Pretzel Hugs

Hello!

Now, we all know I'm no Martha Stewart, but I found a couple more recipes worthy of mention... and I think you'll enjoy them, too!

The first one is another one of my Pinterest experiments. It is fast, easy, and wonderfully delicious.

The original post can be found here. 

The author calls them pretzel hugs. The name makes sense, but it gives me this image of pretzels being warm-fuzzy and huggable, which is weird. So, even though I love the food itself, I'm not sold on the name.


Here's the list of ingredients: 
 
Square Pretzels.
Hugs.


If you're eating pretzels, and have your arms wrapped around someone important... you're already halfway there! Put the pretzels down, and tell that someone important to go grab some Hershey's Hugs for you.

While they're gone, turn your oven on to 300 degrees. While it's heating up, line a cookie sheet with some wax paper, then lay out your pretzels. Then put your feet up, and wait for your chocolate to arrive.


Once your runner returns, you're into the fun stuff! Grab a bowl, and start unwrapping those little stripey gems of goodness.

I did not know this until now, but I have been opening Hershey Kisses at a SNAIL'S pace my whole life. I take a two-handed, peel-it-like-a-banana approach. Somehow, as if by magic, the hubsters is able to unwrap one of those little things with one hand in less than a second!

He laughed when he saw me staring in awe. Then he tried to teach me how to do it. And I failed. At least I know who to go to if I need an entire bag of chocolate candies unwrapped in less than 2 minutes!


ANYWAY.


Top each pretzel with a hug, like so:

Resist the urge to make the stripes line up. Just remember, once they're in the bowl, you won't be able to tell anyway. It's just not worth it!

I'm not OCD, what are you talking about??


Pop your treats in the oven for 2 minutes.

The original post says to be careful here. You don't want them to melt, they just need to be soft and shiny. Pull them out, then let them sit for another minute (they'll keep melting).

Then top each hug with another pretzel to make a little sandwich. Once you've topped each one, throw your cookie sheet in the fridge and let them cool for 30ish minutes.


My Experience

I laughed when I read that these were the "perfect" combination of sweet and salty. I would like to now publicly revoke my scoff. She was right, these are good.

The only thing I goofed on was not reading the amounts. A 1-pound bag of pretzels needs 2 bags of hugs. I only bought one, so when we realized how good these were, it was back to the store for the second bag!

A tip for the melty-ness: The first few hugs will feel a little hard in the middle, and you'll be worried that you didn't let them melt long enough, but just keep going! Somewhere around the 1/2 - 3/4 mark, they'll all be super melty. We just went back and gave a little tap to the first few we did to get them squishied down the way we wanted them.

A tip for the conservation: Hide them if you want them to last longer than a day. Ours were gone before we even realized! Put them in an air-tight, non-clear container, then shove it behind the lettuce in the back of the fridge.

A tip for the gifting: These look really cute in a little plastic bag with a ribbon tied on the top. I used them as a treat to give to a lady we visit teach.

A tip for mixing and matching: Momma Dennis suggesting dipping them in caramel and chocolate. (She clearly wanted more sweet than salty.)
A friend suggested using Rolos instead of Hugs, and they were yummy! They were just a little more chewy if refrigerated, so we let those ones stay at room temperature to make them easier to eat.

Really, it's up to you and the sky's the limit!