Success!

I failed in my first attempt to make my white chocolate-covered pretezels. I put a bunch in a pie plate and put 'em in the microwave in 20 second intervals. They started to look melty, but then I thought I would need more, so I threw more onto the plate. I zapped them again, but they started to look dry and crumbly and the pie plate was getting really hot. I took them out to re-evaluate. As they sat on the hot plate, they started to get melty again, but with Ben's convincing I decided to try the stove top. Well, then they started to scorch while going back and forth between melting and getting dry and crumbly. Ben kept suggesting I add milk, so I did. Didn't help. At that point, I had something resembling ice cream, and so I put it in a bowl and tossed them back into the microwave (now having finally read the directions on the package for how to melt them). However, with all the incorrect things I did along the way, this final attempt at melting the chips just made them scorch even more and it ended up looking like Cream of Wheat. Yuck! Now, I HAVE melted white chips before without any problem...but I guess I was either lucky the first time, unlucky the second time, or both. SO...instead of trying it again with actual white chips, I just bought some yummy vanilla almond bark which is super easy to melt and tastes great too. Worked like a charm, and also taught me that I pretty much did everything wrong with the chips (microwave for a longer time first, then small intervals as needed; never add water or milk to thin...only vegetable shortening; moisture can cause it to solidify or separate; and don't overheat it!). Well, I learned a lesson and got a funny story out of it, all leading up to the deliciousness you now see before you. :) Parting shot of a creepy-looking pretzel: