Smarty Pretzel Treats

Makes about 140 treats

Baking Temperature: 250 degrees (bake, not convection)

Time: 2 - 4 minutes

These bite-sized treats combine the sweetness of chocolate with the salt and crunch of a pretzel. Perfect for filling treat bags or accenting cookie plates. Great for any holiday, just coordinate your M&M colors with the season! So fun an easy to make, you can put them together an hour or two before a party.

Note: oven temperatures vary so test different times and temperatures on a small batch before starting.

Ingredients:

1 bag (12 oz) milk chocolate Hershey's kisses
1 bag (12 oz) dark chocolate Hershey's kisses
1 bag (10 oz) mini pretzels (either the mini twists or classic, or the window pretzels)
1 bag (12 oz) milk chocolate M&M's (you need one for each treat, so a smaller bag would do)

On an ungreased cookie sheet, place pretzels to be decorated. Using one kind of chocolate for each baking (dark and milk chocolates have different melting points so it works well to bake only one type at a time), place a Hershey's kiss chocolate in the middle of each pretzel. Once you have filled the tray, place it in the oven at 250 degrees for 2 - 4 minutes.

Carefully remove the tray from the oven (the pretzels slip around on the tray) and let the treats sit for 10 to 20 seconds before adding the M&M's.

Press one M&M down onto the tip of the melted Hershey's kiss. This will help press the kiss into the pretzel and solidify the M&M in the chocolate. If you feel some resistance from unmelted chocolate, let the tray sit for another 10 seconds to let the heat penetrate deeper into the kiss.

Once you have topped all the treats with M&M's, let the trays cool, then transfer them to the refrigerator for further cooling. Let them sit in the refrigerator for about 1/2 an hour before removing from the tray with your fingers.