Snowflake pretzels

Treat family and friends to these gorgeous white-chocolate-coated pretzel snowflakes. Package them up to give as edible Christmas gifts

200g white chocolate chips for cooking or white candy melts, plus 50g extra to make lollies (optional)
32 mini pretzels (about 45g)
white or silver sprinkles
8 paper lolly sticks (optional)

Put a sheet of baking parchment or a non-stick tray liner on a baking tray. Melt the chocolate or candy melts carefully in a microwave or in a bowl set over a pan of simmering water – don’t let any water get into the bowl or allow the base of it to touch the water. Turn off the heat but leave the bowl on the pan. Add the pretzels and stir well.
Lift the pretzels out of the chocolate with a fork, shaking them a little so the excess chocolate drips off, then put them on the tray and in the freezer for 5 mins to set. Dip the pretzels in the chocolate again, then lay four at a time together on the tray and push them together, with the pointy ends in the centre, to make a snowflake shape. Add a blob more chocolate with the end of a teaspoon in the middle of each snowflake so they hold together when set. Before they set, decorate with the sprinkles. Leave somewhere cold to set completely – you can use the freezer if you want to speed up the process.
If you want to make the pretzel snowflakes into lollipops, melt the extra 50g chocolate as before and make eight well-spaced blobs, the size of a 1p coin, on some non-stick liner. Put a paper lolly stick on each blob so one end is in the chocolate, then press a pretzel snowflake gently on top and leave somewhere cold to set. Will keep for one to two days in a cool place.