Fun Adventures In.... A Bake Sale- Part one

I am going to be involved in a bake sale next week as a fundraiser for my daughters school. I LOVE baking so I am a little excited. I have a few ideas on stuff to make so I thought I would try some out and share my experience with you. 
Tonight I am going to make Peanut Butter Pretzels. OK, so I don't technically have to bake these but they just looked to yummy to pass up.  My inspiration from http://twotinykitchens.com/2011/02/23/peanut-butter-pretzel-bites/  

 I will copy the recipe as it is written on that site but add my own remarks in as I go. 

Ingredients:
1 cup creamy peanut butter * A tip I learned for measuring peanut butter- Spray your measuring cup and spatula lightly with a cooking spray, then the peanut butter doesn't stick to either one and you get a better measurement
2 tablespoons softened butter (I noticed afterwards that i only used 1 tbsp of butter, it still turned out OK so I'm  guessing that I just made a slightly lower calorie version)
1/2 cup powdered sugar (maybe more)
3/4 cup brown sugar (maybe more)
Pretzels
1 bag semi-sweet chocolate chips

Directions:

Combine peanut butter and softened butter in a large bowl with a fork or a whisk, or in a stand mixer. I chose my stand mixer because I absolutely love using it whenever I can

                                

Add the sugars and mix to combine.  At this point if the filling will roll easily into balls without sticking to your hands you’re ready to go.  If not, add a little more of each sugar until you reach a consistency that is easy to roll (I used about 3/4 cup of each sugar). <--- Me too

Use a teaspoon measure to scoop the filling. I ended up with mini pretzels so a teaspoon was a bit too  much. I used a 1/2 teaspoon ad it looked a lot better.

Roll each portion into a small ball, then sandwich them between two whole pretzels. Whole pretzels just look better. But if you want to be fair to all the little pretzels in the bag, the partial ones work just as well and taste just as good. (I tried one just to  verify)  

When all the balls are rolled and successfully sandwiched, stick the whole tray in the freezer for about half an hour. I discovered that after a while the "dough" was getting a little sticky so I put the bowl in the freezer for a few moments and it helped. I also found it easier to roll all the balls first, then sandwich them. 

Pour the chocolate chips into a microwave safe bowl and heat at 30-second intervals, stirring occasionally until completely melted. It took me about 3 of the 30 second intervals. You want to do it in smaller intervals to prevent scorching.

 Remove the pretzel sandwiches from the freezer and quickly dip each half-way into the melted chocolate. Do it quickly because the chocolate starts to harden. If that happens just return it to the microwave for about 10 seconds or so. 

 Return to the tray and repeat with remaining sandwiches.  When all are dipped, return the tray to the freezer to set up completely.  Store the sandwiches in the refrigerator until serving time.

My results:

It made quite a few, I gave up after 3 dozen, and I still had maybe half the dough left in the bowl. I was only making these for practice so that I know how long it is going to take when I make them next week for the bake sale. I still need to come up with a cute way to package them. Hmm....

All in all I would have to say this is a good recipe. Probably a good one to keep around for when I have some little helpers who wanna play in the kitchen. Its a little time consuming but the end results are well worth it. Its easy enough to do and such a forgiving recipe. Its perfectly fine to have the ingredients  be off in measurements. 

Stay tuned and I will share with you the other fun things I plan on making for the bake sale. I will also let you know how the bake sale turned out. 

Don't forget to go to the first entry and vote for a project!!