Made with crispy pretzel sticks, these chocolate Christmas trees are a festive sweet and salty treat for the holidays. They’re incredibly easy to make and are a great addition to dessert spreads at Christmas parties.
You can also easily use these candies to add holiday flair to cupcakes, cakes, and Christmas charcuterie boards. They’re also a fun addition to gingerbread house landscapes.
All you need are melting chocolates, pretzels, and some bright holiday sprinkles to make this chocolatey, crunchy dessert!
Why You’ll Love Chocolate Christmas Trees
Who wouldn’t love a 3-ingredient dessert that takes the most minimal amount of prep work?
- Flavorful – This dessert has the perfect combination of saltiness from the pretzels and sweetness from the chocolate.
- Quick – You’d be hard-pressed to find another dessert that’s quite as easy to make as these chocolatey trees.
- Lots of Uses – While you can eat them on their own, they’re also great to use for elevating your other baked goods.
Ingredients
With only 3 simple ingredients, these cute candies come together quickly.
- Melting Chocolate – You can find this type of chocolate in the baking aisle. It will be easier to work with than regular chocolate.
- Pretzel Sticks – Use the thin sticks to get the perfect shape.
- Holiday Sprinkles – These add fun and festive color to the candies.
How to Make Chocolate Christmas Trees
Making a holiday-themed dessert couldn’t be more simple!
- Melt the chocolate, preferably in a double boiler. Microwaving in intervals is an alternative method.
- Let the chocolate rest briefly before pouring it into a piping bag or a resealable plastic bag.
- Place the pretzels onto a prepared rimmed baking sheet lined with a sheet of parchment paper or wax paper.
- Using kitchen shears, cut off the corner of the plastic bag to create a small hole.
- Then, create the Christmas tree shape by drizzling the chocolate back and forth over each pretzel, leaving room at the bottom for the trunk.
- Add the sprinkles over top.
- Set the cookie sheet aside so that the chocolate can set or place it in the refrigerate for faster results.
- Serve chilled or at room temperature or use them to decorate.
Melting Chocolate in the Double Boiler vs Microwave
Melting chocolate, like many other things in the kitchen, is chemistry and science. There are a few things you can do to make sure you wind up with silky-smooth melted chocolate.
- You need the optimal temperature to make sure your chocolate melts to a silky-smooth consistency, don’t do it over high heat, keep it at medium.
- Skip the microwave and use a double boiler. The microwave heats too fast and too hot.
- If you do need to use the microwave, use it at 50% power or defrost mode and go slow, at 15-second intervals.
- Don’t fully boil the water in your double boiler. Get it hot enough to melt the chocolate, but not to a rolling boil.
- Put the top pot on with chocolate after the water has come to temperature.
- Stir constantly while melting. It should only take a minute or so.
- Use immediately and while shiny.
- If chocolate gets too hot, it gets clumpy and matte. You can try to revive it by adding 2 teaspoons of vegetable shortening, but sometimes you are better off just starting over.
What to Serve with Chocolate Christmas Trees
You can dunk this festive snack into milk or coffee or use them to garnish ice cream or chocolate cupcakes. They’re also the perfect addition to simple sheet cakes or an eggnog poke cake. Or you can serve them as part of a holiday spread of desserts like Christmas blondies, a meringue wreath, and holiday puppy chow.
Variations
You can make a few changes to switch change up the appearance or flavor of these holiday treats.
- Color – Use a different shade of melting chocolate to make colorful Christmas trees.
- Decoration – Instead of sprinkles, add some shimmer and color with decorator’s sugar.
- Shape – Get creative and form different shapes with the pretzels.
- Candy – Use peppermint sticks instead of pretzels to form the tree. You can also make peanut butter cup Christmas trees by arranging mini peanut butter cups into the shape of a tree and topping with the melted chocolate.
- Chocolate – While we recommend using candy melts, you can choose to use dark chocolate, milk chocolate, or white chocolate.
- Peanut Butter – Make peanut butter Christmas trees by drizzling warmed peanut butter over top or by dipping the pretzel into peanut butter before topping with chocolate.
Common Questions About Chocolate Christmas Trees
There are plenty of other ways to make a Christmas tree out of chocolate from using silicone molds or forming the shape with other candies before coating with chocolate.
Melting chocolates have cocoa butter in them which makes them easier to melt to a super smooth consistency. Also, melting chocolates can come in a variety of flavors so they can be ideal for using decoratively.
Storage
Since chocolate Christmas trees can be stored for a while, it makes them a great go-to dessert to keep around all holiday season.
Refrigerator: Store these in the refrigerator in an airtight container or wrapped in plastic wrap for up to 3 weeks.
Freezer: We do not recommend freezing these trees because the texture of the pretzels is likely to change.
More Holiday Desserts
Make all of these for the ultimate Christmas platter!
Holiday Cookie Balls
Holiday Chocolate Covered Pretzel Rods
Holiday Meringue Wreath Recipe
How to Make Chocolate Christmas Trees
Ingredients
- 6 ounces melting chocolate*
- 16 pretzel sticks
- holiday sprinkles
- parchment paper
- piping bag/plastic storage bag
Instructions
- Using a double boiler, melt the chocolate until smooth. Alternately, use the microwave, stirring at 30 second intervals until smooth. Do not overheat. Allow the chocolate to cool a bit before transferring it to a piping bag or plastic storage bag.
- Lay a piece of parchment paper on a rimmed baking sheet and line up pretzels with enough room between to make the trees.
- Snip a small hole in the piping bag or plastic bag corner, moving back and forth, create trees with a wide base and tapered top.
- While tacky, decorate with desired sprinkles.
- Allow to set at room temperature (1-2 hours) or chill (15 minutes).
- Gently peel the tree off of the parchment and enjoy or use as decorations.
- If you've tried this recipe, come back and let us know how it was in the comments or star ratings.
Notes
Nutrition
These are absolutely adorable and so easy to make! They really take plain cupcakes to the next level of pretty (and fun)!
So festive and so pretty! I can’t wait to make these for my family!
So festive and so pretty! I can’t wait to make these for my family!
These were the perfect baked good for our church bake sale. They were the first to sell out!
I LOVE the sweet and savory combination of flavors in these cupcakes. They were absolutely delicious!
These are super cute! I love the sweet and salty flavor, and I think it’s so fun that they can be their own snack or a topper. Great!
Okay, these are SO stinkin’ cute. They turned out so well (already did a trial run, just in case) and I’m so excited to show off my newfound skills over the holidays! Thank you!