Chocolate-covered peanutbutter-filled pretzels...

...are my new favorite holiday confection, possibly my new favorite anytime confection. I'd been dreaming these up (not that I'm the first to think of this salty-sweet-blissful combination) for at least a year before I finally took a stab at making them a few days before Christmas. (And they are appropriate for Christmas, 'cause JESUS CHRIST are they good!)

Here's what they look like when you're shoving them in your mouth, and below that is an in-progress photo taken right after I pressed the peanutbutter filling (the same stuff you'd put in your PB cups--something like 1 part Earth Balance to 2 parts peanutbutter to 3 parts powdered sugar) into the windows of the pretzels, and right before I covered them in melted dark chocolate chips. As with anything one covers in chocolate, these are labor-intensive but completely worth it... because when you're done, you have a bunch of little things covered in chocolate.