Can You Freeze Chocolate Covered Pretzels? [Storing Tips]
Chocolate covered pretzels are a great holiday snack or finger food for when you are entertaining. They’re relatively straightforward to make and will be popular amongst guests, but what should you do to store the leftovers, and can you freeze them?
You can freeze chocolate covered pretzels to make them last for one to two years. They will last for some months in the fridge but the best way is to store them at room temperature.
We’ll look at the considerations around storing chocolate covered pretzels as well as the risks. We’ll also consider how to store your chocolate covered pretzels so that you maintain maximum taste, freshness and avoid them going stale.
Before diving into the nutritional details, please review our Nutritional Disclaimer page for important context and clarifications.
How to Store Chocolate Covered Pretzels?
There are two dynamics at play that your storage options must cover. The first is that they need to deal with the unique storage challenges posted by chocolate, given its perishability.
Further, the pretzels themselves are subject to going stale, and so your chosen method must be able to keep the pretzels fresh.
One of the best methods is to place the chocolate covered pretzels in a glass or plastic container. You can possibly get up to several months, particularly if the pretzels are fully dipped and covered in chocolate.
Keep out of direct sunlight and at room temperature. Find a cool, dry area where the stored pretzels can be left alone.
A great idea to monitor this is to grab a digital thermometer that features a humidity sensor. These can sit snugly in the pantry and monitor the humidity and temperature, with in-built alarms that are accessible remotely.
Storing in the fridge as a general rule of thumb will extend the shelf life by at least 25%.
Freezing the pretzels is another option for storage. As freezer burn will be disastrous to the taste, make sure that the container is both freezer-safe and airtight.
Make sure the chocolate is dry and hard as you don’t want a liquid freezing in the freezer.
Use freezer bags, wax paper or other separators to keep the pretzels from touching and fusing. Chocolate will absorb vapors and smells like you would not believe, so ensure the pretzels are well wrapped and in a solid container.
Use container that is airtight and freezer-safe, and perfect to store large quantities of chocolate covered pretzels to maintain them at peak freshness. These can also be used to safely store pretzels in a pantry.
You can expect up to 12 months of storage for frozen chocolate covered pretzels in these conditions. Use a label or marker to write the storage date so you can be sure when the expiry date rolls around.
If you’re really keen on keeping on top of the dates, set up a reminder in your calendar that will go off a few weeks before expiry to give you an opportunity to eat them before they go off.
Can You Freeze Store Bought Pretzels?
There’s no secret formula that goes into store bought pretzels, so you can follow the same process as for above. In other words, you can easily freeze store bought pretzels.
The benefit of store bought pretzels, is that they’re likely to come in an airtight bag already, offering many months of storage without much effort from yourself.
This means that for specific uses, store bought pretzels will be the superior choice. This is particularly the case if you’re traveling or at a holiday house, as you can easily pack up the pretzels and take them home.
Making your own chocolate covered pretzels is a bit of a messy affair, so if you’re away from the kitchen it’s much easier just to buy some premade pretzels rather than having to set it all up in a foreign environment.
How Long Will Homemade Chocolate Covered Pretzels Stay Fresh?
When making your own pretzels, you can determine how long they will stay fresh by picking quality ingredients and covering the pretzel completely with chocolate.
The chocolate will act as a sort of protective covering, allowing the pretzels to maintain moisture and stay fresh.
The key to making the best homemade pretzels is giving yourself enough space. You’ll need a few separate pots or bowls to allow you to dip, decorate and properly dry them to allow the chocolate to set. If they don’t dry properly, you’ll never lock in that freshness properly.
You’ll also have to be quick when dipping the chocolates, as the bowl of melted chocolate will harden relatively quickly. You can stop this by having the double pot boil going in the background and moving the chocolate back on it to melt it again.
You’ll also want to keep stirring the chocolate mix to keep it even and therefore making the drying process happen smoothly.
So set up your area ahead of time to guarantee that you have plenty of space for every pretzel to be laid out where people can’t get at them.
Melting the chocolate too quickly will cause issues with possible separation issues of the constituent parts.
In order to maximize freshness, when you remove the frozen pretzels from the freezer, keep them wrapped while they thaw. Once they get to room temperature, unwrap and enjoy.
Chocolate is relatively stable and will keep fresh for quite some time when stored at room temperature. Many boxed chocolates can last six to nine months, even after they have been opened.
Aim for between 54°F and 61°F (or 12°C to 16°C) to maintain the chocolate from melting. One common misstep in this area is to store chocolate covered pretzels near passive heat sources.
For example, fridges will get very warm and expel heat, so keep chocolate either inside the fridge or away from it in a dark, cool place.
Storing in either the fridge or freezer should be avoided if you don’t have the proper means to store, and particularly to wrap, the pretzels.
Dark chocolate will tend to last longer than the alternative, so look for high cocoa if you’re really looking to get the most out of the shelf life. This is not to say that white chocolate will spoil immediately, you can still get a few months out of it with proper storage.
Chocolate also has the advantage of containing little to no water, further boosting its longevity. On top of this, the flavonoids protect the fats in the chocolate from oxidation, meaning chocolate is not prone to spoiling.
How Long Do Chocolate Covered Pretzels Last?
If chocolate covered pretzels are not stored properly, they’re liable to only last a few hours. In a container, you can expect anywhere from a few weeks to a few months if using a quality container.
Properly wrapped and put into the freezer, you can expect an average 12 months. If you want to push the boundaries, properly stored chocolate covered pretzels will last up to two years.
One strategy to have them last longer is to use smaller pretzels. The smaller the surface area of the pretzel, the less chance it has to be exposed to the elements and go stale.
How Long Do Pretzels Covered in Almond Bark Last?
Almond Bark as an ingredient is not going to change much in regards to the shelf life of the chocolate covered pretzels. Storage in the pantry or fridge will be fine, freezing is also an option.
You may find that the higher the Almond Bark, the less time the food will stay fresh, but this is unlikely to make a massive impact.
How Long Do Pretzels Covered in Chocolate Chips Last?
Chocolate chips can be a different consistency than the chocolate covering the pretzels given the thickness of the mixture, and is likely to have a big impact in regards to the shelf life.
Baking or semi-sweet chocolate contains less dairy, therefore, having a longer shelf life. If you follow the above storage tips, at room temperature or in the fridge you can expect it to last for up to two years plus change.
Chocolate chips will be quite rich, and tend to maintain their flavor even while they have lost some of their initial freshness. If you’re planning on having chocolate covered pretzels as an emergency snack, then you couldn’t do much better than chocolate chips pretzels.
How to Know if Chocolate Covered Pretzels Have Gone Bad?
The smell is one of the biggest indicators that your pretzels have gone bad. Pretzels will develop a distinctive mold odor as it appears or it may just be an off odor. It could very well change color and any color change is a sign that you should not eat it.
A white film on chocolate pretzels could be fine, as that is more likely sugar bloom or fat bloom. This will bring with it them being soft in taste while appearing as a powdery, white-gray film.
Of course a bitter or dull taste is going to defeat the purpose of this delightful treat, so if you’re aware that the chocolate covered pretzels have been stored for some time, and the first bite is bad, you can be pretty sure the whole batch has gone off.
