Pretzel hugs made with plump Valentine's peanut butter M&M candies certainly speak my love language; how about you? What says "I Love You" better than sweet and salty chocolate treats so dainty and bite-sized, I can eat them by the handful? Nothing!
This delightful confection should not be limited to the Christmas holiday when so many other occasions cry out to be celebrated with something sweet and delicious!
The most time-consuming part of this little pretzel hugs "recipe" is unwrapping all the Hershey's Hugs and sorting through the pretzels to find the unbroken ones. Quick young hands are made for this task, and mine are neither!
Preheat the oven to 250 degrees. Next, you'll need to line the pretzels up like little soldiers on a parchment-covered baking sheet, again, a great activity for nimble hands.
Then, center an unwrapped hug on each pretzel and stick them in a 250-degree oven for about 5 minutes, just enough so the Hug begins to melt- watch closely; it happens fast!
The Hug takes on a shiny appearance, and the tip begins to lose its point; that's when you know it's time to remove them from the oven! Please keep a close eye on them; every oven is different. They need to retain their kiss shape for the best results.
While the Hug is still soft, carefully place an M&M candy on each one. My youngest granddaughter helped me make them at Christmastime, and she has such quick, steady hands! She even put each M&M candy face down (sorry, Mars Candy company) and perfectly dead center on every single pretzel with Hershey's kisses!
Perfection and precision have never been my gift, but loving intentions are, so I pressed on, and while mine are not as Pinterest-worthy as some, they are extra delicious with that plump peanut butter M&M, even though they're slightly off-center!
The hard part happens now: waiting for the candy to get firm enough to take the pretzel hugs off the sheet! It takes at least an hour for the candies to set up.
I don't know about you, but I love watching bloopers and outtakes from TV shows and movies. They make me laugh so hard! Everyone who writes about food has them, too. So full disclosure here: look at the latest (but thankfully still edible) failure from GB's Kitchen!
I am fascinated with the endless creativity of candy companies like Hershey's and Mars and how they crank out goodies for every occasion. I thought these strawberry-filled Hershey's chocolate kisses would be outstanding for my Valentine's pretzel hugs.
Things did not go as planned, to say the least. I asked Papa to help because he has amazing hand-eye coordination and dexterity. It was totally unfair. I did not intentionally set him up to fail.
While they are still quite delicious, I had no idea the weight of a single plain M&M would cause the Hug to collapse and rupture the strawberry center. The results looked like candy carnage on a muddy battlefield that would sadden even Pollyanna. RIP chocolate strawberry kiss pretzel hug.😥
Fortunately, we made plenty of the other pretzel hugs with white chocolate candies, so we have a nice batch to share! This little treat is easy to do and keeps well in a tightly sealed container.
PRINTABLE RECIPE CARD
A quick and easy last-minute sweet and salty treat with just three ingredients.
We must keep these yummy candies in a tightly sealed container and hide them from ourselves in the deep freeze because they are so easy to pop in your mouth one after another! I hope you make some for your Valentine!
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Love GB (Betty Streff)
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