The Mess-Free Trick For Dipping Pretzels In Melted Chocolate

There are lots of chocolate-covered foods that can make your mouth salivate just thinking about them, but it's hard to beat the sweet and salty combination of a chocolate-covered pretzel. Dipping pretzels in chocolate isn't a new phenomenon, but it's safe to say that adding a rich and velvety chocolate coating to the crunchy, salty pretzel was a stroke of genius. Chocolate pretzels have been around since 1544 (via Dr. Chockenstein), and boy have they come a long way. There are plenty of simple additions for a perfect chocolate coating and, per Food Network, a vast number of garnishing options like crushed cookies, nuts, and candies. 

However, when melted chocolate is involved in a recipe, it can be a messy process with several chance perils. The Recipe Critic shares if your chocolate comes into contact with water during the melting phase, it could become stiff and lumpy. And when it comes to dipping those pretzel twists into the melted chocolate, you can wind up with half-dipped pretzels or chocolate dripping everywhere rather than staying on the pretzel where it belongs. Luckily, Kitchn has a genius mess-free trick.

In order to avoid the sweet mess that comes with creamy, melted chocolate, Kitchn suggests using a toothpick when dipping foods into it. Not only is a toothpick incredibly small, and won't take too much chocolate off of the pretzel, but it is also helpful for moving the pretzel from a prep area to a parchment paper covered baking sheet. Kitchn explains that you can even use the toothpick to run across the bottom of the pretzel to help remove any excess chocolate.

However, if you don't have toothpicks in your culinary bag of tricks when making this treat, Neighbor Food suggests using a chopstick or kebab skewer. The advantage of using one of these two options is if they aren't of the disposable variety, you can reuse them. The blog also notes you can use these kitchen items to poke through the holes of the pretzel twist if chocolate happens to get stuck, ruining the aesthetics of their perfect shape. Of course, if you like that extra bit of chocolate, no judgment. 

If you are going to add some sweet or savory garnishes to your chocolate-covered pretzels, Kitchn recommends working in batches of 10 so the chocolate doesn't harden before all those delicious add-ons can adhere to the pretzel.