Sweet and Salty Christmas Treats

Back in December of 2011, Sean and I were living in a hotel in Colorado for our jobs at the time. We had just started dating and it was our first Christmas together. We wanted to get in the holiday spirit and the best way we knew how was of course with holiday snacks and treats! We jammed into his tiny hotel room kitchen and got to work melting chocolate and crushing peppermints. The result was a deliciously salty and sweet, chocolate covered pretzel candy, coated with our favorite toppings. We wrapped them up in festive gift bags and passed the tasty christmas treats out to our friends!

This time around, we used graham crackers and salty pretzels, dipped them in both dark and white melted chocolate and topped them with crushed peppermint, crumbled mint chocolate cookies, almonds and coconut. There are so many possibilities when it comes to topping these off. So, you can get creative and make these personal by using your favorite cookies and candies!

There's no real science or specific recipe for these, but you'll want to start by laying out your base, whether that's pretzels, crackers or cookies, on a baking sheet (parchment lined for easy clean up). No baking required here, it's just an easy way to lay out a larger amount of goodies. We melted around 1 cup of dark chocolate chips and 1 cup of white chocolate chips. You can use a double boiler to melt the chocolate, but we were a little short on time, so I popped them in the microwave for around 40 seconds, stirred, and continued heating in 20 second intervals until the chocolate was fully melted. So easy!

For the toppings, we crushed around 10 mint chocolate grasshopper cookies in a food processor until they're evenly broken down. We used these Keebler Grasshopper cookies that taste just like the Girl Scout Thin Mint cookies! We also crushed some candy canes in the food processor to use as a topping, but since these have a tendency to stick together if they sit out for a while, you'll want to do the peppermint last. We had some sliced almonds and coconut, so we threw those into the mix, too!  

Now's the part where you get your hands a little dirty! Coat the pretzels and graham crackers with melted chocolate and top with the crushed mint cookies and peppermints, alternating between white and dark chocolate. Not the neatest job, so if you want a little more control, you can pour the chocolate into a pastry or ziplock bag and cut a tiny piece off of the bottom corner. This way, you can add the chocolate in zig-zag patterns and then sprinkle on the toppings. After everything is coated and topped, pop into the refrigerator to let them set. Once the chocolate has hardened, your Christmas candy is good to go! 

Happy Holiday from The Craft Chew!