Peanut Butter Pretzel Love Bugs
Published Date: January 3, 2023
Peanut Butter Pretzel Love bugs are an easy-to-make no bake Valentine’s Day treat that’s made with store-bought ingredients in only 30 minutes! A simple recipe that brings edible fun to February 14th!
Spread the love this Valentine’s Day by sharing these salty-sweet Peanut Butter Pretzel Love Bugs! Spend time in the kitchen with the kids by letting them decorate their own love bugs as an edible craft!
This budget-friendly recipe checks all the boxes – it’s delicious, easy to make, and they’re fun to share in celebrating Valentine’s Day!
Eating These Peanut Butter Pretzel Love Bugs
Taste: Salty pretzels are filled with creamy, salty peanut butter before being dipped in sweet candy melts! They’re then finished off with sweet candy eyes and sprinkles to bring the love bugs to life!
Texture: Each bug has a delicious crunch from the pretzel! Meanwhile, the smooth chocolate coating and creamy peanut butter filling bring a balance of tasty texture!
Prepare For Valentine’s Day Ahead Of Time!
This recipe is a great one to make ahead of time and freeze to get ahead for Valentine’s Day! Once the love bugs are made, you can store them in an airtight container in the freezer for up to 6 months.
When you’re ready to enjoy or share, just thaw them at room temperature or in the fridge overnight. For sharing, you can place a few in a cello bag and tie it off with a fun Valentine-themed ribbon!
Pass them out to neighbors and your kid’s classmates, or bring them into the office to share with coworkers! After all, no one will turn down a salty-sweet peanut butter treat!
Kitchen Tips & Tricks When Making These Love Bugs
- Work On Parchment Paper – For easier assembly and to prevent an unnecessary mess, work on parchment paper! This way, the love bugs come off of your surface easily, and you can just toss the mess away.
- Pipe The Peanut Butter – Once the Reese peanut butter chips have melted, transfer them into a piping bag. Then pipe the melted peanut butter into the three holes of the chocolate-covered pretzels. Using a piping bag is the easiest way to get the peanut butter into the holes neatly without a mess. If you don’t have a piping bag, you can use a Ziploc bag with a hole cut in one of the corners.
- Thin The Candy Melts – To ensure the chocolate peanut butter pretzels get a perfectly smooth coat of red, it’s best to thin the candy melts! I prefer to do this by coating the melting wafers with vegetable oil and then melting them according to the package instructions.
- Decorate & Chill – Be sure to decorate the love bugs before the red chocolate has completely hardened! If not, the heart sprinkles won’t stick to the love bugs. Once they’re fully decorated, you can pop them in the fridge to chill, allowing the bugs to harden up, so the decorations don’t come off.
Substitutions
- Mini Pretzels – Larger pretzels may be used in place of mini pretzels. However, you’ll need to double or triple the amount of Reese’s peanut butter chips and red melting wafers to cover the larger pretzels.
- Reese Peanut Butter Chips – Change up the flavor of these love bugs! To do so, fill the pretzels with butterscotch chips, milk chocolate, or white chocolate!
- Icing – When adhering the candy eyes onto the bugs, you can use any color of icing you have.
- Candy Eyes – If you don’t have any candy eyes on hand, you can make the eyes with dots of black icing.
- Heart Sprinkles – The ‘dots’ on the bugs are made with heart sprinkles but can also be made with any sprinkles you’d like! Other small or mini heart-shaped candies could also be used too.
- Vegetable Oil – When thinning the candy melts, you can use coconut oil or canola oil instead of vegetable oil.
How Do I Store These Peanut Butter Pretzel Love Bugs?
These love bugs must be stored in an airtight container with parchment paper separating the layers. This way, they don’t stick together and potentially ruin the decorated love bugs.
Once they’re in the container, they can be stored at room temperature for up to 24 hours or in the fridge for seven days.
Are These Love Bugs Supposed To Be Eaten Warm Or Cold?
