clear plastic treat bags, put them inside Christmas-themed pails ($1 each from Walmart) with a little sparkly Santa gift tag peaking out!
Tips:
– I think that the peanut M&Ms were better than plain. The chocolate + pretzel + peanut was a win. I think the plain M&Ms were good…but the peanut just made it even better.
– I found that it was easier/less messy to push the M&Ms in the hug if you let them cool a bit after coming out of the oven. They still were soft enough to hold the M&M but you had less gooey spillage off the pretzel when they had cooled a bit.
– You could easily do this for other holidays with color appropriate M&Ms (Halloween, Easter, etc). I plan to make these more frequently than just at Christmas!
Recipe originally from Simply Kelly Designs.