Chocolate and Peanut Butter Peep Nests!

I get so many recipes by email  - blogs,  news feeds, news feeds linked to other bloggers, Pinterest, etc..  This recipe was one of those news feeds which linked to this lovely blog. I thought the idea was  adorable. Peeps nestled in chocolate nests and surrounded by candy eggs. 

The recipe called for the usual chow mein noodles mixed with chocolate chips and butterscotch or peanut butter chips.  Mmmm, peanut butter chips - that caught my attention. I thought sweet and salty would be a great combination and, since I've done the chow mein noodle nests before, pretzels might be a good nesting choice!  Or wait, remember shoestring potatoes in a big can?  I had to give both a try.

The marshmallow peeps in the first photo were made with shoestring potatoes and the marzipan bird nests were made with thin pretzels? I found both the marzipan birds and super thin pretzels at World Market. The cashier who waited on me said the super thin pretzels always sell out as soon as they get them in. They are good :)

   

Which would taste best? For me, the pretzels won by a very narrow margin. So, if you can't find super thin pretzels, try shoestring potatoes if you also like the idea of sweet and salty together.

To keep chocolate from melting on little fingers, I'll be packing these in cellophane wrapping for Easter gifting to my favorite peeps :)

Happy Easter and Passover, everyone!!

Chocolate and Peanut Butter Nests for Easter

Adapted from Chef in Training Printable Recipe Makes 6 nests 1 cup dark chocolate chips (I used Ghirardelli dark chocolate chips) 1 cup peanut butter chips 1 cup thin pretzels crushed or shoestring potatoes crushed Small candy eggs (I used M&M Easter peanut butter eggs) Peeps or Marzipan Chicks Melt chocolate and peanut butter chips together in a microwave, stirring every 30 seconds, until completed melted. Stir in crushed thin pretzel sticks or shoestring potatoes. Spray muffin tins with non-stick spray. (I used non-stick muffin tins and also sprayed them with Baker's Joy) Drop by spoonfuls into a greased muffin tin and mold into nest shapes with a spoon. Place Peeps or marzipan figures and candy eggs in nests while still warm. Refrigerate for at least one hour or more until completely set. Run a very thin knife around the edge of the nests to lift and remove from the tin.  If a piece breaks, you can always melt a little more chocolate to glue it back on.