Peppermint Hershey Kiss Pretzel Bites

The combination of salty and sweet is what makes these Peppermint Herskey Kiss Pretzel Bites so delicious! Not only are they delicious, they are also very quick and easy to make. Add some to your cookie boxes or pile them into a bag and tie them up with a ribbon for a festive holiday gift idea!

In our home, Christmas cannot come and pass us by without a good dose of treats flavoured with peppermint. Those treats are even more welcomed and enjoyed if they have a combination of both sweet and salty flavours. Seriously, we can’t get enough of it! I’m not a huge lover of sweets, but every Christmas I have to get my peppermint fix and that usually comes in the form of simple treats just like these Peppermint Hershey Kiss Pretzel Bites!

And, if you love the combination of sweet and salty with a hint of peppermint as much as we do, there are several recipes on my other recipe site, Lord Byron’s Kitchen, that you should take advantage of! You will have to try my Peppermint Chocolate Biscotti. How about this no-bake Peppermint Chunk Fudge? Unlike those fudge recipes that are basically big chunks of melted chocolate that have re-hardened, this fudge is cake-like; almost like a brownie! They are so delicious and addicting too! I also have these baked Chocolate Peppermint Donuts. Again, they are baked, not fried, so even though they are super chocolatey and covered in icing, they are still healthier than any donut you can buy at a bakery!

Not into cookies, fudge, or donuts? What about ice cream? Remember I mentioned the candy cane ice cream that John.e buys every Christmas? Well, you can make your own No Churn Peppermint Cookie Ice Cream at home. You won’t need a fancy, expensive ice cream maker to do it! I added crushed peppermint Oreos to the ice cream to make it even more indulgent! Anyway, I digress.

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So, welcome, Dear Reader, to the start of my annual holiday-themed recipes. Traditionally, every year I share a series of recipes that you might already be familiar with. For example, I’ve previously shared 12 Holiday Trifles, 12 Holiday Bars & Squares, and even these 12 Edible Holiday Wreath recipes! Also, some of my favourite recipe collections from previous years are my 75 Homemade Gifts from Your Kitchen, my 50 Make Ahead Freezer Friendly Christmas Recipes, and my 30 No-Bake Christmas Recipes post.

This year I’m doing it differently. Rather than sharing multiple back to back series, I’m sharing a new holiday-themed recipe almost every day from now until Christmas Eve. For those of you who have followed my annual Lord Byron’s 24 Cookies of Christmas series, don’t worry, you will still get lots of new cookie recipes this year too. I will not, however, be publishing the cookies back to back in a 24-day series. This would have been my 8th year running the series and it becomes very exhausting, so this year, I’m spreading the recipes out so that I’m not sharing the same type of recipe every day.

You really don’t want to miss one of these recipes, so if you have not yet subscribed to Lord Byron’s Kitchen, I encourage you to do so. That way, a new recipe will be emailed to you every day. You won’t have to bother to come looking for it! And, just in case you’re curious, you can see previous annual posts for my 24 Cookies of Christmas Series here!

VISITING HERSHEY PARK

A few years ago, we visited Hershey Park in Pennsylvania for a mid-July road trip. We piled into the car and made the drive. The park was great! There were lots of rides, lots of activities, and lots and lots of chocolate.

Hershey’s chocolate was everywhere! And, much of it was free. Almost every shop at the park had an attendant handing out sample chocolate kisses. At the time, my young daughter was so happy! But, I wasn’t. You see, Dear Reader, I don’t care much for Hershey’s chocolate. When it comes to mass-produced chocolate, I much prefer Cadbury.

To be perfectly honest, I grew rather tired of declining the free chocolate. The purpose of the visit was to take my daughter there. I wanted to go because I knew a part of the trip would find me in Amish country, and I was dying to get to their markets!

TRIVIA

I learned this when we visited Hershey Park. Do you know why their most popular chocolate confection, the kiss, is called a kiss? Well, we know they are called Hershey’s because the founder was Milton S. Hershey. He introduced the kiss chocolate in 1907.

The name “kiss” was adopted and applied to the confection, because of the sound the melted chocolate made when it was dropped from the vats onto the conveyer belt. The name stuck and it’s hard to imagine those little chocolates being called anything else!

INGREDIENTS NEEDED TO PREPARE THIS RECIPE

The following is a list of the ingredients needed to prepare this recipe. For exact amounts and measurements, refer to the printable recipe card located near the bottom of this post.

• Pretzels – You will need to use mini pretzels for this recipe. As you can see, I used the mini squares, but you can use the mini pretzels with the traditional knot shape.
• Hershey’s Peppermint Kisses
• M&Ms – I’m using mint flavoured M&Ms in holiday colours.

CHOCOLATE SUBSTITUTES

I went ahead and used Hershey’s Candy Cane Kisses for these Peppermint Hershey Kiss Pretzel Bites despite them not being my favourite. They are extremely easy to find and very inexpensive. Also, they work very well in this recipe and 99% of the population tends to like them. It was an easy decision.

If you prefer, you can use a solid chocolate kiss and omit the peppermint flavour from these treats completely. I used to make these with a rosette shaped chocolate. My favourite brand of rosettes was Neilson’s. Do you remember Neilson’s brand?  They are extremely hard to find, in fact, I’m not sure they’re even made anymore.  I have not seen them in years!  They used to make really good rosettes.  Neilson’s brand of rosettes was called Golden Buds.  I’ve seen other brands called Rose Buds as well.

CANDIES, CANDIES, AND MORE CANDIES!

This particular recipe uses mint flavoured holiday M&Ms, but there are other candy-coated chocolates out there that you can use. Here in Canada, we have something called Smarties. I think in the United States, smarties are those flat, pressed-powder-like candy that comes in a cellophane-wrapped rolls. They’re often found in large bags for Halloween treats. In Canada, smarties are a candy-coated chocolate much like the popular M&M.

In fact, if you are using solid chocolate kisses rather than the peppermint flavoured kisses, you might also want to consider using a non-peppermint flavoured candy for the top. Cadbury Mini Eggs would be a great option! They release bags at Christmastime with red and green candy-coated mini eggs which would work very well here.

HOW TO MAKE PEPPERMINT HERSHEY KISS PRETZEL BITES

Step 1: Preparation

Start by preheating your oven to 250 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Step 2: Assembly

Arrange the pretzels on the baking sheet, leaving an inch of space between each one. The space is not needed for any reason other than it makes it easy to top each pretzel with a candy later. Otherwise, it becomes to easy to accidently touch the melted chocolate with your fingers! Next, unwrap each Hershey Kiss and place one in the centre of each pretzel.

Step 3: Baking

Place the baking sheet in the oven on the middle rack for exactly 4 minutes.

Step 4: Setting the Candy

Remove the baking sheet from the oven and immediately place a red or white mint M&M in the centre of the chocolate kiss. Slightly press the candy into the chocolate.

Step 5: Cooling

Allow the Pepperming Hershey Kiss Pretzel Bites to cool completely.

Step 6: Optional

Once the pretzel bites are fully cooled, you can package them into cellophane bags and tie the bags with a festive ribbon if you are planning to give these treats as a gift. Otherwise, I like to pile them into a clean mason jar and keep them in my pantry or in a snack cupboard.

QUESTIONS?

If I have not answered all of your questions in the text above, don’t hesitate to reach out to me! You can contact me by sending me a message in the comments section further down the page. I will try my best to answer as soon as possible! You might reach me even faster by following me on Facebook and sending me a private message. Scroll down below the recipe card to find my Follow Me on Social Media box and never miss another recipe!