Ghostly Pretzel Rods & Cookie Headstones

I am in charge of dessert for Logi's kindergarten class Halloween party, and I decided I would create a graveyard of cupcakes and top them with frosting and Oreo cookies crumbled into dirt.  and then top the dirt with gummy worms, ghosts and headstones.  Very spooky and Very tasty!

 I buy bags of melting vanilla chips online.  I am certain you

can find at any baking supply store. 

Use a glass or stainless steel bowl, over a pot of water 

(only a few inches of water, as the water should never touch the 

base of the bowl) on medium heat.  Stir often.

Keeping the the double boiler on medium heat, I switched out bowls

and started melting some standard dark chocolate chips.

I used a spoon to coat the pretzel rods (broken in half, as I am going

to stick them in cupcakes and full size would be maj overkill). Then

set dipped (and dripped off, into bowl of coating) pretzels on a 

parchment lined tray to fully set up.

Melted dark chocolate.  Be responsible, don't like the bowl!

After melted turn the heat off, but leave over the warm water until

you are ready to transfer.  The best thing about working with melted 

chocolate, if it starts to harden, pop it on the heat for a minute and it

will quickly melt again!

I bought single layer cookies (this cookie is usually sandwich cookies,

so I was excited to find them as singles)  I placed them plain side up, on

a parchment paper lined tray.

Transfer the melted dark chocolate to a bottle. 

 They aren't perfect, but sure did turn out cute! 

 I used too many vanilla chips, so placed the excess melt on a piece

of parchment and spread out with a spatula to set.  I then broke

it up into bits and popped in a freezer safe bag and into the freezer for

a later date bake session. 

I will certainly post a picture, once these little goodies are plopped 

in the cupcake graveyard!!!

Final Product!
They were scrumptious and adorable!
Use my recipe for frosting, at the beginning of this
post, and use green gel to get the 'grass' then crush
Oreo cookies for the 'dirt'.

 So easy, cute and tasty = Halloween success!

Funky Dipped Pretzels...OMGeezy these are Easy!

We all have a friend who pays a cople dollars a pop, for a dipped pretzel rod...

what a rip off!  These tasty treats are so easy to make!  

What you need to create these treats:

2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

22 pretzel rods

Then all the goodies you can think up for topping the dripped pretzel rods...there are no limits to the possibilities!  My little sous chef (Logan) and I whipped these up while Zac and our friends from MN are up mountain, skiing for the day.  I just know they will love the Samoa-esque (yes, the Girl Scout cookie) goodies we top the chocolate pretzel rods with.  

 Fill a sauce pan with a couple inches of water,

then place a glass or stainless steel bowl over the sauce pan.

Make sure the bottom of the bowl does not touch the water.

Over medium heat, slowly melt 1 and 1/2 cups semi sweet chocolate chips.

(if you don't have a way of doing this, pop the chips in the
microwave, but be diligent...20 second intervals in the
microwave, and give a stir after each interval.)

Stir often. Be patient. You don't want to rush the

process, or the chocolate will burn.

 Heat until completely smooth.  Remove the

bowl from the sauce pan.

Stir 1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips into the melted 

chocolate.  This will help temper the chocolate (this is not
the proper way to temper, but it works just fine for this treat!).

 

I placed sweetened coconut flakes in a dry saute pan and toasted

over medium heat, keeping them moving in the pan with a fork.

Keep a watchful eye on the pan as the oils and sugars from the 

coconut will go from toasted to burnt in a jiffy.  

 After I removed the toasted coconut from the pan, I put in some

chopped raw pecans (yes, I recognize these are not in the beloved

cookies, but I think they make for a legit dipped pretzel).  Use

the same technique as for browning the coconut, as the pecans will

also go from lightly toasted to burnt wildly fast!

For the caramely goodness of the Samoa cookie, I decided to use

Heath Bits-o-Brickle (which is just the toffee bits, no chocolate...you 

will find the bag of bits in the same area as chocolate chips at the market)

All the goodies, ready for assembly!

Dip the pretzel, using a spoon to coat and then using the spoon to 

drag off excess chocolate.

If your chocolate starts to set up in the bowl, as you 

are working on dipping the pretzels, pop the bowl

in the microwave for 10 seconds, or pop the bowl 

back on the double boiler to make it smooth again.

Place the dipped pretzel on a Silpat or parchment

lined baking sheet.

Immediately sprinkle with the toppings.

The nice thing about me doing this, and working the 

kinks out before I share with you is that instead of sprinkling,

I ended up placing all the toppings on a plate and rolling the 

chocolate dipped pretzel in the goodies, then placed the 

fully dipped stick on the Silpat to set.  Easy Peasy!!! 

 

Allow the chocolate to set, and enjoy!

Report back the tasty treats you roll your dipped pretzels in!