Easy Chocolate Halloween Pretzels

If you're looking for an easy-to-make, spooky treat look no further! The kids and I had a great time making these Chocolate Halloween Pretzels! All you need is chocolate, pretzels, and Halloween sprinkles.

We do a lot of crafting and creating as hands-on activities in this household. So when we found ourselves stuck inside on a rainy day, we created festive Halloween pretzels to fill the time!

Did we also get sprinkles all over the floor? Yup. But it's a price I'm willing to pay. Please see exhibit A below.

What do you need for Halloween Pretzels?

Such simple ingredients! To make your own spooky pretzel treats, you'll need:

• pretzel rods
• good quality white chocolate and chocolate melts in the colors of your choice (we did orange and black)
• Halloween sprinkles - shout out to the edible googly eyes, those were the most loved

Food coloring vs candy melts

White chocolate is stubborn. Perhaps that's why I love it so much, especially in truffles and cookies, because I am also stubborn so we understand each other.

But it's true that it's a little harder to work with than regular chocolate chips.

If you want to use different colored chocolates, I'd recommend using candy melts over dying the chocolate to avoid the chocolate seizing.

If you do decide to dye your white chocolate, be sure to have some heavy cream on hand to save it in case the chocolate seizes. It will make the chocolate on your halloweens preztels a little softer, but it's better than starting from scratch.

Also, if using food coloring, use an oil based food color and make sure the food coloring is the same temperature as the chocolate.

What does it mean for chocolate to 'seize'?

It happens most often when the chocolate comes into contact with moisture, throwing off the fat ratio or when the chocolate is overheated.

You might be able to fix it by added hot cream to it in small quantities until smooth again, but this will affect the final texture of your chocolate.

How to make Halloween Pretzels

All you need is some bowls, parchment or wax paper, and a heat source (either double boiler on the stove or microwave).

How to melt the chocolate and/or candy melts:

1. To melt on the stove top, set up a double boiler. Place a heat proof bowl over a sauce pan filled with about 1 to 1 ½ inches of water. Set the water to just simmer (it shouldn't boil) and the water shouldn't touch the bottom of the bowl. Mix the chocolate or candy melts continuously until melted then remove from heat.
2. To melt in the microwave, place the chocolate in a heat proof bowl. Microwave on high for 10 seconds, stir, then repeat until the chocolate is melted.

Between the 2 methods above, the double boiler method is my favorite, especially when working with white chocolate. I find it the most consistent and never have an issue with the chocolate overheating or seizing.

Once the chocolate is melted spoon it over each pretzel rod and shake off any excess.

Sprinkle with Halloween sprinkles. You can also let the first coat of chocolate harden and then drizzle another color on top.

Place the chocolate-coated pretzels on top of a piece of parchment paper or wax paper. This will make removing them once set much easier.

Disclaimer: I know in the photos you see use using a wire rack to hold the pretzels. I would not actually recommend this method unless you transfer the pretzels before they are fully set.

It was great for letting excess chocolate and sprinkles drip off, but getting the hardened chocolate pretzels off the rack was a pain.

Halloween pretzel decorating ideas

The best part about this festive treat is you can use whatever holiday stuff you have and adapt it to fit the season. Here are some ideas for spooky pretzel decorations:

• Use all white chocolate drizzle and two candy eyes at the top for a mummy
• Coat the pretzel smoothly with with white chocolate and two black oval shapes for a ghost
• Use green candy melts all over the pretzel and top with black candy melt and two candy eyes for a Frankenstein or Zombie candy pretzel
• All black or all orange with bright colored sprinkles is an easy, but eye popping decoration
• Layer colors by drizzle one color, letting it set, then drizzling another color, repeating until the pretzel is covered.

If you have any other decorating ideas, I'd love to hear about them in the comments! For another super easy decorating idea, try these little tombstone cakes. Super tasty and easy to make!