Rolo Pretzel Bites for Mardi Gras

Last Updated on February 25, 2025

Rolo Pretzel Bites for Mardi Gras are the perfect sweet treat to celebrate Fat Tuesday.

The combination of pretzels, chocolate, nuts and caramel is just plain irresistible. If you love desserts made with pretzels, you may also enjoy these salty sweet caramel pretzel cookies.

These Mardi Gras treats would be a special dessert to have after eating Instant Pot Jambalaya for dinner. Your kids will be motivated to finish their dinner if they know these pretzels are waiting for them after.

Jump to:

• What are Some Mardi Gras Activities for Kids?
• SAVE THIS RECIPE!
• ❤️ Why You’ll Love This Recipe
• 🥘 Ingredients
• 🔀 Substitutions
• 🌈Variations / Options / Add-Ins
• 🥄 Equipment Needed / Helpful Tools
• Tired of Ads?
• 🔪 How to Make Rolo Pretzel Bites for Mardi Gras
• 👩‍🍳 Pro Tips
• ❓ Recipe FAQs
• 🙏 Pairing
• SAVE THIS RECIPE!
• 📋 Recipe
• Pro Tips
• Recipe FAQs

What are Some Mardi Gras Activities for Kids?

Besides serving this fun treat to your kids, you can make it more fun by doing these Mardi Gras activities with them:

Decorate a Masquerade Mask

You can buy masks that you can decorate with your kids — some of the options even include everything you need to decorate the masks. If you prefer, you can cut out your own masks and then provide paint, glue, glitter, feathers, stickers, markers, crayons, etc. for the kids to use to decorate them.

Pin the Mask on the Jester

After decorating the masks, your kids can use them to play a twist on the traditional party game of “Pin the Tail on the Donkey” and instead play the game with a cutout of a jester (you could always draw one or have the kids draw one).

To play, you’ll blindfold one kid, spin them around slowly, and then they can try and tape their mask to the jester’s face.

Beaded Necklaces

Let kids string their own Mardi Gras beads in traditional purple, green, and gold.

You can use stretchy cord, elastic string, or even ribbon as the “chain” and then pony beads or Mardi Gras-themed beads to string on the chain.

Musical Chairs

Once the necklaces are made, the kids can wear them to play musical chairs. You can play jazz music as they walk around the chairs to keep with the Mardi Gras theme.

❤️ Why You’ll Love This Recipe

These caramel pretzel bites are a delightful, irresistible confection bursting with pretzels, nuts and caramel. These sweet and salty treats are the perfect way to celebrate the start of Lent.

• Easy to make: This dessert looks fancy, but it’s really easy to make. You just have to do a little baking, assembling and melting, and these bites will be ready to eat.
• Fun to make: Depending on the age of your kids, they’ll be able to help with part of the process or all of it. You’ll enjoy making memories together.
• Always a hit at parties: Besides being colorful, everyone usually loves the combination of sweet and salty.

If you love the sweet and salty combination, Instant Pot caramel popcorn would be another good recipe to make.

🥘 Ingredients

There are not many ingredients needed for Mardi Gras Rolo Pretzels. The main problem I have at my house is making sure the Rolos don’t get eaten before I get ready to make the treats.

Pretzels: You will need small pretzel twists for this recipe. These will be the base of the dessert.

Rolos: You will need to unwrap the Rolo candy to make these sweet treats. The candy is the center of the dessert with a pretzel underneath and a pecan on top.

Pecans: Pick up a package of lightly toasted and salted pecan halves for best results. The nuts are pressed into the chocolate candy.

Candy melts: To stick with the Mardi Gras theme, you’ll need yellow, purple and green candy melts. You can drizzle them over the candy in any order you want.

Sprinkles: Same as with the candy melts, you’ll need yellow, purple and green sprinkles to stick with the colors of Mardi Gras.

See recipe card for complete list of ingredients and quantities.

