That's right, it's a double boiler ladies and gentlemen!
And it's currently my favorite thing on the planet. And yes, I'm an easily entertained woman. And yes, I know you're not supposed to begin a sentence with the word "and."
Some of you may ask, "Fran, what do you use this magnificent double boiler for?" And my answer would be, "To melt chocolate of course!!!"
That's right. I got into a mad chocolate melting and cookie making frenzy during this past holiday season. In particular I made lots and lots and lots of these:
Chocolate covered pretzels.
I found a recipe from The Pioneer Woman's website where she dipped those really thin really tiny really long breadsticks in a chocolate and nutella mixture. They were okay, considered I don't think I've cursed that much EVER. Those little suckers snapped in half too easily. So, I thought, "ha! pretzels! I'm dipping pretzels in that chocolate!" But before I went on my pretzel dipping adventure I would have to get a double boiler. Trying to hold your glass measuring cup still in a pot of boiling water... well it just ain't that fun. Plus if that said boiling water accidently splatters into the chocolate, I swear the chocolate instantly doesn't want to melt anymore. I don't know if that was just me or not...
Did you know that they make pretzel sticks that are about 8 inches long and super thick? I had no idea until I was deeply examining the pretzel aisle (okay maybe it wasn't an entire aisle...) of the grocery store. They were quite magical compared to those teeny tiny skinny bread stick things.
Here's what I did: I dumped a bunch (totally technical cooking terms here) of semi-sweet chocolate chips in the top portion of my double boiler, which was set on medium heat. Then I dumped some of this in there:
I didn't even know they made this!
Then I stirred it all until it was completely melted and smooth. I took the top pot over to my wax paper lined kitchen table (it's not always wax paper lined). I broke each 8inch pretzel stick in half and dipped the broken end in the chocolate and turned it so it was completely covered all the way around. Then I placed it on the wax paper. I also sprinkled a little of the Heath English Toffee Bits on top of each of the chocolate covered pretzel sticks. I also mashed up red and green m&m's and sprinkled those on top of some. Whatever floats your boat! You can pretty much mash up any kind of candy and sprinkle it on top of these. Just be sure to do it before the chocolate hardens completely. And that's all folks! Next step is to wait until the chocolate is hard and the final step is to try not to eat them all at once.
These were quite the popular treat for all of our hosts and hostesses this holiday season. Mmmmm I can taste them now.... I think I still have some left over semi-sweet chocolate around here somewhere.... Oooh and I just purchased a bag of pretzel bits..... Oh this is just too easy and too good to be true.
~Fran
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