I’ve always been a big fan of sweet and salty snacks, like these bacon cinnamon rolls or these bacon wrapped dates. There’s just something about sweet and salty together in one bite that always has me coming back for more. These Valentine’s Day pretzels are more sweet than salty but they still give you enough salt on the pretzels to give them that nice sweet and salty combo that’s so yummy. They’re my new go-to snack whether I’m planning a Valentine’s Day classroom party, a Galentine’s Day party, or just making a quick snack for my kids. Put a bunch in a little bag, and they’d even make a great prize for the winner of these Valentine’s Day games or for Valentine’s Day bingo! Plus, they’re so easy to make that you can make batches and batches of them in just a few minutes!
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
Easy – like I just mentioned, these are super easy to make. It’s just stack, bake, and dip! Versatile – while I’ve made these into Valentine’s Day pretzels, you could change the colors of the candy melts and sprinkles on the outside and use these for any holiday of your choice or a theme like we did with these Grinch snacks.Bite-size – sometimes you want a full dessert like a chocolate lava cake and sometimes you just want something you can pop in your mouth. These pretzels are the latter, and it’s one of the things that I love most!
Ingredients
Ingredient Notes
Caramels – you can use any caramels that you like as long as they’re soft caramels that will melt. So for instance, stay away from the hard Werther’s caramels, those aren’t going to melt properly. Candy melts – you can choose whatever colors you want for your candy melts, I just like the combination of pink, purple, and red for Valentine’s Day! And then I always like to have white on hand for drizzles!Sprinkles – you can also use sprinkles of your choice! I recommend avoiding any really large sprinkles since these are bite-size treats, but if you have some really cute ones you want to use – go for it!
How to Make valentine’s day Pretzels
These are as simple as can be, which is why I think you’re going to love them so much! And once you know how to make the basic caramel pretzel sandwiches, you can go crazy with your choice of toppings!
1 – Make the Pretzel Sandwiches
To start, preheat the oven to 375°F and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. Next, lay 24 pretzels out on the baking sheet in a single layer. You can put them fairly close together, but don’t allow them to touch. Unwrap the caramels and cut each one in half. Place a half of a caramel on top of each of the pretzels on the baking sheet.
Put the baking sheet in the oven for about five minutes, just until the caramels are softened. Remove from the oven and immediately place a pretzel on top of each caramel, pressing down slightly so they stick to the caramel. Allow to cool completely on the baking sheet.
2 – decorate the pretzels
Place the purple melts in a microwave safe bowl and melt for 30 seconds, then stir. Repeat until completely melted and smooth. You can add 1/2-1 teaspoon of coconut oil if needed to get a good consistency. Repeat for white and pink candy melts. Dip the caramel pretzels in the melted candies until they are about 2/3 covered then place back on the lined baking sheet. Repeat until all caramel pretzels are dipped in melted candy. If you are making a lot of pretzels, it might be easier to melt one candy melt color at a time rather than trying to do them all at once since the candy melts tend to harden fairly quickly when not in use. Take remaining candy melts from each bowl and place each in color in a separate piping bag or small baggie with the corner snipped off. Drizzle the leftover candy melts over dipped caramel pretzels, trying to vary the colors so that you have say pink and purple on one, purple and white on another, and so on. Immediately sprinkle with Valentine’s sprinkles or any other decorations you’d like. You want to make sure and do this as soon after drizzling the pretzels as possible so that the sprinkles have something to stick to. Once all of your pretzels are decorated, allow the candy melts to harden completely before serving. Otherwise, you’ll love all of those yummy sprinkles as you eat. These make great bite-size snacks or wrap up a bunch in a plastic baggie and add one of the cute tags I used on these Valentine’s Day baskets for a sweet gift!
Expert Tips
Melt the candy melts in a tall and thin container with a wide opening for easier dipping. This allows you to dip the pretzels in all the way without having to deal with a small opening. Tap the pretzels lightly in the air after you dip to get rid of excess candy melts before putting them on the baking sheet. This will give you cleaner pretzels without all the extra mess. Let kids help! There are a number of steps kids would be great helping with – putting the pretzels on the baking sheet, adding caramel, and drizzling and decorating the pretzels! I’d avoid having them help with the dipping and/or the placing pretzels on the melted caramel simply because they can both be hot. Store these at room temperature in an airtight container for up to five days. After that they will start going stale and just won’t taste great anymore.
More Valentine’s day Treats
If you liked these Valentine’s Day pretzels, make sure to check out these yummy treats too!
Valentine’s Day Rice Krispy Treats – these adorable rice krispy treats look just like conversation hearts!Layered jello desserts – these beautiful treats take layers of jello and Cool Whip to a whole new Valentine’s Day level! Snickers pie – chocolate, caramel, and whipped cream make this pie irresistible! Old-fashioned jello cake – this delicious raspberry poke cake has all the flavors and colors of Valentine’s Day! Brownie balls – chocolate lover’s will absolutely love these chocolate filled balls of delight!
