Thanksgiving has passed, finals are less than a week away and the holidays are just around the corner — winter is in full swing here at the UA. The chilly weather is setting in and it’s the perfect time to start whipping up holiday-specific treats, so in the spirit of the season, this week’s DIY challenge is pretzel s’mores.
S’mores always bring back memories of roasting marshmallows around a fire on a summer night, but my Pinterest search results suggested the classic dessert is actually a “simple winter treat.” The truthfulness of that definition is debatable, but when it comes to toasted marshmallows mixed with chocolate, I have no objection to incorporating them into other seasons
Pretzel s’mores are extremely easy to make and affordable for the average broke college students. The only ingredients are pretzels, mini marshmallows and Hershey’s chocolate, so there’s no danger of breaking your already-broken bank with these little treats.
To make “winter” pretzel s’mores, all you have to do is cover a cookie sheet with some parchment paper and fill it with pretzels. Next, add three mini marshmallows to each pretzel. To toast the marshmallows, put the tray in the oven and set it to “broil.”
The only difficult part of this recipe — if you can even call it difficult — is watching the marshmallows in the oven. Ovens on broil can burn things pretty quickly, especially little marshmallows, and it makes it even harder to watch them when you don’t have an oven light.
I overcame my first-world problems though, and after toasting the marshmallows for a couple of minutes, I topped each pretzel with a square of chocolate and put the cookie sheet back in the oven for another minute or two. Once the chocolate was melted — and after I almost forgot they were in the oven and saved them from burning to a crisp — I took them out and topped each with another pretzel.
The original recipe for the pretzel s’mores suggested dipping them in melted chocolate after they cooled off from the oven and covering them in sprinkles; but I took that as an optional step, especially considering the pin didn’t include that part in the recipe. Contrary to popular opinion, I believe there’s such a thing as too much chocolate.
Even without the chocolate coating, these pretzel s’mores were delicious and the perfect balance between salty and sweet. They tasted like pretzel M&M’s with a little something extra, and they’re perfectly bite-sized. The whole process only took about 10 minutes or so, cost me less than $5 and it was a cute distraction from my reality: studying for finals.
So whether you’re looking for a dessert to make for a holiday potluck, trying to find a simple treat to give to friends and family or just want a little mid-finals pick-me-up, these pretzel s’mores are a cheap, easy and adorable pin to try.
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