Get all your ingredients together and line a baking tray with parchment paper or wax paper. When you’re working with melted chocolate it helps to have things ready to go so you can work quickly once the chocolate is at the right temperature.

You can melt your chocolate for these Halloween Pretzels two ways: with the microwave, or a double boiler. If you’re using your microwave, go with 50% power on your microwave for 1 minute at a time, stirring as you go until the white chocolate or candy melts are melted. Using a double boiler will help ensure your chocolate doesn’t burn. If you don’t have a double boiler pot, you can put a pot of water on your stove and then put a glass bowl on top of it for the chocolate to go in. Whichever method you go with, you should use oven mitts to handle your chocolate bowls in case they get hot.

You can use a tall glass to dip your pretzels in the chocolate, but my favorite way to get a smooth chocolate finish is actually to use a bowl with a slightly wider opening than a cup. Use a spoon to coat your pretzel in chocolate and then here’s the secret: make sure you tap your pretzel rods to get the excess chocolate off. This will really help them look smooth and not so lumpy. Tap, tap, tap!

Place your coated pretzels on wax paper or parchment paper. Putting the parchment paper on top of a cookie sheet will allow you to move it around much more easily if you need to.

It helps to have a good idea of what you want each chocolate covered Halloween pretzel to look like before you get started.

For the orange pretzels with black sprinkles - while the chocolate is still soft, sprinkle your black sprinkles onto the orange chocolate covered pretzel rods.

For the pretzel rods with drizzled chocolate (like the mummy pretzels and the monster pretzels) - after you coat them in chocolate, drizzle the second layer on, let it set for a minute and then add the eyes. Letting it set a tiny bit will help ensure the candy eyes don’t slide off the sides of the pretzel.

For the ghost pretzels, use two candy eyes and one mini chocolate chip for the mouth. If you want the pretzels to look like a little monster, try using more than two candy eyes!

You can put the baking tray in the fridge for a few moments, or leave them out on the counter to cool off and harden. Once the chocolate covered Halloween Pretzels are set, transfer them off the parchment paper and into an airtight container at room temperature to stay fresh until it’s party time. They should stay fresh for up to a week.