Chocolate & Pecan Pretzel Candies

If you love the fusion of sweet, salty and nutty flavors, you’re going to love these easy Chocolate & Pecan Pretzel Candies.

The rich, smooth chocolate envelops crunchy mini pretzels creating bite-size flavor this is both indulgent and super easy to make.

But this post is about more than a yummy and distinct flavor combination.

I’m also sharing ideas for elevating this simple, homemade treat for next-level gift giving that will look more like it came from a fancy boutique than your own kitchen.

I found this recipe on the back of a Rolo candy bag, but I’m making these goodies look a whole lot better.

A bit further down in this post, I think you’ll enjoy seeing my fun way of wrapping up these goodies for lovely gift giving that makes its own grand and lovely statement.

Let’s talk about the delicious ingredients first.

You’ll only need three ingredients for these bite-size treats.

1. Rolo candies (there’s a spot of caramel inside the chocolate),
2. Whole pecans
3. Mini pretzels.

This trio of ingredients is yummy by themselves, but when married with each other, it’s just the right amount of sweet, salty and crunchy, with a tiny twist of caramel thrown in.

I’ve made these treats using Rolo milk chocolate and dark chocolate, and both are equally delicious.

However, I will say, from a visual standpoint, I prefer the dark chocolate because it provides a much better contrast against the light brown pecans and pretzels, (which is much better for photos).

Spread the pretzels on a parchment paper-covered baking tray and place a single Rolo candy at the center of the pretzel before baking.

The first time I made these, I watched the oven like a hawk, expecting the chocolate to melt down and puddle into the pretzel below it.

That doesn’t happen.

The short amount of time in the oven (just 3 minutes), simply softens the chocolate and does not completely melt it.

As soon as the tray is pulled from the oven, press a single pretzel down into the soft chocolate and that’s what will flatten it and give the candy that cute little “turtle” shape.

Refrigerate the tray of treats for about an hour, so the chocolate firms up.

You can store you candies in a plastic container, they’ll last @3-4 days, but far less than that if you have chocolate lovers in your house.

Meanwhile, if you plan to gift your candies, I have a boutique-style idea for that.

Pretty Packaging Tips

I’m a sucker for pretty packaging. Even if it’s something as simple as small candies like this, I still look for ways to elevate the presentation.

Once I caught my son about to gift a candle to a friend, while it was still in the plastic Target bag! “Oh, no. Don’t you dare“, I told him. Believe me, a small gift bag, pretty ribbon and matching tissue paper went a long way that day.

Meanwhile, for these Chocolate-Pecan-Pretzel candies I wanted to give the offering total boutique vibes.

Easy Peasy.

You know those pretzel rod baggies in the baking aisle at Michael’s crafts store?

Well, these pretzel candies stacked up perfectly inside those plastic sleeves.

The long and narrow baggies ensure the Chocolate & Pecan Pretzel candies are perfectly lined up, and snug with a nice tailored fit.

Oh, and always use the twist tie to close the top of the baggie to keep the contents fresh, before adding any additional decoration or tags.

How pretty is this striped, ticking striped Grosgrain ribbon? I love it.

I threw in this image because it’s one of my favorites ribbons because of its old fashioned look.

In addition to this green striped, this ribbon is also available in several other colors, including red which is a great vintage holiday color (from Michael’s Crafts store).

By the way, the ribbon doesn’t come on a spool like this, but if you love wooden spools as much as I do, you can find them online and via Etsy.

I always keep several spools of assorted decorative ribbon and gift bags on hand, just for unexpected gift packaging.

You never know when you might need to wrap a candle.

As cute as this is, I wasn’t ready to stop at just the ribbon on this one.

Let’s take this sweet offering one step further.

In addition to two candy-filled sleeves, I included the recipe and the ingredients, inside the gift bag.

A short recipe like this can be composed and cut and pasted several times so that multiple copies can be printed on one sheet of paper.

After printing the sheet, just cut out each recipe into card size.

If you have a laminator, consider laminating the cards too, for added durability and an even more polished presentation.

Of course, you can’t make a recipe without ingredients, right?

Here’s a look at the additional sleeves I made to add to each gift bag.

The ingredient sleeves included six pretzels, six Rolos, and six whole pecans so, after eating the treats, my gift recipients would be able to make their own.

I didn’t have time to add handcrafted gift tags to these bags, but you can see how I made some for a different project from previous posts HERE and HERE.

Now that’s how you elevate a gift of simple candies.

Your recipients will love the unexpected elements in more ways than one.

I gave one of these Rolo candy gift bags to my hairdresser recently, and she loved the candies and the pretty packaging and presentation.

But she also admitted that she missed making them herself, because she couldn’t resist eating the ingredients-lol.

Hey, it happens. We both got a good laugh from that.

Consider how cute would these Chocolate & Pecan Pretzel candy gift bags be for Mother’s Day, or offered to a group of friends at a ladies lunch, as shower gift bags, or even as school teacher end-of the-year gifts.

I think you get the idea and I hope you’re inspired.

Thanks for popping by.

See you back here next time.