You only need four ingredients to make these easy St. Patrick's Day treats, and kids will love to help you make them. Crunchy pretzels and caramel chocolate candies melted together make up these fun and tasty Shamrock Pretzel Pops. (Skip to recipe.)
It's just about time for those wee leprechauns to come calling again, wreaking havoc with their cheeky tricks. This year we'll be ready to distract them with these tasty little St Patrick's Day treats. One bite of the crunchy pretzel shamrocks with the gooey caramel and chocolate centers, and they'll be so distracted I bet we can nab the little tricksters and make them lead us to their pot of gold.
How about you set out the pretzel pops, and I'll jump out and grab them by their wee green collars while they're nibbling. Okay?
Cooking with William
Meet William. He is eight years old and in grade three. He is the youngest in his family of four; his older sister is Meredith and older brother is Eric, and he has a grown-up oldest brother named Colin. William's favourite subjects at school are art and social studies, especially learning about other countries. He loves drawing, painting, and animals (especially his little dog Piper), and one of his favourite things to do is make crafts and also invent things. When he grows up William wants to be a 'pottery guy' - I'm sure he'll be the maker of some unique and fantastic pottery pieces. He's pretty active, being an accomplished Ukrainian dancer, and he loves playing outside on the swings. At school he loves playing on the monkey bars. And he is a very talented little chef already, watching and learning everything he can. He loves to cook meals for his family and is a wizard at chopping things.
We had fun putting together these simple little St Patrick's Day treats. (We found the idea while scrolling on Pinterest, source of much drool-worthy inspiration.) They only need four ingredients, and take a few minutes to make.
They taste crunchy, gooey, and delicious - just the right thing to tempt some little (or big) leprechauns.
Three Easy Steps to Making These St. Patrick's Day Treats
Before you start you need to pick out the green M&Ms. Hmmm, what to do with the rest? What to do with the rest?
Lay out your shamrock shapes with pretzel twigs and twists.
Pop a chocolate-coated caramel onto the center. Warm in a low oven for 2 minutes.
Press a green candy-coated chocolate button candy into the center of each soft warm caramel.
The hardest part is waiting a bit for the chocolate to harden up again.
Ta-da! A tasty crunchy, gooey Shamrock Pretzel Pop to munch on.
You can easily make up a whole bunch of these to feed a crowd.
Make sure to hide the extras from the leprechauns!
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Kitchen Frau Notes: If you don't have Rolo candies, you could try chocolate kisses or other chocolate candies. I haven't tried them but I think they might work, too. (The caramel inside the Rolos just tastes extra delicious.)
These St Patrick's Day treats work beautifully with gluten free pretzels. Rolo candies and M&Ms do not contain gluten, but they are not certified gluten-free. So if you need to be very sure to have no gluten contamination, experiment with a suitable gluten-free substitute (perhaps even just using squares of certified gluten-free chocolate bars instead of the Rolo).
Shamrock Pretzel Pops, Easy St. Patrick's Day Treats
(inspiration source: Hip2Save, Pinterest)
- 10 pretzel sticks (gluten free if necessary)
- 30 small pretzel twists (gluten free if necessary)
- 1 roll of Rolo chocolate caramel candies (10 pieces)
- 10 green candy-coated chocolate buttons (like M&Ms or Smarties)
Preheat the oven to 250°F (130°C).
Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.
Lay out the pretzels with 1 pretzel stick for the stem of each shamrock and 3 pretzel twists for the leaves at the end of the stick, rounded sides facing inwards (see photos above).
Set one piece of Rolo candy on top of the intersection of all the pretzel pieces.
Carefully set the cookie sheet into the oven, trying not to jiggle the shamrock shapes apart.
Warm the pretzel shamrocks for 2 minutes and remove the cookie sheet from the oven.
Lay one green candy-coated button on top of each Rolo candy and gently press it down until the Rolo candy flattens enough to spread over onto each pretzel piece just enough to hold them all together (press it down about halfway). Move the pretzel pieces back into place if they've spread apart.
Set the pan with the shamrock pretzel pops into the fridge to chill for 30 minutes and harden the caramels.
Gently peel off the pretzel pops from the parchment paper. Store them in an airtight container for a couple days (or eat them right away).
Makes 10 shamrock pretzel pops.
Guten Appetit!
For more fun cooking projects to make with kids, see the ‘Cooking With Kids’ series here.
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If you're looking for some delicious meal ideas to enjoy on St. Patrick's Day, you might like these:
Green Pancakes and Green Eggs for a fun and delicious (and kinda healthy) green treat.
A Great Green Smoothie would be good for breakfast, too. This one's made with green apples, honeydew, spinach, and a few more healthy ingredients.
This Green Soup is fresh and deeeeeelicious (and it might lure the leprechauns).
A traditional Dublin Coddle is a tasty Irish sausage and potato stew.
How about a nice loaf of warm gluten free Irish Soda Bread to go with it? (Or with jam for your tea-time treat?)
There's this tasty, filling and nutritious breakfast or lunch idea, Irish Cheese Toasties. It's a super simple, fancied-up way to make a grilled cheese sandwich (and it's my very first blog post!)
Or try this simple snack of an avocado-half filled with salsa - a quick and nutritious treat (ignore the poor quality of photos in this post - it was in the early days of this blog and I cringe at how they look, but hey - it's a record of my progress, so I'll keep them as a reminder for myself).
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Christine
What a fun project!🍀
Margaret
Thanks, Christine 🙂 It IS fun (and pretty tasty, too!), even for us big kids!
Krystal Stanich
Hello! I would love to do this with the teens at my public library. Could we use your image to promote the event on the library's marketing? We would include your website on the image!
Margaret
Yes, thank you - you absolutely can. I'd be honoured. They're a great project for kids of all ages. Have lots of fun making them.
Amelia
The pretzel pops are brilliant! I'm in charge of bringing a green treat to my kid's classroom this Friday so I'm glad I found your recipe. I just made some practice ones and they were a hit! Even shared some with my floor refinisher haha.
Margaret
LOL, glad they were a hit and that you had some left to share! ☘️ I'm sure the recipient felt very lucky. 😋