Peanut Butter Pretzel Truffles

My addiction to Pinterest is paying off in terms of finding really cool homemade candy recipes. I have an amazing Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Truffle that will forever be my first love but these sounded really, really interesting. Besides, they are peanut butter.

I love peanut butter.

Yes, I would marry it if I could.

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Peanut Butter-Pretzel Truffles

(Slightly adapted from The Brown Eyed Baker)

 

Ingredients

1½ cups pretzel pieces

½ cup creamy peanut butter

1 Tbsp butter, softened

2 Tbsp brown sugar

3 Tbsp icing sugar

1 cup milk or semisweet chocolate chips

1 Tbsp vegetable shortening

¼ cup peanut butter chips, melted

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 Directions

Put the pretzel pieces into a resealable plastic bag and crush into very small bits (a rolling pin works great for this). In a small bowl, combine the peanut butter, butter, and brown sugar.

Stir until all of the ingredients are completely blended and smooth. Add the pretzel bits to the peanut butter mixture and mix thoroughly. Add the icing sugar and mix until completely combined.

Line a small baking sheet with plastic wrap. Using a small cookie scoop, or about 1 Tbsp worth of peanut butter mixture, gently shape into a ball with your fingertips. Place the ball on the plastic wrap lined cookie sheet and repeat with the remaining peanut butter mixture. Place the baking sheet into the

refrigerator and chill for at least 1 hour. When ready to dip the truffles, microwave the chocolate chips and vegetable shortening together in a small bowl at 50% power in 30-second increments, stirring after each, until completely melted and smooth.

Working one at a time, dip one peanut butter-pretzel ball into the melted chocolate and use a fork to roll it around, ensuring that it is completely coated with chocolate. Let any extra chocolate drip off and place back on the plastic wrap lined sheet. Repeat with all of the peanut butter-pretzel balls.

Return the baking sheet to the refrigerator and again chill for at least 30 minutes. Garnish with a drizzle of melted peanut butter chips and crushed pretzels, if desired.

Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator.

:)

 This is a fairly small batch (about 18 truffles) and can easily be doubled. In fact, you are probably better off to just double it to begin with. Trust me, they will disappear so fast you will wonder why you didn’t make more.

Note – be patient while you are dipping the truffles. It can be fairly time consuming to dip them and shake off the excess chocolate and then slide them onto the plastic lined tray and have them be all pretty and not lumpy. If you try to hurry you will make it worse.

Take a deep breath and just go with the flow.

Put the truffles back in the fridge if they get too soft.

A more advanced technique for dipping - what I do for mine (because I’ve made a bazillion truffles) - is dip a toothpick in a bit of melted chocolate and then stick it in a truffle. Repeat this until all of the truffles have toothpicks in them. Chill them in the fridge for several hours.

When they are good and cold you can them dip them in the melted chocolate using the toothpick as a handle. Gently shake off excess chocolate. You have to work fairly quickly though because the toothpick will become loose as the truffle warms up. After they are all dipped, gently wiggle the toothpick and it will come out of the truffle. Chill truffles until chocolate is set. Drizzle with the melted peanut butter chips and/or crushed pretzel bits. The drizzle and bits will cover the little hole left by the toothpick.