These peanut butter love bugs should be served at room temperature or chilled. If they’re too cold, they may be too hard to eat!
Do not warm them up, or the bugs will melt and fall apart!
Can I Make My Own Chocolate Covered Pretzels Instead Of Using Store-bought?
Of course, to do so, I’d recommend covering the pretzels in milk chocolate. I just chose to use store-bought chocolate-covered pretzels to keep this recipe quick and easy!
How Many Love Bugs Does This Valentine’s Day Recipe Make?
This recipe yields 20 love bugs! However, since you’ll already have all the ingredients out, it’s really easy to make as many love bugs as you’d like!
Peanut Butter Pretzel Love Bugs
EQUIPMENT
- Small heat-safe bowl
- medium heat-safe bowl
- stirring spoon or small spatula
- parchment paper
- piping bag or ziplock bag with a hole cut in the corner
INGREDIENTS
- 12 ounces red candy melts
- 2 cups Reese’s peanut butter chips
- 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
- 20 milk chocolate-covered mini pretzels
- 3 tablespoons black icing
- 40 small candy eyes
- 40 large pink heart sprinkles
INSTRUCTIONS
- In a small heat-safe bowl, melt your Reese peanut butter chips according to the package directions. Once melted and smooth, transfer the melted Reese peanut butter into a piping bag or a zip lock bag with a hole cut in the corner.
- Pipe the melted Reese’s peanut butter into each of the 3 holes in your mini chocolate-covered pretzels. Do this over parchment paper to prevent them from sticking to your surface. Fill them enough to fill each hole. Set them aside for about 10 minutes to set (harden).
- In a medium heat-safe bowl, coat your red melting wafers with vegetable oil and then melt them according to package instructions. The vegetable oil will thin the red chocolate enough to smoothly coat the pretzel without being chunky.
- Once the red chocolate is melted and smooth, dip each chocolate-covered pretzel in leaving just a tiny bit of the bottom of the pretzel out. This will be the love bug’s head, so you don’t want to coat it in red.
- Let the excess red chocolate drip back into the bowl and then set the love bug aside on parchment paper.
- Before the red chocolate has completely hardened, place a large pink sprinkle on each side of the bug, and point toward the head.
- Using the back icing, “glue” 2 eyes to each bug where there is no red chocolate.
- Set your love bugs in a refrigerator for at least 20 minutes to harden, and then serve at room temperature or chilled.
NOTES
- Storage Instructions:
These Peanut Butter pretzel love bugs can be kept at room temperature, covered, for up to 24 hours. You can store them in your refrigerator in an airtight container for up to 7 days, or a freezer-safe container in your freezer for up to 6 months. - Can I eat these warm or cold?
These peanut butter pretzel love bugs should be served at room temperature or chilled. Don’t warm them up or they will melt. - What is another variation I can make?
You can also make these love bugs with larger pretzels, however, you’ll need to double or triple the amount of Reese peanut butter chips and red melting wafers to cover the larger pretzels. - What are substitutions that I can make?
You can substitute the Reese’s peanut butter chips with butterscotch chips, milk chocolate, or white chocolate.
You can substitute the candy eyes with black icing dots
You can substitute the large pink heart sprinkles with any sprinkles you would like.
You can substitute vegetable oil with coconut oil or canola oil.
You can substitute the black icing with red icing or brown icing. - Do I have to use store-bought chocolate-covered pretzels or can I make my own?
You do not have to buy store-bought chocolate-covered pretzels for this recipe, you can make your own and use them to make these love bugs. You can cover pretzels in chocolate yourself if you prefer. I recommend covering them in milk chocolate. - Can I make this ahead of time and freeze it?
Yes, you can make these peanut butter pretzel love bugs ahead of time and freeze them in a freezer-safe container for up to 6 months. To thaw, you can leave them at room temperature or place them in an airtight container in your refrigerator until completely thawed.
