Peanut Butter and Chocolate Covered Pretzel Balls and Peanut Butter Jumbo Whole Grain Krispies Treats---to Celebrate!

I'm entering this in The Great Peanut Butter Exhibition # 7--Celebration!  You can find out all about it on The Peanut Butter Boy's Blog.  Happy 25th Birthday, Nick! (August 2)

Remember the Chocolate Covered Pretzel Balls I made recently and added to a great peanut buttery cookie?  Well, I saved some of the pretzel balls.  I couldn't get out of my mind the idea to make peanut butter AND chocolate covered pretzels.  Here's what I did.

The peanut butter doesn't "show" as much as I'd have wanted, but you can taste it!  Try to just eat one!  I dare you!  Wait, we're celebrating here--eat as many as you'd like!

Peanut Butter and Chocolate Covered Pretzel Balls, by Katrina

6 tablespoons peanut butter

1/4 cup granulated sugar

6 tablespoons corn syrup

4 1/2 ounces pretzel balls (really any pretzel will work--have you seen the Pepperidge Farm Pretzel Fish--those would be really cute and fun)

6 ounces chocolate, melted (I used milk chocolate chips--I just think milk chocolate and peanut butter go together the best, but you could use any chocolate you'd like)

Cook peanut butter, sugar and corn syrup over med-low heat just until it comes to a boil.  Stir and do not let it burn.  Remove from heat and stir in pretzels coating each with the peanut butter mixture.  Lay out the pretzels on a wax paper lined baking sheet.  It doesn't take long, but as soon as they are cool enough to handle, separate each pretzel and roll it in your hands to evenly coat the pretzel with the peanut butter.  Let cool completely.  You could set them in the freezer for 10 minutes if you'd like to speed things up.

Melt chocolate either in a microwave safe bowl or in a double boiler over low heat.  Dump the peanut butter pretzels into the bowl of melted chocolate and stir to coat each.  Spoon each ball onto the wax paper lined baking sheet and let set.  (Freezer again for fast hardening.)

Dig in!

I also just couldn't resist trying some of these chopped up slightly in some GREAT vanilla ice cream I made!  I REALLY liked the crunchy, salty taste of the pretzels in ice cream.  I also swirled in some hot fudge and peanut butter after the ice cream had it's turn in the ice cream maker.

But that's not all.  While I whipped these up, I also made some quick Jumbo Rice Krispies Treats--with peanut butter and chocolate mind you!  These WERE good!  Even days later, I thought they were still good with a perfect chewy-crunch.

Peanut Butter and Chocolate Jumbo Whole Grain Rice Krispies Treats

6 tablespoons peanut butter

1/4 cup granulated sugar

6 tablespoons corn syrup

3 ounces Jumbo Whole Grain Rice Krispies Cereal (regular ones would work)

6 ounces chocolate, melted (I actually used 1 1/2 ounces of peanut butter chips because I had an open bag, you could use any combination of chocolate or chips you'd like)  I also used semi sweet chocolate for these.

1 tablespoon shortening

1/4 cup peanuts, chopped (optional)

Line an 8x8 inch pan with foil.  Spray lightly with cooking spray.  Set aside.  Add peanut butter, sugar and corn syrup to a medium sized sauce pan.  Melt together over med-low heat and bring to a boil.  Remove from heat.  Add cereal and stir to combine.  Spread evenly in pan, pressing down.  Melt chocolate and shortening in microwave safe dish using 20-30 second intervals and stirring in between.  When melted, pour the chocolate over the peanut butter Krispies cereal and spread evenly.   Sprinkle chopped peanuts over the top.  Let set.  Remove from pan using foil edges and cut into desired size squares.

Just for kicks, I added some of the peanut butter pretzels to one corner square of these before adding the chocolate on top.  They were good, but the height was a little too big to bite into all that crunch. 

Party on!