Chocolate Covered Pretzel Rods
Rather than making the traditional batch of brownies or cookies I went for CHOCOLATE COVERED PRETZEL RODS for our church bazaar bake sale. My sister in law’s friend Leah made some for a 4th of July party and they disappeared in a couple of hours (I might have had something to do with that), so I knew they could be a hit!
Since they would be sold at a bake sale and not just to friends I made sure to do everything in the most professional way. What does that mean? I disinfected our entire kitchen from head to toe and I thought of a fun way to present the pretzels for sale. Then I brought the candy shop to our house.
After thinking for a few weeks about what types of chocolate covered pretzel rods I wanted to make I decided on Oreo, Heath bar, mini chocolate chips, Reese’s pieces, and my personal favorite… walnuts. Really any candy that you can crush up into small pieces would work. I imagine these would make a great addition to any Halloween party if they were presented as chocolate covered fingers muhahaha.
Making them is pretty easy, but there are lots of different methods. Here is how I do it.
Directions:
1. Prep all of your toppings. Put each topping (walnuts, heath bar, etc) in a sealed ziploc bag and crush into smaller pieces. I used both a rolling pin and a mallet to achieve the desired size pieces. The toppings stick better to the chocolate when they are in really small pieces, so don’t be afraid to make the bits really small. Put all the bags of toppings aside except the one you are going to use, which you should pour out onto a piece of wax paper. Lay out a few more pieces of wax paper to put the finished pretzel rods on.
2. Heat semi-sweet chocolate chips in 30 second increments in a tall microwaveable mug, stirring between increments. Be careful not to burn the chocolate. For me and the amount of chips I used that meant about 3- 30 second periods in the microwave. After the 3 intervals some of the chips still weren’t completely melted but they melted with a little stirring.
3. Dip a pretzel rod into the melted chocolate, using a spatula to bring the chocolate up the rod, leaving about 1/2 inch of the rod uncovered. Scrape some of the chocolate off the rod with a spatula so that there is only a very thin layer of chocolate covering it. Roll the chocolate covered rod in your topping and place on a piece of wax paper. Repeat!
Tips & Thoughts
-I worked in small batches so the chocolate wouldn’t harden. Between each batch I washed my workspace, hands, and the mug and used new chocolate. I was worried about overheating some of the chocolate and ending up with those nasty white spots, but by working in small batches and not needing to reheat any of the chocolate I prevented that from happening.
-It took me a solid hour to crush all of the toppings in their bags, and it was tiring. Next time I would do that part of the task ahead of time. The whole process from start to finish, aside from cleaning the kitchen before and after, took about 3 hours. I made 110 pretzel rods.
-When dipping the rods in the chocolate I almost brushed or painted the chocolate off of the rod with the spatula. I noticed that the pretzel rods with thinner layers of chocolate held the topping much better than the ones that had thicker layers of chocolate.
-You eat with your eyes before anything else so present your baked goods nicely for bake sales! After debating using a ribbon or a simple gold round sticker and asking around on Twitter (I’m @rhodeygirltests) I decided to keep it simple with the sticker and then label each bag. The labels I chose were both simple and fun (for example: chocolate squared for the chocolate chip covered rod and candy bar for the trio of Heath bar, Reese’s pieces, and Oreo).
If these won’t make you crave sweets, I don’t know what will!
And yes, they all sold!
P.S. Have you checked out PB’s blog yet? Without my amazing husband’s help and support this blog wouldn’t be what it is today. I am so lucky to have such an amazing husband!
35 Responses to “Chocolate Covered Pretzel Rods”
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wow! those look professionally made
they look soooo yummy!
jenna
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You could definitely give those as little presents at Christmas! Excellent work.
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So, you want my address to ship me some of those?
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wow those look so amazing! love how you packaged them too! i’m going to have to remember these for the holidays.
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Beautiful! I would love to try these out on my own!
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Those are so creative and professional!
