Elf Buttons & Rudolph Noses

I got my second wind this afternoon and threw together a couple more batches of these SIMPLE holiday snacks sure to have you rattling off the recipe to all who receive them.

I was even chatting with the sweet woman clerk at CVS this morning and she was disappointed that she and her daughter weren’t going to have time to bake this year….not so! I told her about these and before I took off with my bags she was scrambling for a pen and paper to jot down the specifics.

First laid eyes on these little cuties on {the big p} and pinned them onto my {For The Ho Ho Holidays} board.

I made them with both the candy cane kisses and the good ‘ol milk chocolate version. Not everyone likes peppermint {what?} so that is why I chose to do some regular ones as well. As I was pushing down the red m&m’s on the chocolate kisses, I thought “these look like little Rudolph noses!”. So with that, I had to come up with a special name for the red striped ones with green m&m’s ~ Elf Eyeballs sounded a little too {Nightmare Before Christmas} so I settled on Elf Buttons!

These are a breeze with the hardest part being opening all the kisses.

Here’s the rundown:

Pick up some pretzels ~ I used Snyder’s Snaps {the non-butter flavored ones}

Grab some Hershey’s Kisses of choice ~ there’s the dark chocolate variety, mint truffle ones, Hugs, etc.

Don’t forget the m&m’s ~ you could most certainly use peanut m&m’s or the peanut butter ones……{note to self}

Set the oven to 170*, lay some parchment paper on your baking sheet, line up the pretzels, place an unwrapped kiss on each pretzel and place in the oven for 6 {SIX} minutes…and NO more!

Take out the baking sheet and immediately place an m&m {“m” side down for a cleaner look} on top of the kiss and gently press down. For some reason, the candy cane ones get softer and will spread out a little more. I actually put the chocolate ones in for more like 7 minutes and they were fine, but I wouldn’t recommend going over 6 minutes with the white chocolate ones! Both varieties will hold their shape, but glisten a little.

Once you’ve topped them all with an m&m, place them in the freezer or ‘fridge to set up…my cookie sheet wouldn’t fit in the freezer so I just put it in the ‘fridge for about 30 minutes.

Then package them up! I picked up some little Chinese takeout containers last year at Target after Christmas and they hold a dozen buttons and noses perfectly ~ just the right amount for a couple days an afternoon snack. The little boxes will go to the yard duties at Elliott’s school and I packaged up some larger amounts for Jay to take to work and just tied them with a piece of grosgrain.

E.A.S.Y.

If you’re in a bind, but want to give something handmade, you can crank out about 120 of these suckers in less than 30 minutes of you have enough cookie sheets! Each bag of kisses makes about 60 pretzels.

I’ve gone through 4 bags of kisses so far and still have plenty of m&m’s, but need to pick up another bag of pretzels since the kids have been snacking on them throughout the week.

I’m actually looking forward to making these throughout the year with all the festive holiday kisses and m&m’s….won’t they be darling for Valentine’s Day and Easter?

You can also get the colored Wilton melts and use those instead of the kisses and tailor to your party’s color scheme.

Fun. Fun.

*****

Is tomorrow really Friday?

Night night, floppers!

XO