You may be able to tell from the color scheme of the M&Ms, but I originally planned to have these made and the post up by Valentine’s Day. I’ve been sitting on it and not wanting to post though cause honestly? Making these was like a comedy of errors. But when it comes right down to it, I originally created this blog to share my adventures in the kitchen– including the failures! It’s easy to only want to share the “perfect” stuff… I’ll let you in on a secret though. Even those chefs with super fancy food blogs have failures in the kitchen. They might even have a dirty stove top, and imperfect lives! Seriously. Blows your mind right?

So anyway, back to these pretzel buttons. They are a similar concept to the Rolo Turtles I posted a couple of weeks ago. I’ve had a simple pretzel button bookmarked for a long time, but then I saw this version with Hugs instead of Kisses on Pinterest and knew that I wanted to try it. And then everything went to hell!

The first batch I pulled out of the oven was PERFECT. The chocolate softened perfectly, they looked pretty, all was good. Then I decided that I wanted to try and hurry them along in setting up so I could have my pan back for another batch. I put the pan in the freezer to cool for a few minutes, which would have been fine, except I only have a small fridge top freezer. And my small fridge top freezer doesn’t have any shelves in it at all. So I had to balance the pan on top of what was already in there. While I was getting ready to take the second pan out of the oven, I heard it: “Shhhhhhh…. THUNK. thud thud thud thud thud.” Sigh. My pan of pretty pretzel buttons slid off of its perch, into the door of the freezer and piled on top of each other in a mess of pretzels and melted chocolate.

The second batch out of the oven melted WAY too much. The third pan out of the oven only melted about halfway. Almost all of them dried in a way that made them look scary even though they tasted good. I took the ones with the hugs (but not the ones with the Kisses I made at the same time) to work, and there were only about 4 left when I arrived for work the next morning. Everyone raved about how good they tasted. (Though, they were also there at the same time my boss left a container of really horrible brownies made from a box… maybe they were just amazing in comparison?! ) So the lesson learned there is even if your goodies don’t LOOK perfect, they can still taste good and be enjoyed!

Pretzel Buttons
Source: g*rated

Pretzels
Hershey’s Hugs
Plain M&Ms

Directions:
Preheat oven to 200°.
Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper or Silpat. Place the pretzels on and top them with the hugs.
Bake for 4-5 minutes until the chocolate is shiny and soft (but NOT melting – they should still hold their shape).
Carefully place an M&M in the center of each hug and press it down to spread the chocolate.
Allow to cool completely and enjoy!

It does not get easier than this. Seriously.

These turtles are all over the place around Christmas, and I actually bought the ingredients before Christmas last year but never got around to making them. I finally decided to get everything out, though, and I cannot figure out why it took me so long.

The most complicated part of making these is unwrapping the Rolos. And I read somewhere (after I had already purchased a bag of wrapped caramels) that you can just buy the rolls of Rolos that are at the check-out lane and you won’t have to spend any time unwrapping them at all! Genius!

You can use almost any shape of pretzels for this. I used small twists, but I’ve seen them made on the specialty holiday shaped pretzels, rings, the waffle looking squares that some brands have. Just lay out some pretzels and top each one with a caramel. Melt them in the oven for a few short minutes and then press a pecan half on top. Wait for them to harden. Or stick them in the freezer for a few minutes if you are impatient and need your pans free to make a batch of cookies or something.

The last step might actually be the hardest one of all– Try not to eat them all in one sitting.

Rolo Turtles

Pretzels
Rolos
Pecan Halves

Place pretzels in a single layer on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Place an unwrapped rolo on top of each pretzel. Bake at 250 degrees for 4-5 minutes (no longer), and remove from the oven. The rolos will be in the same shape coming out of the oven as they went in. Carefully press a pecan half onto each melted rolo. Placing the pan of turtles in the freezer for several minutes will help the rolos firm up enough for storage.