Oh My Witches Sticks!
This is what happens when you are standing in the check-out line at Michael's...you start thinking that you are Martha Stewart! Which means that you take something so simple as chocolate coated pretzels and turn them into an art form ;) Why couldn't I have followed Michael Lee's example this week for Foodie Friday and have made something store bought look absolutely fabulous. Oh Help Me Martha...Help, Help, Me, Martha!
BUT...I had a coupon and this kit made it look so easy and I could make 18 FANCY SMANCY, chocolate covered pretzels for less than six bucks...I was inspired in the check-out line...
The kit came with everything you needed to assemble my Witches Sticks: one paint brush, three candy molds, four packages of milk chocolate, four pastry bags and 18 pretzel condoms (that is what DH aptly called them ;). The only thing I had to purchase extra were the pretzel rods...
Step One: Follow the Instructions...which I did...or should I say, I tried to do. So you are suppose to melt a small amount of the different colored milk chocolate discs on low in your microwave in a small dish so that you can PAINT in the details...
Sounds easier than it is...because the brush that they give you is too stiff and big for PAINTING the chocolate in the molds...
The other WEIRD thing is that the DETAILS that you are suppose to be PAINTING are the inverted areas in the mold...oh yeah...
See the box...the arrows on the spiders...the spiders themselves...ha! ALL the eyes for the pumpkins, the rats, the skeletons AND then the background to the skeleton's rib cage...let alone the white night orbs and the green trees that the bats are suppose to be flying around!
Well...my jack-o-lanterns have very scary faces and my bats are blind so who gives a rats a@@...
and when I got to the skeletons and the spiders...I said...forget about it...cause you all know me...
BETTER DONE THAT PERFECT...
Step Two: After the details have set...this takes less than a minute and my chocolate kept setting in my dish while I was trying to PAINT in the details. AND if you heat up the chocolate too many times it starts to SWEAT and gets all shinny...or the other way around ;(
So...after you have painted in all your details...you are to melt the main color of chocolate wafers, in the provided pastry bags, on low in your microwave. Above you can see I'm working on my pumpkins so I squirted a think layer of orange chocolate and then laid my pretzel rods into the mold. Then I topped it off with another layer of the orange chocolate. BETWEEN each step of adding the chocolate you are suppose to be LIGHTLY tapping the mold to RELEASE any air bubbles...apparently very important?
HOWEVER, what they fail to mention is that perhaps you should first TAP, TAP, TAP your pretzel rods before inserting them into the form to make sure that they don't tap right off like one of mine did ;[
Another TIP that is left out...is just how much to fill your molds to properly adhere your pretzel rod and then to not have excess chocolate spread out all over the mold during this TAP, TAP, TAPPING process. As you can see in the above photo...I had excess chocolate spreading out all over the place and tried to smear it off into a glass dish for future use (just dip all of your broken bits into the left-over chocolate as your reward for all your hard work ;)
Step Three: Place your molds in a flat place in your refrigerator to set...at least one hour. You will know that they are already to POP out of the molds when they have a frosted, set look (not my words?).
I just played it safe and waited a good long time to make sure they were done ;) Which worked...because they poped right out with-out any problems. Detail...who needs it...
I think my skeletons have PERFECT bone structure...don't you?
Step Four: Insert into protective wrappers...a.k.a. Pretzel Condoms ;)
All said and done...
...I ended up with a DOZEN hefty, chocolate covered pretzels to give out to my family and they all loved them...after all, who doesn't love pretzels and chocolate?
Next time though...I'm taking my own advise and KEEPING IT SIMPLE SWEETIE with my SINISTER SWEETS! I'll re-purpose these candy molds for making soaps-on-a-rope or creepy crayons to pass out to Trick-or-Treaters ;}
As far as all those extra pretzel rods...well there is always Christmas with Paula Dean...
How about you...what you you been inspired to try lately while standing in the check-out line? Be sure to leave me a comment and tell me all about it...doesn't have to be cooking...it can be about anything, cause curious minds want to know!
Hope you all have a wonderful weekend.
Fondly, Roberta
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