The happiest of Easters to everyone who celebrates! I’m like a guest showing up late to the party, but hey, I have treats! Maybe you’ll want to pin this for next year, or maybe make these darling little Chocolate Pretzel Bird Nests with any leftover Easter candies. I don’t know about you, but I love the flavor combo of sweet and salty, and love it even more when it’s chocolate with a little saltiness.

Chocolate Pretzel Bird Nests

I love it still more when the recipe is drop-dead simple to make with just a handful of ingredients like these Chocolate Pretzel Bird Nests. They’re just a fun little item to put out on the buffet or to hand out as a favor or pass out to or make with the littles. Expect a mess if you make them with kids! But that’s part of the fun. And so is licking the spoon!

About Chocolate Pretzel Bird Nests:

One of the fun things about Chocolate Pretzel Bird Nests is that you can play around with the flavors. You can very easily make them pure chocolate, either milk, semi-sweet, or bitter chocolate, and of course, it’s just as easy to change them up to white chocolate. And I’d urge you to consider a chocolate peanut butter combo (they’ll be a bit softer and a little messy but oh, so good) if that’s your thing. Reece’s, I’m not sorry!

Top your nests with any little eggs you’d like; there are so many flavors and types to choose from. I chose little malted milk robin’s eggs, but I think I stood in the Easter candy aisle for a good 10 to 15 minutes looking over the options. I want this one, no, that one, lol!

There was everything from budget bags to higher-end candy, too. Since these nests are small, just choose the appropriate size. I also considered using some Peeps and making larger nests, maybe with a little peep incubating the eggs, but in the end, I think I was right on with simpler is better.

Chocolate Pretzel Bird Nests

Making Chocolate Pretzel Bird Nests:

Part of what makes these so easy is that there are only four ingredients: the chocolate, a little butter or coconut oil just to make them smooth, shiny, and handle easily, the pretzels, and the eggs. Oh, and did I mention no-bake? Microwave the chocolate and butter or coconut oil (add peanut butter if you’re using it) and stir it until smooth, then mix in the pretzels and form the little nests in mini muffin pans. The only hard part is waiting for them to cool I suggest an hour in the fridge.

I chose to make tiny little bird nests using a mini-muffin tin, but you can make them larger in an appropriate mold, like a full-size muffin tin, or free-form them if you’d like on parchment, wax paper, or foil. And while I’m going on about the making of these, rustic is the way to go here; these aren’t perfect nests, just an approximation of one.

It’s good to know, too, that there isn’t any right or wrong; riff off the recipe. Just use equal amounts of chocolate and pretzels, by weight – look at your bag of pretzels to see how many ounces it is and estimate 12 ounces, which is the size of a bag of chocolate chips. Then add in two tablespoons of the butter or coconut oil.

If you’re going with peanut butter, use about three tablespoons, but cut the butter or coconut oil back to only one tablespoon. If you want to, you can use a lot more chocolate to get something more solid, or a little less if you’d like it to look more “stick” like.

I gotta tell you, these are a bit messy to make, but then almost any chocolaty treat is. I just went with the flow, and I got a little chocolate smeared over the eggs, didn’t stress about it. Heck, I figure unless you’re a super perfectionist, yours will probably come out the same way! And even better – put the kids in something old and let them go for it. Maybe you’ll just want them to drop on the eggs if your kids are younger, but grade school children should be able to handle these with supervision.

Saving Money on Chocolate Pretzel Bird Nests:

There’s no better time than before the Easter holiday or the long stretch from pre-Thanksgiving to New Years to stock up on baking items, like chocolate chips. There will always be sporadic sales and sales that aren’t quite as good around other holidays (Valentine’s Day, especially).

Any holiday is a great time to find your snacky type junk foods on sale, like chips, although I seldom see pretzels on sale – maybe because I don’t really eat them that often and don’t watch for them. I’d be in danger if I kept them in my house!

Chocolate Pretzel Bird Nests

Chocolate Pretzel Bird Nests

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A fun project with the kids

• Author: mollie kirby
• Prep Time: 20 minutes
• Cook Time: 1 hour chill
• Total Time: 0 hours
• Yield: about 48 small a dozen large 1x
• Category: candy
• Cuisine: American

Ingredients

Scale 1x2x3x

• 1 12 ounce package chocolate chips
• about 12 ounces small stick-type pretzels
• 2 tablespoons coconut oil or butter
• 1 package small Easter eggs (see note)

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Instructions

In a large microwave-safe bowl, add the chocolate chips and coconut oil. Microwave for one minute, then stir and if chocolate is not melted and smooth, microwave in 30-second intervals, stirring after each.

If making small nests, crush the pretzels lightly into small pieces, the largest maybe a little larger than an inch, if making larger nests, the pieces can be larger. You’ll want mostly the larger pieces so don’t crush them into a powder, just reasonable sizes.

Toss the pretzels into the chocolate mixture, stirring with a spatula to coat. Scoop into piles of the coated pretzels onto wax or parchment paper and form into nests or spray large or mini muffin tins lightly with cooking oil and drop the coated pretzels into them, using a spoon to make a smallish well in the center. These will be rustic.

Before the chocolate has hardened, add three eggs to each nest; depending on how quickly you work, you may wish to make about six nests, then add the eggs, then continue with the rest.

Let chocolate harden before serving, preferably about an hour in the fridge. Serve cool or at room temperature. Store in an airtight container with parchment or wax paper in between layers, in a cool place or in the refrigerator.

If making a peanut butter variety, add about three to four tablespoons of peanut butter to the chocolate chips before microwaving and cut the butter or oil back to one tablespoon. Peanut butter variety will be softer; serve cold.

Notes:

The size and amounts are variable; depending on how many small nests are made, and the size of the bag of eggs, one bag of eggs may not give three eggs on each nest. I was about six eggs short on three nests when making 48 nests.

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I’ll be sharing Chocolate Pretzel Bird Nests at Fiesta Friday 272 hosted this week by Antonia @ Zoale.com and Angie @ Fiesta Friday.