Sweet & Salty Snack

Who doesn’t love a good snack?

Snacks are a key part of any trip whether you’re in a car, truck, minivan or RV.  When the boys were little, we were fully stocked in the snack department.  Protein snacks, sweet snacks, salty snacks; we had it all.  You know what, that hasn’t really changed.  I still make sure we have sunflower seeds, nuts, chips, cookies and crackers.  I try to be ready for whatever anyone might want to munch on during our long drives.

I stumbled upon these little gems years ago at a classroom party.  I asked the mom how to make them but never wrote it down and after a bit of time, forgot all about them.  Then I saw waffle pretzels at the store and suddenly remembered how good they were and decided to make them.  I do remember the mom at school told me that the new Hershey Hugs melted better than the regular Hershey Kisses so I grabbed a bag of hugs and some M&M candies and threw them in the shopping cart with the pretzels.

The super-fun part of this snack is you can change up the M&M’s for any holiday using the special colored bags they always have.  I used the their fall harvest bag this time.  I’ve also made them with red, white and pink around Valentine’s Day.  There’s light green, dark green and white around St. Patrick’s Day, pastel colors around Easter, red and green at Christmastime and my favorite color combination of red, white and blue for our patriotic summer holidays.

I knew the oven temperature was key because I only wanted the kisses soft enough to press the M&M on.  Soft, not completely melted.  A shiny kiss was what I was looking for.  I looked online for recipes and wow, there are a lot of them.  Some had a higher oven temp with just a minute or two and some had a lower temperature for as long as 6 minutes.  That seemed a bit long and I wasn’t sure if 2 minutes at 350 would be too hot.  So I settled on the lowest temperature for my oven, 170 degrees.  I figured if I kept my eye on them I could catch it before they became too soft and “wilty.”   My oven can be finicky, so cooking time is sometimes as short as three minutes and other times as long as five minutes.  90% of the time they are ready at four minutes. I set the time for three minutes and watch it from there.

Total time depends on the temperature of your house as to how long it will take for the chocolate to fully solidify again.  I’d plan on at least an hour.  You want the chocolate to be solid again so they don’t stick together when you put them in a container.  These will keep for a long time but they are always eaten within a day or so.

Begin with a sheet of parchment paper on a cookie sheet and lay out a bunch of pretzels on the parchment paper.  How many you make depends on how many kisses are in the bag.  You’ll need to weed out the broken pieces (perfect for snacking later).  This is also RV friendly, will just take a few batches with the smaller cookie sheets that the smaller ovens require.

Next, place a kiss on each pretzel and put in the oven.

I set my oven at 170 degrees.  If your oven won’t go that low, then use the lowest setting on your oven.  Remember to watch them carefully.  For the first time, I’d set the timer at three minutes then again in one-minute increments until the kisses are shiny but have not wilted over or are totally melted.

Take them out of the oven and immediately start placing an M&M on each kiss, pressing in gently.  Call me crazy, but try to have the M face up when I press it into the kiss.  Now comes the hard part; waiting until the chocolate sets.  I have a 4-cup plastic container that fits one cookie sheet full perfectly.  I dare you not to sample a few while you’re waiting.

Print Recipe

Sweet & Salty Pretzels

• One bag Hershey’s Kisses, Hugs unwrapped
• One bag waffle pretzels
• One bag M&M candies

Heat oven to 170, or lowest temperature for your oven.  Place parchment paper on cookie sheet.  Lay out lots of waffles flat on parchment.  Place one kiss on each pretzel.

Heat in oven for 3-5 minutes depending on the temperature and your oven.  Kisses are ready when they are shiny but are still holding their shape.  Remove from oven and place one M&M on each kiss, gently pressing in.  Let cool completely on counter until kiss is firm again.

Store in container with lid, if they last that long.