🔀 Substitutions

If you don’t have the ingredients you need, or if you have different dietary needs/preferences, see if you have these instead:

Pretzels: Instead of the small twists, you can use also use the small square pretzels for a flatter surface.

Rolos: If you can’t find this candy, you can use chocolate caramel kisses or Dove caramel chocolates instead.

Pecans: Walnut halves will have a similar taste and crunch. If you want a nut free option, you can use a chocolate candy like M&Ms instead.

Candy melts: If you don’t have the melts, you can melt white chocolate and stir in gel food coloring until you get the desired shade of colors that you want.

🌈Variations / Options / Add-Ins

Here are a few ways that you can personalize this delicious snack recipe.

Different Flavors: For an added salty flavor, sprinkle with a little sea salt before the candy melts set. If you love dark chocolate, you can use dark chocolate Rolos.

Different Nuts: For a sweet, crunchy twist add candied pecans or walnuts instead of the lightly toasted and salted pecans. You could also add chopped honey roasted peanuts for an additional sweet-salty combination.

Additional Toppings: Top with mini gold sugar pearls for a royal touch and edible glitter for extra sparkle.

If you want another sweet treat for Mardi Gras, try this layered jello.

🥄 Equipment Needed / Helpful Tools

You only need a few kitchen tools to help you make this festive dessert recipe. Gather these tools and get ready to enjoy this sweet treat.

• Baking sheet: This is where you’ll assemble the treats and bake them for a few minutes to soften the candy.
• Parchment paper: Put this on the baking sheet before you make the snack so clean up is really easy when you’re done.
• Microwave safe bowls: You’ll need three bowls to melt the yellow, purple and green candy melts.

🔪 How to Make Rolo Pretzel Bites for Mardi Gras

Making these little treats is so simple. Just follow the instructions below and you will have a kid-friendly snack without much effort at all. 

Step 1: Prepare a Baking Sheet 

Preheat oven to 350 F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. 

Step 2: Add the Pretzels

Place pretzels in a single layer on the parchment paper on the baking sheet. On top of each pretzel, place a Rolo candy (unwrap them first if needed).

Step 3: Melt the Candy

Bake for 3 to 5 minutes or until candies are soft but not melted. Remove from oven.

Step 4: Add the Pecan

Immediately press one pecan half down on top of each Rolo candy, pressing the candy through the pretzel.

Step 5: Cool the Pretzels

Allow the pretzel turtles to cool for at least 30 minutes at room temperature, or until the chocolate and caramel have fully set. If you want to speed up the process, you can place them in the refrigerator for about 10–15 minutes until firm.

Step 6: Decorate

Melt candy coating in individual bowls according to package directions. One color at a time, drizzle candy coating over pretzel turtles.

Immediately add sprinkles.

Step 7: Allow to Set

Let the decorated pretzel turtles set for about 30 minutes at room temperature or 10–15 minutes in the refrigerator until the candy melts harden completely. This will ensure they don’t smudge when stored or served.

Step 8: Serve and Enjoy

Put the treats on a nice serving plate and enjoy them with your friends and family.

👩‍🍳 Pro Tips

Here are a few tips to help make sure your snack turns out perfectly every time that you make it. 

• Overbaking can cause the caramel filling to melt and run off the pretzel so watch them closely. Start checking them at 3-4 minutes. 
• Press the pecans down gently — If you press too hard, the caramel might ooze out too much.
• Microwave the candy melts in 15-20 second intervals, stirring between each, to prevent burning.
• Use a piping bag or ziplock bag for drizzling — Snip a tiny corner off the bag for clean, even lines. 
• If the drizzle clumps, a toothpick can smooth or separate colors.

❓ Recipe FAQs

🙏 Pairing

These are my favorite dishes to serve with Rolo Pretzel Bites for Mardi Gras:

Ready to get cooking? Print off the recipe card below or toggle on Cook Mode to keep your screen from going dark while you follow along on your phone or tablet.

📋 Recipe