Valentine's Day Pretzel Bites

Valentines Day is just around the corner and with it comes all the fun Valentine's Day treat ideas like these easy and festive Valentine's Day Pretzel Bites. Just 3 ingredients to make and you get that crunch, salt and chocolate all in one bite. Love it!

 Funny how I never paid much attention to Valentine's Day until I had kids.  Anything to put a sparkle in their eyes makes us mommas happy am I right??!! Now that they are older (teenagers OMG), not only do they still enjoy treats like these BUT they look for them, since they are a family tradition and I for one do not want to disappoint. I imagine I will mail treats to them often once they leave for college (sniff!!).

Valentine's Day Pretzel Bites are a perfect DIY gift for kids to help make or take the lead on.

I have never been into the whole "buy me a card, present or dinner because someone told you to thing" (right honey??). But I do love to make things with my kids and I really enjoy cooking with them.

A Valentine's Day Treat The Kids Can Make

This is a perfect DIY Valentine's Day recipe for little hands to help with (thing activity and treat!). It's is also great for the 6-12 year old age group to take the lead on and make for their grandparents, friends and neighbors.

Valentine's Day Buttons are such an easy Valentine's Day snack idea for the kids to make for their class and the kids just can't get enough of them! To use them as party favors you can purchase Valentine's party favor bags to divvy up the treats and pass out to the entire class or these cute festive boxes.

Who needs one of those throwaway paper Valentine's cards when you can eat your gift? Guarantee your child will be the hit of the class!

You can also pick up a Valentine's Day little bucket like what I used from a craft store, wrap it up in cellophane, or paper with a pretty ribbon for a cute parent, grandparent, bus driver, or teacher gift as well. Kids feel so special when they gift to those they care about, especially if they helped make it! 

Ingredients

• Pretzels (use any sort you find, like Snaps or circular shapes, anything small will work)
• Pink and/or white melting disks from the craft store
• Valentine M&M's, Hershey kiss candy, candy dots, sprinkles etc.

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Place pretzels right side up on a baking sheet, place a chocolate disk on each and carefully place in the oven for 2 minutes. Just long enough for the chocolate to begin to melt. Pull the tray out of the oven and quickly press one M&M onto the center of each chocolate disk.
3. Put the tray in your garage or fridge to set.
4. Once set, keep in an airtight container until ready to eat or gift.

Tips

• There are plenty of ways to customize these (like I did in the one image, with sprinkles and chocolate drizzles). 
• Of course you can make 100's of these at a time as well. Just do it in batches of 50 or so, so the chocolate stays melty enough to press the decoration onto. 
• Parchment paper is your friend. I always line my baking sheets with it, makes cleanup a snap and holds up to a higher temperature vs wax paper.
• Ovens will vary. Don't allow the chocolate candy disks to overheat and seize up or burn. You can experiment with a couple first and find your oven's sweet spot (pun intended, lol).
• A variety of candy chocolate candy melt disk brands exist. Each may vary slightly how they melt. Just play around. I know Wilton for example changed both their size (half the size now sadly) and ingredients since I began making these. They now melt differently (I liked them better before).
• These keep for quite awhile in a sealed container or cookie jar.

More Valentine's Day Treat Ideas

Remember, I said my children changed my view of Valentine's Day? Well, with that, I also branched out beyond these yummy Valentine's Day Pretzel Bites . Now I can shower my kids with love with a  variety of treats during Valentine's. Here are a few more ideas for you:

• Easy Valentine's Day Cookies - There is nothing I like better than "easy"!
• Easy Valentine Rocky Road Candy Recipe - This one comes from my good friend, Eileen, at Everyday Eileen and there is nothing "everyday" about this recipe. Delish! 
• Jazz up store-bought cookies to make them festive, Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies from my girl Lisa at Jersey Girl Cooks. 
• These Saltine cracker "cookies" are addictive and these little Chocolate & Peanut Butter Hearts go down easy! 
• The best grown-up Valentine's Day treaty I know is my Chocolate Moonshine. If they didn't love you before...they will after, lol! No still required! 

Enjoy making these with someone you love! XO Colleen

This post was originally published back in February, 2010. Updated February 5th, 2021. Post also contains Amazon affiliate links. Which mean if you happen to purchase a suggested item, I may receive a few cents for the referral. Nutritional information provided by a WordPress plug-in. I am not an RD or Dietitian.