Festive Treats For Your Table

These treats are so fun to make, look impressive, AND taste good. They purposely have the red, white, and blue color theme since they were made for the Fourth of July, US Independence Day! You can definitely change up the colors depending on the holiday/theme.

First we have the wonderfully sweet and savory pretzel rods. Thick and salty pretzels dipped in white chocolate and rolled in colored sprinkles. It is easy to eat more than one.

Then we have the chocolate dipped cherries with sugar sprinkles. These cherries can be made with or without alcohol. If you make them with, make sure that you put a sign on them warning kids, of all ages, that they are “adult cherries”…cause these boozie cherries give a punch! You can soak the cherries in any of your favorite liquor. Cupcake vodka or coconut rum…which is what I used.

Lastly, because I don’t like to waste anything, I used the left over melted chocolate, cherry pieces, and sprinkles and made a bark. You can add chopped peanuts (or any nut for that matter) to it. Let it dry and break it into pieces.

You will need:

Pretzels

• 1 package of pretzel rods (as many as you want to dip)
• 1 cup of melted white chocolate or white almond bark
• Red, white and blue sprinkles for coating

Cherries

• 1 jar of Maraschino cherries
• 1/2 cup melted white chocolate or white almond bark
• Blue sugar sprinkles

Bark

• Melted chocolate
• Left over sprinkles from the above
• Left over cherries from the above
• Chopped nuts of choice (optional)

Steps:

Pretzels

1. Melt the chocolate/almond bark in a double boiler or in the microwave using package directions and put into a thin tall glass.
2. In the meantime, line up each of your colored sprinkles in a row, one on top of the other, on a piece of parchment paper.
3. Dip one side of pretzel (about half) into chocolate and let the excess drip off.
4. Take the dipped pretzel and lay at the one end of the sprinkles and roll it through them.
5. Set aside to set and continue with the rest of the pretzels.
6. At some point your sprinkles will start to mix. Once they do, just mixed them good and roll the dipped pretzel into the mixture for some different looking pretzels 🙂 .

Cherries

1. Drain the juice from the jar of cherries. If making these kid friendly than skip to Step 4 below.
2. If making boozie cherries then drain them a day or two before you want to dip them and replace the liquid, in the same jar, with your preferred liquor. Let marinate in the refrigerator for a day or two.
3. Drain cherries from jar (keep alcohol flavored liquid for use in other drinks…have fun, make something up!)
4. Put cherries on a few paper towels to continue to soak up any liquid. Gently press the tops with some more paper towels. You want to get the cherries as dry as possible. Let dry for 30 minutes at room temperature.
5. Dip half of the cherries into the white chocolate/almond bark, allowing excess to drip off, then dip into the blue sugar and lay on parchment paper to dry/harden.
6. Continue with rest of the cherries and serve them on a pretty dish.

Bark

1. Add any left over melted chocolate or almond bark to a piece of parchment and use a offset spatula to create a thin layer.
2. Sprinkle evenly with left over sprinkles, sugars and cherries.
3. Add nuts, optional, and let dry at room temperature for 1 hour.
4. Break up bark and serve in mini cupcake liners.