Peanut Butter Pretzel Poppers

THANK GOODNESS I finally came up with a decent name for these right before I started to blog.  Earlier to my friend it was "peanut buttery pretzel samich thingies dipped in white chocolate"...which, although descriptive, doesn't quite have that ring I am looking for.

I really thought about trying to make more homemade bread today.  However, what won me over into not doing it was the fact that I am going home this coming weekend and my mom has a dishwasher.  Much better to experiment where there is a dishwasher.

Anyway,  I am starting to feel like the story of my life is seeing things on pinterest and then changing them because I don't like how they are done.  Well, that and never following a recipe 100% correctly because I have this weird mental block that won't allow me to (LOL!).  SO this time I decided to tackle those little pretzel samich-y (yes, I really do wish it was spelled samich) things that are dipped in chocolate and have some PB mix in the middle. 

Here are the issues I have with the recipe on pinterest, and let me tell you they are big issues:
-I cannot, CANNOT, and further more cannot stand anything dipped in semi sweet chips.  When there are things so delicious as Candi-quick, the chocolate version of which reminds me of hot cocoa, I cannot understand why someone would want to use semi-sweet chips.  I have hated them for my entire existence, and I don't see it changing any time soon.

Don't get me wrong, I am glad people like em and I am glad they like the original.  It just is very much NOT for me.

-Issue the second, although I normally love brown sugar with every fiber of my being, I hate it so bad in the combo of ingredients in the original version that it is unreal.  I literally cannot eat a sweet potato without brown sugar, so I assure you it is just something about it being mixed with peanut butter.  Icky.

Now, on the other hand, I LOVE peanut butter balls.  I mean really I love them. I also love white chocolate, aka Almond Bark.  Oh buddy, that is the good stuff.  So naturally, we bring ourselves to MY version for my fellow almond bark lovers out there:

PEANUT BUTTER PRETZEL POPPERS!  (cue applause)   You need:

 -1/2 c peanut butter, I used the kind with honey you can use whatever you have, just understand that we may end up with slightly different amounts needed
-1 cup of powdered sugar, more or less depending on your PB, mine seemed somewhat oily
-About 2 or 3 TBs of butter, again just depending on what your consistency is coming out like
-1 to 2 packs of candiquick (white, chocolate, both, whatever you fancy)
-optional drizzle of real maple syrup, I recommend it (slightly less than a tablespoon) but you could put in honey instead or completely leave it out.  It really does not change the flavor a whole lot, but it did help me get the consistency I wanted and made it a little sweeter.

Ok so you mix all those up.  The butter needs to be really soft obviously, I always have some sitting out because I cook with it 3 times a day, no joke, and so I just used a couple of spoonfuls of room temp butter. 
 If it were me, I would put ALL of the pb in, and about half to three fourths of the powdered sugar in there to start out with.  And the butter, of course.  Mix that all in and then see where you are at.  You are going for the consistency of a peanut butter ball where you could shape it into a ball and it would hold its form well enough to dip right then and there without having to chill it.  So basically you want it on the stiff side.

I ended up adding more sugar than needed and it was not wanting to incorporate into a cohesive mass like you see in the first picture.  That is how the maple syrup came about, because I needed to get it a little softer.  Worked like a charm.

Anyway mix it all up, get the consistency that you want, if it is on the soft side but you love the taste, roll with it we are going to freeze them anyway.  Using a spoon or your fingers put the PB mix onto a pretzel and put another on top like a sandwich.  Pretty darn simple.

Pop them on a cookie sheet or in a cake pan (that is what I used so they would not slide off) and pop them in the freezer.  I left them in there long enough to cook and eat dinner, but I would say leave them in at least ten minutes. 

Melt your candiquick according to directions. Get a pair of tongs, they make dipping anything and everything so much simpler.  Spread out some wax paper on your counter and get those babies out of the freezer. Dip em, flip em, and drip em to coat, and after draining off the excess sit them on your wax paper.  As you can see, I prefer to be haphazard and I get chocolate everywhere and I don't mind.

But you can be neat if you so choose.  Let them sit there for at least an hour or so before you do anything with them, more or less depending on the temperature of your room.  They will set a little better if its cold.  You can also put them in the fridge, but this tends to cloud up chocolate and give it more of a matte look and sometimes a streaky look.  Which doesn't make a darn bit of difference, if you ask me, but it is good to know in case you are doing something with chocolate for something super important.

You could also just crumble up pretzels and add it to your peanut butter ball mix, but I just think these are cute.  AND they give me reason to say samiches.  I have already eaten a few of these, and I must say they are MUCH more Jenna friendly than the originals.

Happy samiching!

All of my photos are taken with my iphone, by the way, which hates my kitchen.  I really can't blame it, my kitchen has sort of this dijon mustard color in it (it's an apartment and this isn't my choice) for the cabinets and countertops and so it tends to cast a yellow haze over everything I do. 

Random but true.
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