Chocolate Covered Peanut Butter Pretzel Bites

I love peanut butter and my husband loves pretzels so when I saw a pin from TwoTinyKitchens.com for Peanut Butter Pretzel Bites I couldn’t wait to make them and knew they would be beyond delicious. I adapted one of my favorite recipes for Peanut Butter Balls from Terry Walters’ cookbook, Clean Start, to make this a healthier recipe:

1 cup fresh ground peanuts

½ cup pure maple syrup

½ cup crispy rice cereal plus more if needed

12 ozs dark chocolate

1 bag small round pretzels

Place peanut butter and maple syrup in a food processor and pulse to combine. Fold in crispy rice cereal. If your peanut butter is particularly runny, add more cereal until mixture holds together in balls. Use a teaspoon measure to scoop the filling.  Roll each portion into a small ball, then sandwich them between two whole pretzels.  Place on a cookie sheet covered w/parchment paper. When all the balls are rolled and successfully sandwiched, stick the whole tray in the freezer for about half an hour. Melt chocolate in double boiler or in small pot over very low heat. Remove the pretzel sandwiches from the freezer and quickly dip each half-way into the melted chocolate.  Return to the tray and repeat with remaining sandwiches.  When all are dipped, return the tray to the freezer to set up completely.  Store the sandwiches in the refrigerator until serving time.