Quick Goody Bites

There are times that call for a shortcut. Let's say, for example, that you have a Christmas cookie decorating party one day, and there are a lot of leftover cookies. And let's say that you could use those leftover cookies to make pretty Christmas goody trays for your neighbors. But then suppose you your greedy children eat all of those leftover cookies, and there is nothing left for the neighbors. And let's further suppose that you have procrastinated and not made any other goodies.

Of course that's just a hypothetical, but it really could happen. Really it could. And if it did, you would need a quick, easy solution: homemade chocolate covered pretzels. OK, so the pretzels are not homemade, but these have a nice homey touch anyway.

Here are the simple ingredients:


Why, yes, that is a 72 oz. bag of chocolate chips. I do see how some might think my relationship with chocolate unhealthy. In my defense, we made a trip to Sam's this past weekend.

Melt the chocolate in a double boiler. I actually prefer using a large glass bowl over a pot of boiling water. The glass bowl is wider and therefore easier to bathe the pretzels in. Plus, it does not have that obnoxious groove all of my double boilers have had; the groove is so difficult to clean.



Then submerge the pretzels in the chocolate. Lucky pretzels.



(Sidebar: According to something I saw sometime on Food Network, there is a spa in Hershey, PA, which offers a chocolate bath. I've joked about bathing in chocolate before. Now that I live in the Arctic, I am so close to Hershey, PA, it is actually a possibility. I just need to convince my husband to fork over the hotel points so I can spend a day (or two) in the chocolate city.)

Using a skewer or some other tool that will get the job done, fish the pretzels out of their chocolate bath and let some of the excess chocolate drip off. It is entertaining to watch all of the chocolate designs the drips form in the bowl. Isn't chocolate divine?



Let the bathed pretzels drain and dry.



Now it's ready to decorate. You need two pastry bags for each color of chocolate you will decorate with. I use the disposable ones because who wants to try to clean chocolate out of a pastry bag in order to reuse it? Not me. You also need chocolate wafers in the colors of your choosing. You can get these at Michaels or Hobby Lobby (I miss Hobby Lobby). Most normal Wal-Marts that are not the Wal-Mart down the street from me carry them also.

Place the chocolate wafers in one bag and place that bag in the second bag (this will keep water from getting into the chocolate filled bag). Fill a glass with very hot water and submerge the double bagged chocolate wafers. Give it a few minutes so the chocolate can melt, then snip off the very tip of the inner bag that contains the chocolate. Now, with a flick of your wrist, swirl the chocolate all over the pretzels. It's very technical.



Well, not so much.



Had I not been working so hard to fend off hungry little fingers, I would have a picture of the finished product in the cute little goody boxes...