Pumpkin Pretzels

While summer has its fun, fall has always been my favorite season. The cool, crisp air, changing leaves, hot apple cider, and bonfires are some of my favorite things.  The start of school signals the end of summer, and my mind has turned to all things autumn.  Log cabins and pumpkins are just two of my inspirations this week.  I ran across a cute pretzel pumpkin on Butter With a Side of Bread and decided to give it a try myself with several tweaks. You only need a few ingredients: mini pretzels, candy bark, coconut oil, food coloring, and green M & M's.

Pumpkin Pretzels:

-One bag of mini pretzels
-One package of white candy bark
-One package of M&M's with the green ones sorted out
-Red and Yellow food coloring
-1 Tablespoon of coconut oil (you can also use shortening)

I began by melting the candy bark.  You could use white chocolate chips, but chocolate can be so much harder to work with.  Since I have three young children, I only have time for easy.  The bark comes in cubes, just pop the cubes into a microwave safe container, and heat for 1 minute in your microwave.

Remove from microwave, stir in the coconut oil, and return to the microwave for 30 second intervals until the bark looks like this:

Now you are ready to add the food coloring.  I went with 14 drops yellow to 1 drop red, but it was too pale.  I continued to add a few red drops at a time until my candy coating reached the orange color I liked.  At this point, the real fun begins.  You simply dunk your pretzel in the orange coating, covering it well, and lay it on a sheet of parchment or wax paper to set. Don't forget to set the green M&M sideways in the little pretzel dip on top while the candy is still soft.

I will confess that your hands will most likely get quite messy.  There is no delicate way to dunk pretzels.  However, the end result is more than worth it.  My pretzel pumpkins set in 30 minutes, and are completely adorable.  Aside from the cuteness factor, they are a scrumptious mix of salty and sweet all wrapped up in one. They would be a cute addition to any fall Candy Cottage. Happy Pretzel Dipping!