{It's A Bake-a-thon... Not!}

It's tradition. Every year my sisters, mom and I get together and do a little bit of Christmas baking. We each bring a recipe or two, bake all day long and then divvy out the greatness allowing us to come home with a variety of goodies to pass along to our friends and neighbors.

This year we opted to bag out of the cookie baking and decided to make the masses of two different kinds of treats... just to change things up a bit.

Divine Goodie Number Uno: Carmel, Chocolate Dipped Pretzel Rods

These look really pretty (place them in a clear cellophane bag and tie w/ ribbon) and there's an endless way to decorate the suckers. If you haven't tried them, it's a must. If you can believe it they taste even BETTER then they look!
Ingredients:

A bag of Kraft Caramels
Bag of pretzel rods
A few bags of chocolate (white, milk, dark, whatever kind you'd like to do). Choose several kinds to mix and match. I used Wilton and purchased it from JoAnn Fabrics.

Directions:

1. Melt caramel using the double boil method.
2. While caramel is melting, layer cookie sheets with parchment paper.
3. Once caramel is melted, dip your pretzel rod into the caramel to desired length. Your pan may not be exceptionally deep. I used a spoon to help me coat the pretzels.
4. Allow the excess caramel to drip back into your pan before placing on the parchment lined cookie sheet. Repeat for all pretzels and allow caramel to harden.
5. Melt your chocolate that you want to use as a base. Dip your caramel pretzels into the chocolate to cover the caramel. Again you may need to use a spoon to get the coverage you want.
(Don't be afraid if your pretzel rods aren't looking pretty yet.. the drizzle will hide any non smooth areas.)
6. Allow your chocolate to harden on the pretzels. Putting them in a freezer is also a great option to hurry the process along.
7. Melt another kind of chocolate for the drizzle and decorating. I opted to use a disposable icing bag to help me drizzle, but you could also you a spoon to do the same process.
8. Allow to harden completely before placing them in cellophane bags.


Divine Goodie Number Dos: Rolo Turtles
(Thanks to my sis for introducing me to these!)

Even easier than the 1st recipe... these things take only minutes to make and require only three ingredients. These also look wonderful wrapped in cellophane bags w/ ribbon.


Ingredients:

Bag of small pretzels (traditional shape)
Bag of Rolos
Bag of Pecans

Directions: (if you can call it that!) :)

1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Lay out your pretzels on a cookie sheet lined w/ parchment paper.
3. Place one rolo in the middle of each pretzel.
4. Cook for 4 minutes.
5. Once out of the oven, immediately place a pecan down to flatten the rolo into the pretzel.

Set aside to cool or place in freezer for 5 minutes to cool quickly.


Happy flour free baking!