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These look amazing, Sabrina! I am going to make this for Christmas!!
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LOOOOVE sweet & salty!
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WOW SABRINA!!! those look really professional!! sooo pretty!!!
HAPPY MONDAY !!!!!!!!!!
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This just gave me a great idea for Christmas time!! They look amazing and who doesnt like chocolate covered preztles!!
I totally let the blog slide off my radar for a little while and it seems the longer I wait the harder it is to get back into it, but I miss it a lot!! Plus I have a giveaway so that now will kick my butt into gear and get me back on top of things. Seeing your comment definintely helped too 
My goal is by the end of the day today!!
P.S. thanks for your comment
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those look so amazing!
very gourmet. i can’t wait to meet at foodbuzz fest, i’m SOOOO excited!
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Those are some mean looking chocolate covered pretzels! I think you may have found your way to make millions! ($$$ that is!)
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I did these to go with my cookies for our annual cookie swap! They ARE a lot of work, and a huge hit!
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Glad to see these worked for you. They’re beautiful. I was thinking about making these for a friends Halloween party and you’ve solidified my decision…thanks!
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These look amazing! I love making all sorts of dipped pretzels. Thanks for some great new ideas!
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I’ve done plain pretzel rods but the candy rolled idea is genius!! They look so professional – well done
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BEAUTIFUL! I’m sure they tasted amazing. The sittoos and their batlawa are no match for these
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They look awesome!
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I made these too for Christmas. They were great and Isabella love to help out with decorating each one. We even made white chocolate covered preztels! Yummy!!
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ummm….those look INCREDIBLE! Way to go!
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Not only do I want to eat those, I can’t wait to make them! What a great idea for any holiday! Thanks!
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I can’t wait to make those! I have most of the ingredients but I love the different coatings you used! Great job!
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wow these look so original and delish!!
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These look wonderful….I was contipalting making these for our church bazar adn was wondering how much you sold them for? Was it worth it?
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Darcie- Thank you! We sold these in bags of 3 for $2.50. My cost/3 including packaging was $1.25 BUT I donated the pretzels so the church received 100% of the sales. If I hadn’t donated them the profit would not have been much as I used premium chocolate (Ghirardelli, etc) and higher cost toppings such as walnuts. However, if you used cheaper supplies I am sure it would be even more profitable.
I will also add that while I only made about 50 bags they sold quite quickly! Good luck and let me know how it turns out!
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wow! those look great.
i tried to make some earlier and used the round choc. candy that they sell in the craft stores but, what a mess. the choc. was too thick. any sugestions how to make the choc. thinner for dipping?
next time i will try the choc. chips.
thanks
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mary ann- Thanks! You can try adding some oil or shortening to thin it out a bit, although I have never tried it before. Good luck!
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OK! I just finished making these and am thrilled. I’m bringing them to a party tonight- thank you so much! I will post pictures on my blog next time I get a post up
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I’ll be making these! so excited, I bought white chocolate chips!
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I just made these using the smaller twisty pretzel rods because my Safeway didn’t have any of the longer ones, but the shorter ones still worked great. I dipped them in the dark chocolate then rolled some of them in milk chocolate chips and the others in the crushed peppermint. Amazing!! And my friends all love me just a little bit more now! =P
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so, what you’re telling me is that these are pure evil? seriously though, they look AH-mazing! so fun and easy to put together with friends and family too!
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I need to keep my focus and look at the more healthy recipes!
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Great job!
I’m having a bake sale …..and so am wondering….. how much did you sell each one for?
thank you for your reply
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Great job! and thank you for sharing…
I was wondering ….how much did you sell each pretzel rod for?
im having a bake sale in a week and was planning to sell
this item….. thank you
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RhodeyGirlTests Reply:
May 10th, 2010 at 7:51 am
@Anna, I believe we started at $5 for a bag of 3 and most of them sold. We then brought the price down to $3 and then $2 to sell the last few bags! Good luck at your sale!
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