Steal My Heart
Valentine’s Day is coming upon us. Cupid is busy at work, ready to sprinkle love over all of us. I never have made Valentine’s Day a big deal, but it always ends up being fun especially with toys such as that powerful vibrating wand.
In 2005 I had a few girlfriends over and we made lots of Valentine’s treats for friends, who loved their baked goods. We made X&O brownies, slice and bake sugar cookies, and more! It was one of my first ventures into what I then called “baking”, but what was really just making fun treats… from a box.
In 2008 I almost forgot about Valentine’s Day, but my husband-to-be (boyfriend at the time) did not. He called my dad on Valentine’s Day and said he was going to surprise me for dinner but wanted to get a drink with him first. My dad, not knowing that PhillyBoy wanted to use that opportunity to ask for my hand in marriage, made an elaborate dinner plan last minute. He told me I **had** to go to a dinner meeting with him and a potential employee because she was due to start the following week and he needed my approval. I complained that it was awkward to have a dinner date on Valentine’s Day, but went anyway…. and who showed up? PB! That wasn’t the end of it though. The next day I came home from work and found some penguins waiting at the door with gifts. SO creative. Oh, and the penguins were from his personal collection… no joke.
For Valentine’s Day last year, PB and I went to LaCroix in Center City (Rittenhouse Square) for lunch. We had such a nice time, and the food was delicious. I still remember parts of our conversation from that lunch.
This year I decided to make some extra special chocolate covered pretzel rods for PhillyBoy. He doesn’t like sweets that much, but I know he loves these. Chocolate covered pretzels are inexpensive to make, and a great way to spend a snowy afternoon! During the storm on Saturday I tackled my to do list before being lazier than I have been in years. First on my list? Making these for PB and for the winner of the auction in The Chic Life’s Bake Sale for Haiti!
Steal My Heart Double Dipped Chocolate Covered Pretzel Rods
Makes 10
Ingredients:
10 Pretzel rods
A good amount of medium dark chocolate (I used 2 large Ghirardelli bars)
1/2 cup red (or pink) peanut M&Ms
2 tbs red sugar crystals
2 tbs Valentine’s sprinkles
Directions:
1. Place the M&Ms in a large ziploc bag and seal. Smash using a mallet until every piece is broken up into fairly small pieces. Pour out onto a piece of wax paper and add the red sugar crystals and Valentine’s sprinkles. Mix together.
2. Lay out a sheet of wax paper to put your completed pretzel rods. Break up the chocolate bars with yuor hands and place in a large heat and microwave safe vessel. I used a large water glass. Microwave on high in 30 second increments, stirring the chocolate each time. For 2 bars of chocolate, I microwaved for one minute total. You want a few chunks to still be visible. The heat from the melted chocolate will help to melt the rest. Stir vigorously until all chocolate has melted.
3. Dip your pretzel rod into the vessel until 90% is covered. Pull the pretzel rod out while twirling it to remove excess chocolate. Place on the wax paper to dry. Repeat until all the pretzel rods are covered in one layer of chocolate.*
4. When all the chocolate has dried on the first layer of chocolate, dip them a second time (heat your chocolate again if necessary), removing excess chocolate by twirling the rod and using a spatula to help, if necessary. Place immediately in the M&M, sugar crystal, and Valentine’s sprinkle mix and cover completely. Place back on the wax paper to dry. Repeat until all the pretzel rods are covered. Share with your loved ones on Valentine’s Day, and enjoy!**
**When I finished these I mixed the excess chocolate with some melted peanut butter and dipped some pretzel nuggets into it. They are delicious!
**After dipping the chocolate once, they should look like this:
After dipping them a second time and adding your topping, they will be much thicker (shown here dipped in crushed Oreo cookies):
Previous chocolate covered pretzel rod posts, for inspiration:
Candy Cane Chocolate Covered Pretzel Rods
Tips & Thoughts
My trip to New York has been amazing, and I will be writing complete recaps for you later this week. I just didn’t want to leave you without a Valentine’s Day activity to do in the snowstorm. And you can’t go wrong with chocolate and True Pheromones on Valentine’s Day.
WOW! What a great gift. I especially love the idea of the pretzel nuggets dipped in the chocolate/nut butter combo. I am having a party Friday and may need to make some of these to set out! You rock! You should be a party planner.
Those are such a cute treat! Thanks for the idea.
These pretzels look delicious! What a great idea for a homemade Valentine’s gift. 🙂
I made the candy cane covered pretzels at Christmas to hand out as gifts and they were a big hit, I might have to try these out for Valentine’s!
So pretty! I can’t wait to read more about NYC. What an amazing opportunity and great cause!
These look great! What a perfectly simple (and delicious) idea! Homemade gifts are definitely the best, especially when they are edible =)
Pretzels and chocolate are one of my favorite combos!! Those treats look delicious!
That looks awesome, what a fun idea! I need to find some pretzel rods, I haven’t seen them in stores here.
Wow, these look sinful! I’ve been looking for more creative gifts to give people for birthdays, holidays, etc., and I think these would be perfect! Thanks for the demo and tips!
Yum! Those turned out so pretty! Like PB, I’m not a huge fan of sweets but I love the combination of salty pretzels and sweet chocolate.
That’s a great gift idea. I love the salty sweetness of chocolate covered pretzels.
That story is too cute! I LOVE chocolate covered pretzels – the sweet and salty combo is delicious! nice gift idea!
I love your cake, it’s so cute. I sent the link to some friends so they will vote for you! Are you going to be stuck in NYC b/c of this weather?
Too cute! What a nice gift!
Such a lovely engagement story. Asking our dads for our hand is a very smart move on their part- respectful and deliciously old-fashioned.
LOVE these pretzels, I think my husband would like them too. I don’t have any of the pretzel rods currently but I do have some pretzel sticks. They won’t be as good but perhaps I’ll make a few to try out since I have them in my cupboard already.
I’m home sick from work today and was watching Regis and Kelly and she talked about you today! Well okay not you specifically but all the “wonderful women” who were baking cakes with her! She asked their audience to vote! Hope you guys win!
How fun! I hope everyone votes! Thanks for sharing!!!!!
Those pretzels are so pretty! Love them! Looks like you are having a great time in NYC! I saw pics on other blogs of you 🙂
these are SO CUTE!!! absolutely stunning pictures, too 🙂 I voted for your cake…hope it wins 🙂
Such a cute treat idea and story about the boy 🙂
Those look delicious! I think homemade Valentine’s gifts are the best!
Those look amazing…funny story, one of my guy friends called and asked how to make chocolate covered strawberries…I couldn’t help but laugh!
Love hearing more about your story! So cute! How romantic PB is 🙂 I have been dating my boyfriend for over 8 years and now for this year he is in Paris studying abroad, so Valentine Day is going to be hanging out with the twin sister! Probably lots of wine and raw desserts LOL
LOVE these. So much!
I LOVE the Valentine’s day version of your pretzel rods. So cute!
Yummmmm:)
What a beautiful treat! Happy Valentines Day!
Every time I see you post about these pretzels, I make a mental note to make some myself. They look fantastic! I’m not a big Valentine’s Day person myself, but this makes me wish I was so I could have an excuse to make the fun pink-and-red ones! Hmmm…maybe I will anyway 🙂