Pretzel Wreath & Cranberry Bark?

missyciccolella

Has anyone tried making these? If so, do you have any tips, pointers, or ideas to make it better? I hope to try them tomorrow as I want to demo at a show next weekend and was looking for some advise. Thanks!

chefruthie

I haven't made either one yet, but I've tasted the cranbery bark and it's quite yummy!! I'm going to start doing both of these at my shows starting n Nov. I have to sit down and really go over all the Homemade for the Holidays material. I hope to make them for my family on Monday. Thanks for posting this. I'll be checking on this on alot!!

pampchefrhondab

I made both this week for my Taste of Home Cooking Show booth. They are really easy!

I melted the bark in the smallest coating tray - melted like a dream, much better then the way it melted in the batter bowl for the cranberry bark!

I just dipped the wreaths and put them on parchment paper in a circle. You have time to work w/them. I drizzled a little extra chocolate around the circle w/a spoon and then sprinkled them. My favorite sprinkles were the thick white ones, looked like frost. I also made some w/the silver drangees (sp?-balls). Not sure if you can find these anymore. Many states aren't selling them because they have real silver in them. They set-up really fast and were very easy to remove from the paper.

I wrapped them in cellophane and tied w/a ribbon in the green color Debi Lilly used in our Holiday Catalog. They were a huge hit at the show and my daughter said to me the next day, "Did you order these!" She didn't realize I had made them they were that pretty. I'm going to make them as gifts this Christmas Season for people in the office.

The cranberry bark is yummy, but very sweet to me! It looked really pretty as well.

missyciccolella

Thanks for the tips...I'm excited about this b/c my hosts are really pumped up for it! Good to know they are easy, and after tomorrow hopefully I'll have a better handle on them.

Spatch

I made the cranberry bark today and it tasted wonderful but it didn't look wonderful! Did anyone succeed in making it look like a tree?

MicheleC

The wreaths are very easy to make. You can't go too slow though or they will set before you can use sprinkles. My 7 and 9 year old kids made about 30 of them for my shows this week and they looked great! Just make sure the first layer is lined up before you start the second one.

I used treat bags from the dollar store and tied them with ribbon. Everyone loved them!

pckelly

Got any pictures Rhonda?? Looks like you had alot of fun doing them!!

pampchefrhondab

I had plenty of time to work w/mine, but it probably depends on how warm the chocolate is.

Treat bags is a great idea!

pampchefrhondab

Oh gosh, no I didn't take any pictures of them. I didn't think about it since there are some in the catalog.

Jilleysue

I love these homemade for the holidays ideas. This is finally right up my alley. I am not really a cooker and this is more "making". Finally after months and months of getting our office back in order and 5 years of my boyfriend going thru a very hard divorce he is back to work, so I can get my PC business going again. It has been so on again off again and I hate instability. This homemade for the holidays idea is great and easy to get started again. I am doing my own show at the office November something..I think the 8th with aobut 100 employees. My goal is to get bookings. SHOULD BE GREAT. I am excited. Any tips will help. Hope all of you are doing well.
Miss our talks and all the laughs.
Jilleysue

dianevill

Welcome back, Jill! We've missed you!

I love these ideas, too. I haven't made either the bark or the wreaths, so I have no comments, but just wanted to hijack for a moment to say welcome back!

mpkegley

My one tip for making the wreath is before you dip pretzels in chocolate, go ahead and lay down the 5 pretzels in the shape and dip them one by one and placing them where they go. I didn't do that for my first one and I had chocolate every where because I had to keep moving the pretzels to the right spot. I hope you understand what I mean! Other than that, they were very easy. I can't wait to make them again.

ChefBeckyD

Welcome Back Jilleysue! It will be good to have your humor and ALL of your organizational tips active on the site again!

Jilleysue

I will love to help anyway I can....All I have been doing is organizing.....LOL

Jilleysue

I learned the neatest tip the other day. Take a large candle holder. Put coffee beans inside and put a candle in the middel for your kitchen...smellls so nice. Looks nice too. Tie a ribbon at the bottom SOOOO PRETTY!

chefmeg

I have made the pretzel wreath and I used 9 pretzels to make it instead of 5...worked well!
I have an open house type show tonight with a few other vendors and I am really concentrating my efforts on the homemade ideas in hopes of booking them for December-that way I don't have to cook in my demos!

missyciccolella

I tend to be messy so thanks for the tip!

JAE

Made the cranberry bark, today. It was great, but very small. Everyone would just get a very small sample. BeckyD and I were talking about how to get the pieces to bread big to small so you can shape them like a Christmas tree. Becky came up with the idea to score the bark into the right size pieces right after it's all spread out. I think I'll try that next time.

Jilleysue

I need help. Next week, I am doing an open house type thing at my work. It will be about 50-75 employees coming in and out. There isn't an oven, so I am going to show the pretzel wreaths...should I already have them made or sample how to make a few. With people coming in and out, I thought I could just have everything set up with the battle bowls set up and the pretzel wreaths...but maybe I could show how to make these items right in the beginning and then just start talking about the items after. I want to make it as easy as possible for about an hour and then take orders. Thoughts?

Jilleysue

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