Thursday, June 9, 2011

Roasted Hazelnut and Milk Chocolate Dipped Pretzels




I thought of making these after eating Cadbury Hazelnut Milk Chocolate and pretzels at the same time. The flavour combination was delicious. I googled my idea for chocolate covered pretzels and found 380,000 images learning immediately that my idea was nothing new. Still I wasn't deterred and decided to go ahead anyway. The results we not pretty but they tasted fantastic! They are a perfect combination of salty and sweet. The creamy sweet milk chocolate combined with the crunchy salty savoury flavour is incredible tasty as well as being a pinch to make. Go ahead and give it a go!


Ingredients:
1 block of Cadbury Dairy Milk Chocolate. I would recommend 2 blocks as one didn't seem enough to me. You could also use Cadbury Hazelnut Milk Chocolate.
1 packet of salted pretzels. I used Parker's Pretzels.
1 packet of unsalted raw hazelnuts. 1 packet was equal to 1 cup of hazelnuts.
To roast the hazelnuts place them on a tray covered with baking paper and pop them into a preheated oven at 180 degrees Celsius for a fan forced oven or 356 degrees Fahrenheit or gas mark 4. Bake for 7- 10 minutes keeping a close eye on them. If they are over cooked they will have an incredibly bitter taste so watch out. Lay out a clean tea towel and place the hazelnuts onto half the towel. Fold it over, place your hands on top and rub vigorously all over, this will remove most of the outer skins. Next chop the nuts with a knife until fine or place the nuts into a blender as I did.

Simmer some water in a small saucepan and pop a glass or metal bowl on top, making sure the water doesn't touch the bowl. Break the chocolate into pieces and place into the bowl. Keep an eye on the chocolate and once half melted move the saucepan off the heat and leave it to rest. The chocolate should continue to melt. If not, just pop it back on the heat and stir with a metal spoon. Once melted place half the chopped nuts into the chocolate and mix through and leave to cool. I didn't do this and learnt the hard way.

One by one dip the pretzels into the chocolate then hold it up and give a shake so the excess drips off. I made half a batch dipped in chocolate, and half a batch dipped in chocolate and then sprinkled heavily with extra finely chopped hazelnuts. Place each chocolate covered pretzel onto a tray covered with baking paper and pop the trays in the fridge for an hour or two until they are set. Enjoy!














Love Jem

4 comments:

Shawn said...

They look divine! These are going to make such lovely Christmas goodies...if I can stand to part with them :)

Jihane @ Sinful Sundays said...

Oooo, these look awesome! Love the hazelnut addition!

Jem Jems Food Blog said...

Thanks so much ladies, your comments mean so much to me :)

Royce Vagg said...

This just reminded me I have some chocolate in my cupboard! Thanks Jem.