Valentine Pretzel Bites (Take Two)

A couple of years ago we discovered this amazingly easy (and quick) Valentine’s recipe, thanks to one of my sister in laws! (Head here to see how little they were when we made them for the first time!) These Chocolate M&M Pretzel Bites are GREAT to do with kids; mine loved peeling the Hershey Kiss wrappers when they were tiny and they loved doing it again. Side note, I can’t believe they are six and seven, WHY are they so grown!?

Okay, here’s how to make these, seriously it is so dang easy:
-Spread out a bunch of square pretzels on parchment paper on a cookie sheet
-Place unwrapped Hershey kisses on each pretzel
-Put them in a heated oven (170-degrees) for 4-5 minutes until the Kiss is SOFT, not all the way melted
-Press a M&M on each Kiss gently (I love to use the pink and white ones during Valentine’s month, but really you could do Christmas colored ones or just regular!)

I like to put the tray in the fridge for 15-20 minutes to let them get nice and cold, and then I transfer them to a freezer size Ziplock bag. We snack on these days DAYS, and they make GREAT little gifts. Recently I made two batches and took them to our teacher’s lounge at work and if you know us teachers, we LOVE to snack!!

(Fun fact, we made a batch of these and had the oven set at 200 degrees….the M&M would NOT press in to the Kiss and some of them started to crumble! Lesson learned and thank God for GOOGLE because apparently we burned the chocolate! We read that 170-degrees is a great temp, and that’s what we used for two other batches. It worked GREAT. Don’t burn your chocolate!)

Do your kids like to bake with you or help in the kitchen? When we did this I thanked our daughter Reese and she said, “Mom, I’ll always help you. That’s why I’m your daughter.” These kids, Y’all….they bless me beyond measure and I LOVE these sweet memories we create!

PS: If you make these Pretzel Bites, find me on Facebook or Instagram (@ashley_glass on Insta) and mention me in your story or post! I would to see and connect with you there. Happy Valentine’s Day, Friends! Thanks for reading!

xox

Valentine's Day Pretzel Bites

This past Christmas my sister-in-law and her children were making pretzel bites for the kids to gift their teachers. Her three were sitting at their kitchen table, carefully unwrapping every Hershey's Kiss©, and my son eagerly joined them. She told me that it was a great activity to help them stay busy, because they seriously focus so well on individually unwrapping each one to place on top of the pretzels.

While I scrolled Pinterest in search of Valentine's goodies, I remembered this idea! There's lots of variations of it, but we chose to do mini pretzels, kisses, and valentine themed m&m's for ours this morning. My kids were so excited to do this together, and I made a whole Instagram story of them unwrapping and chatting, giggling together and talking about how I would put the m&m's on top after they had warmed in the oven. 

They of course intermittently asked, "Mommy, can I eat one??" to which I obliged because they were doing SO well. And together, they finished the entire task all by themselves! That's a lot of pretzels for a three and four-year old! So here's how you do it, though I feel like it's pretty self-explanatory based on the pictures ;) 

-Buy your favorite [or cheapest in my case] brand of mini pretzels
-Hershey Kisses
-M&M's [we used the Valentine's themed]

-Pre-heat oven to 300°
-Line up the pretzels over wax paper on a cookie sheet
-Have kiddos unwrap the kisses and set on top of the pretzels
-Put cookie sheet w/ pretzels + chocolate in the oven for about 3 minutes
-Gently press m&m on each pretzel

And then I put ours in the fridge to get nice and solid. The kids had a few after their lunches and they LOVED them. I keep opening the fridge and snacking on them in between writing this blog post, brewing coffee, and rotating laundry, ha! 

Easy

Time-Consuming for Energetic Kiddos 

DELICIOUS! 

The recipe to THE perfect rainy and cloudy afternoon, at least in my book! Enjoy, y'all! And thanks again to my sis-in-law Jana for the idea! She is the best!