Stars and Stripes Candy Tray

Every once in a while my patriotic colors really shine through and get the best of me.

No seriously. Around this time every year it never fails that some store has American flag jean shorts for sale and I am always this close to buying them. I don't know what it is. Same with American flag bikinis. Weird. There is just something about red, white and blue stuff that gets me good. Lucky for you, I've skipped the USA bikini. For now.

I did manage, however, to make this super cute American flag made out of candy, pretzels & chocolate.

Stars and Stripes Candy Tray

I was slightly obsessive compulsive and measured everything out so you wouldn't have to. I used a 10X13 baking sheet and placed the pretzels and M&M's where I wanted them before I started melting any chocolate, just to see how the pan would look when I was done. 

I noticed that the pretzels are actually rectangles, not squares. One tip when placing the pretzels on the tray is to place them long ways, right to left, not up and down. This way they will fit perfectly on the tray. Oh look, I drew for you! 

Baking sheet info: I used the largest baking sheet I had. I measured the inside so you would know exactly how large of a space you have to work with and it's 11.5 in x 16.5 in.

Stars and Stripes Candy Tray
      makes 1 flag, {130 pretzel bites}

130 square pretzels {Snyder brand, Snaps}

130 Wilton white candy melts*

30 blue M&M's or candy drops

53 white M&M's or candy drops

47 red M&M's or candy drops

Preheat oven to 200 degrees. Line baking sheets with parchment paper. {I recommend working in at least 2 batches when melting the candies so they don't harden up when you are still trying to put the M&M's on.} Place one candy melt in the center of each pretzel. 

Bake them for 4 minutes only. Remove from oven and place one M&M on each candy melt. Press down gently so the M&M's stick.

Place baking sheet in fridge for a few minutes so the white chocolate candy melts will harden back up. Don't try to arrange the flag when they are still melty. {I may have learned that the hard way}. 

Once the chocolate has hardened back up, arrange the red, white and blue candy bites into your patriotic little flag.

I don't know about you but I don't think the American flag has ever looked so cute! Or yummy!

This is obviously perfect for a 4th of July gathering or a Memorial Day BBQ. If you aren't feeling this "crafty," I totally understand. You could still make up a big batch of the cute red, white & blue pretzel bites and just package them together. I promise not to judge! 

USA! USA! USA!

*The 12 oz bag of Wilton's candy melts says 16 pieces is a serving and that there are 10 servings in a bag, so according to my calculations that's 160 pieces. So at the store I was thinking I would have plenty leftover in case I messed a few of them up. Hmmmm, my bag had 132 in it. Yikes, no pressure! I'm just warning you about this in case there are even less in some. So you should only need one bag, but you've been warned. 

Last thing, I did NOT dig through bags of M&M's to get all the colors I needed. I went to a candy store where they sell the knock off brand. The nice thing about these are one: they are cheaper, two, they are already divided into color, and three, I didn't have to make sure and place the M side down. And they taste the same. 

Maker sure to check out my 'holiday ideas' page for other fun patriotic ideas!