Chocolate covered pretzels

CHOCOLATE COVERED PRETZELS

You may be thinking, "Chocolate covered pretzels. How hard could it be?" I went through many hours of trial and error after watching a show on the Food Network about a company that makes chocolate covered pretzels. I probably spent $200 and 40 hours before I finally figured out the best combination of ingredients and methods. I want to save you, my friends, hours of agony. Follow this formula. Do not deviate one iota and you will have professional looking and great tasting pretzels.

What you'll need:

• Rold Gold regular, normal pretzel-shaped pretzels. I found the thick pretzels hard to bite into and they overwhelmed the chocolate flavor. About half the pretzels in each bag are broken so take that into account. To make 144 pretzels I needed about six bags. Only I didn't know that so it involved four separate trips to the store from Woodacre to San Anselmo (not a quick trip) because Safeway was the only store that had the right pretzels.
  
• silicone parchment paper, not waxed paper
• tongs
• a glass or ceramic bowl
• dipping chocolate (dark or white only, milk chocolate does not taste or look as good in this case). I get mine at Cake Art in San Rafael, CA
  
• cookie sheet

Once I got everything sorted out the pretzels were much easier than baking cookies and I think they had a more dramatic effect or so I heard since I missed the cookie exchange at Heather's house last year.

OK now this is very important. DO NOT USE A DOUBLE BOILER. I wasted several bags of chocolates. The chocolate would turn white very quickly. I learned that you have to temper chocolate in a double boiler which involves a candy thermometer and turning the heat up and down at regular intervals.

Instead, use a glass or ceramic bowl only. Don't use all of the chocolate at once. Place enough in the bowl to create some depth for dipping. I melted the chocolate in stages to avoid ruining any more expensive chocolate. In between batches I thoroughly washed out the old chocolate and dried the bowl (water ruins chocolate).

Place the bowl of chocolate in the microwave for 30 seconds, remove and stir even if it doesn't look like its melted. Repeat this process for a maximum of three minutes. By then the chocolate should be melted. If not only go in 10 second intervals after the three minute mark to avoid burning the chocolate.

Place one pretzel at a time in the chocolate. Use the tongs to flip it. Once it is thoroughly coated lightly bang the tongs on the edge of the bowl to remove excess chocolate. Place pretzel on parchment. The chocolate should self heal if fluid enough. If it doesn't heal from the tong marks place it back in the microwave for a few seconds. Repeat until tray is full. Place tray in freezer for about ten minutes. If you want to add sprinkles do it while chocolate is soft. For real pizzazz melt a small amount of white chocolate in a small bowl. Place newspapers all over counter and floor. Dip a fork in the white chocolate and flick your wrist in a wide sweeping motion over the whole tray of pretzels to get a nice drizzle effect. Do this step only after the first layer is solid or has been frozen for at least ten minutes.

PRETZEL CANDY

Use the butter flavored waffle pretzels and dip them in white, red or green chocolate and coat them with red or green sprinkles and you will get something very close to candy. People were eating them like popcorn at my house last year. I can't even describe how delicious they were.

QUIZ: How many times did I use the word "chocolate"?