I am so excited about these little goodies. They are not my creation, I found them in a Rachel Ray calendar (I love her. Have I told you that? Recently?), thought they were too wonderful not to share with anyone who does not subscribe, so I'm posting them here.
On to it!
What you need
1 bag soft caramels (14 oz.)
1 bag pretzel nuggets (10 oz.)
12 oz. dark chocolate, finely chopped, OR any equivalent (I used the 60% cocoa bittersweet chips I had on hand)
2 cups nuts (your choice, I used pecans), toasted and finely chopped
First, toast your nuts in a pan or oven. Watch them, they burn easily. Need to know how to do this? Just toss the amount you want in a dry skillet, stirring or tossing every now and then until they give off a nice aroma (they will smell like pecan brittle. Mmm, my mom makes that every year). Take skillet off burner and allow the nuts to cool slightly before chopping them. Chop them finely or you'll have big chunks on your truffles. Or, don't chop finely if you like big chunks!
Unwrap the caramels and, using a rolling pin, roll each one out into a long oval shape. Unless you're completely buff and work out several times a week, I would suggest rolling 3-4 out, roll up your pretzel, then roll out 3-4 more caramels, etc. It takes a lot of arm strength, and I'm no muscle-lady. Not even close.
I thought these sort of looked like snails. If I didn't lose anyone with that analogy.....
These sort of reminded me of pig-in-a-blankets. Again, if you're still with me.........After you've rolled out all your caramels and rolled up your pretzel nuggets, melt your chocolate. You can use a double broiler, or the microwave (which is what I used). If using the microwave, only cook at 30 second intervals and stir in between, even if doesn't look like it's cooked at all. It doesn't take very long, only about a total of 1 1/2 minutes.
Now, get your assembly area all ready. Line a baking sheet with wax paper and set next to your bowl of nuts, bowl of chocolate and caramel wrapped pretzel nuggets. Toss a few nuggets into the bowl of chocolate, cover it completely in chocolate, and use a fork to lift it out. Tap off the excess chocolate. Toss this into the chopped nuts to coat. Place on the wax paper. Repeat with the rest of the nuggets. If you can, let these guys rest for 3 hours, but I can tell you from personal experience, they're ready before this!
Gorgeous!
