Chocolate Peanut Butter Pretzel Bites

Add to Recipe Box

Everyone in my family eats healthy including my 2 little kiddos.  While they don’t understand the fine details about our way of eating they do know that we don’t eat things with the ’bad sugar’.  Whenever we are out shopping my daughter Keegan will ask if something has the ‘bad sugar’ or not.  On a recent trip she asked about a bag of chocolate covered pretzels with a peanut butter center.  Of course there was nothing healthy about them and I told her that they were indeed made with the ‘bad sugar’.  Later that night when I went into the pantry to grab some ingredients for dinner, I found myself staring at a bag of pretzels and that’s when inspiration hit me.  I gotta say these are probably one of my most favorite treats.  My daughter loved them and has asked for one as her dessert after dinner every night this week!  ENJOY!

~Sarah

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup organic creamy peanut butter, room temperature
• 1 cup pretzels, crushed (see notes)
• 5 ounces chocolate chips of your choice (I used SunSpire Grain Sweetened Chocolate Chips)
• 2 – 3 tsp raw honey or coconut nectar
• 2 tbsp milk (I used oat milk)

Preparation:

1. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
   

   Gently mix peanut butter and pretzels together

2. In a small bowl gently mix together the peanut butter and pretzels. If the mixture is too dry and won’t hold together add in 1-2 tbsp more peanut butter.
   

   Using your palms of your hands roll the pretzel mixture into a 1 inch sized balls

3. Using your palms of your hands roll the pretzel mixture into 1 inch sized balls.
4. Place each ball on the baking sheet and transfer to the freezer for 30 minutes or until the balls are firm.
5. Meanwhile, in a small sauce pan heat the chocolate chips over low heat until just melted.  Add in the milk and honey and stir to combine.  The amount of honey that you use will depend on how ‘sweet’ you like your chocolate.  If you want more of a dark chocolate flavor omit the honey altogether.
   

   Roll each ball in chocolate to coat

6. Remove the pretzel bites from the freezer and roll each one into the chocolate to coat.  Place back on the baking sheet and refrigerate for 15-20 minutes or until the chocolate has hardened and set.
7. Keep refrigerated until ready to serve.

Nutritional Info:

Makes approximately 12 bites.

Serving size approximately 1 bite.

Nutrients per serving:  Calories: 149, Cal. from Fat: 79, Total Fat: 8.5g, Sat. Fat: 2.5g, Carbs: 14g, Fiber: 2g, Sugars: 4.5g, Protein: 4g, Sodium: 41mg, Chol: 0mg

Notes:

Finding a healthy pretzel isn’t as hard as you think.  There are a few brands out there that have only a handful of good healthy ingredients in their products.  I personally prefer Newman’s Own Organic Brand Pretzels.  Some of their pretzel varieties contain refined sugar so make sure to check the ingredients list. For this recipe I used their Spelt variety.

Newman’s Own Organic Spelt Pretzels

The best way to crush your pretzels is to do so by hand.  Unfortunately when you use a blender or food processor it tends to give you pretzel flour instead of crushed pretzels.  So break out the old rolling pin, throw a bunch of pretzels in a sealed plastic bag and gently roll over the pretzels.  You want to end up with a bunch of very small bits and pieces.

Gently roll over the pretzels with a rolling pin

You can also substitute the creamy peanut butter with chunky peanut butter.  To do so increase the amount of peanut butter to 3/4 cup and reduce the amount of pretzels to 3/4 cup.

To make this treat gluten free make sure to use gluten free pretzels and chocolate chips!