Holiday Pretzel Cookies

Simple Christmas Cookies that Won't Break Your Budget

Nov 29, 2007
Shelley Elmblad

Holidays on a Budget - morguefile.com / gleangenie

Need to bake Christmas cookies but you are short on time and money? Bake up a bunch of these yummy budget holiday treats!

Some planning ahead will make these Christmas cookies extra frugal. If you have Hershey's Kisses, M&M's or other milk chocolate candy from fall clearance sales, the cost of the most expensive part of this recipe is cut drastically.

Another way to cut down on the cost of these Christmas cookies is purchase the pretzels and small frosted cookies in bulk. Warehouse clubs like Sam's or Costco usually have bulk cases of pretzels all year round, and small animal-cracker-type cookies in holiday shapes and frosted in Christmas cookie colors are usually easy to find in large containers after Thanksgiving.

Money-saving tip: The pretzels and small holiday cookies keep well for next year if stored in airtight bags or containers in a cool place.

Budget Holiday Pretzel Cookies

The amount required for each ingredient depends on how many holiday cookies you want to make.

Ingredients

Small pretzels, bow shaped. Small, grid shaped pretzels work too, but pretzel sticks do not.
Hershey's Kisses candies, unwrapped, any flavor variation that does not have a nut in the center. May substitute other thick milk chocolate candy
Small holiday-shaped cookies frosted or decorated with green, red or white, such as tiny shortbread cookies (think animal crackers) in Christmas shapes.

Supplies

Parchment paper, found in baking or plastic wrap aisle at most grocery stores
2 cookie sheets or jelly roll pans
Cooling racks, optional
Miniature or regular M&M chocolate candies, optional
Icing, optional

Directions

Please take care with hot pans and cookies.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper. Do not use foil in place of parchment paper.
Put sheets of parchment paper under cooling racks, if using. Otherwise, place sheets of parchment paper on a counter top or table where cookies can cool.
Place pretzels on lined cookie sheets.
Put a Hershey's Kiss or other thick chocolate candy on top of each pretzel.
Bake for a few minutes, until the chocolate just starts to melt. Do not over-bake.
Remove from oven and carefully (don't burn yourself!) place one small holiday cookie on top of each Kiss and gently push down so chocolate fills most or all of the pretzel holes.
Allow cookies to cool away from the oven. In the meantime, put together another batch of cookies on another cookie sheet.
While the next batch of holiday cookies are baking/melting, move the first batch from pan to cooling racks or parchment paper on table or counter.
Repeat these steps until enough Christmas cookies are created.
Allow cookies to cool for two hours or until chocolate is solid.

Optional: Attach M&M's to cookies using icing. Allow icing to harden completely before moving holiday cookies to a plate or storage containers.

If you leave Kisses in the oven for too long, the melted chocolate may be somewhat stiff and cookies may not adhere as well. If this happens, these treats can be rescued by using icing to re-attach cookies.

These cookies keep well for weeks in tight containers stored in a cool place.