I've been making caramel/chocolate dipped pretzels for a long time - ususally at Christmas as a neighbor/friend gift - they are usually WELL recieved. When Mark's mom came to visit I taught her how to make them and then when my sister Alli came we made them again. They're pretty easy to make - maybe a little time consuming. I thought I'd share my secret in case you wanted to give it a try.
This recipe makes about 50 pretzel sticks:
You'll need 2 bags of pretzel rods (or one, and you can cut the caramel recipe in half)
The caramel recipe comes from my friend Maren.
2c. sugar
2 sticks of butter
2c. corn syrup
2 cans of evaporated milk
2 tsp. vanilla
Melt butter in a large pot. Add corn syrup and sugar and bring to a rolling boil. Very slowly (over 10 min.) add the evaporated milk. Continue to cook on hight head, stirring constantly, to get to the "soft ball" stage (drop a teaspoon of caramel into a cup of room temperature water
when you can gather the caramel into a ball it's ready). Add vanilla.
I put the caramel into a tall insulated cup and dip pretzel rods into the caramel until WELL coated. Place on parchment paper to cool. (hint: when the caramels have cooled a little - I roll them around a little to make their shape a little more rounded) After they've cooled completely dip in chocolate (whatever kind you like - just melt it up and, again, put it into a tall cup so you can cover as much of that pretzel as possible). Immediately top with your favorite sprinkles.
Wait until they cool completely and ENJOY!!!
