Laura the Gastronaut > Holiday Cooking > Chocolate-covered Pretzels

Chocolate-covered Pretzels

12 Days of Christmas Series

December 19, 2020 | Updated: January 5, 2023 | Laura

Welcome to my 12 days of Christmas Foods!

Each day I make a different Christmas recipe. I'll share which recipe I used, a little history about the recipe, the steps involved in making it, and, of course, delicious pictures.

On the sixth day of Christmas foods, I made chocolate and vanilla-covered pretzels. Okay, so maybe this isn't actually a recipe nor is it a typical Christmas food, but for me it is. Every year at Christmas, we would have almond bark pretzels. If I ever eat them outside of Christmas time, it just feels wrong.

The History of Chocolate Covered Pretzels

It's day 6, and I'm saying it would be a safe bet that the rest of the days' history lessons will start off by saying- we don't really know where this food came from. This day is no exception.

Pretzels have been around for a very long time. They say that in 610 A.D. Italian monks were handing out pretzels to the kids that learned their prayers. They described the food as "strips of baked dough, folded to resemble arms crossing the chest" and called them pretiola which means "little reward."

Soon the treat made its way to France and Germany. The Germans called them bretzels. From there on, their popularity just kept growing around the world. By the late 1800s, the soft doughy pretzels started to become the small crunchy pretzels. This was great because it allowed them to keep their pretzels for a long time without them going bad.

But where did chocolate covered pretzels come from?! Guess what? We really don't know!

Some say that Herr Franz Joseph Liebniz invented them in Hamburg, Germany in 1544. This may have been a result of Liebniz's pretzel shop being located right next to a chocolate shop. The two owners decided to experiment one day by combining their products. While that may not be true, it's a fun story at least!

The first written documentation of the chocolate pretzel was in the late 1500s in a cookbook written by Marx Rumpolt.

For the last few decades chocolate pretzels have become really popular in America. You can find so many different varieties now- peanut butter, butterscoch, vanilla, white chocolate, dark chocolate. etc.

You can find my sources and read more about covered pretzels on Weavernut and Ashers.

How to Make Chocolate Covered Pretzels

These pretzels are super simple to throw together, and there's really no rules. Melt some almond bark, vanilla coating, or chocolate coating in the microwave according to the package directions, and then dip your pretzels in the melted goodness. Let them dry on wax paper until hard, and you're done!

You can use any type of pretzels. I usually use the twisted ones, but the store was out of them. That makes me think other people enjoy these pretzels at Christmas time too!

You can leave them just simply coated or you can get creative. Sprinkle on some red and green sprinkles, drizzle white chocolate on the chocolate or vice versa, or throw a little gel coloring in your melted coating and drizzle the colors on top! The world is your oyster. Just don't put liquid food coloring in your vanilla coating. It will turn an awful consistency. Trust me on this one.

Can't believe we are already halfway through! See you all again tomorrow for day 7. Happy Dipping!

Category: Holiday Cooking
Keywords: chocolate covered pretzels recipe, vanilla coated pretzels, almond bark pretzels, history of pretzels, christmas recipes

✽ Did you make this recipe too?
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More 12 Days of Christmas Foods:

✽ Gingerbread Cookies (these cookies are perfectly spiced and oh so cute)
✽ Figgy Pudding (after trying figgy puddy for the first time, it has become an annual tradition in our house)
✽ Aged Eggnog (this recipe is perfect for those that love a nice glass of boozy eggnog)
→ Check out all of my holiday cooking adventures!

Bon appétit!

December 19, 2020 by Laura Ehlers

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