The Gluten-Free Homemaker

I had a casserole recipe all ready to share with you this week, but it didn’t seem appropriate for Christmas week.  I don’t have any great dinner ideas for you (I’m still working on that myself) so I though I would share an easy peasy snack idea that also makes great little gifts.

While these are very easy to make, it does take a little time.  After all, pretzels are pretty small and you can only do one at a time.  If you have kids, get them involved.  It’s fun and you’ll get them done faster.

Candy Coated Pretzel Recipe

Ingredients

• Small pretzel sticks (I like Glutino brand)
• Candy wafers (I found them at a craft store)
• Sprinkles
• Wax paper

Instructions
I bought two bags of candy wafers ($1.79 each in case you’re wondering).  I didn’t know how much I would need, but they actually go a long way.  It is the sprinkles that I have run out of. 



Start by melting a small handful of wafers in a bowl.  Follow instructions on the package for melting in the microwave.  Don’t use too many, because it starts to cool and harden after a while.  Once the wafers are melted, I find it easiest to use a soup spoon to dip up some of the coating .  It is easier than getting the pretzel down into the bowl, but do whatever works for you.  Spin the a pretzel stick around in the coating covering about half the pretzel.



Have some sprinkles pour out onto a plate.  Lay the pretzel on the sprinkles then lift it up and turn it. Put it down again and continue until it is cover in sprinkles.  If you try to spin the pretzel, the coating will bunch up so it works better to lift and turn.  Place the pretzel on a piece of wax paper and keep going until you run out of coating.



The above picture shows red sprinkles on a red coating.   I found that the colored coating didn’t make a lot of difference and it limited me to using a matching color of sprinkles.  Next time I will buy only white and skip the food coloring.  Red sprinkles on white coating looked almost as good.  Can you tell the difference?


You probably see a little white showing on the bottom one, and the red color isn’t quite as strong, but really no one will care.  I also added green sprinkles to the white coating and mixed colors.  I like the mixed colors with the white showing through.  I achieved the look by dropping or shaking sprinkles onto the wet coating.


Once the pretzels have cooled to room temperature the coating should be hardened.  You can them store them in an airtight container or try putting them in candy bags to give a gifts.

Note:  I tried using twisted pretzel shapes, but it was much more difficult and not worth the trouble.

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This recipe is linked to Tempt My Tummy Tuesday and Tasty Tuesday.

Labels: appetizer and snack recipes