Christmas Crunch or reindeer food turns 400 g white chocolate, 200 g salted pretzels, 150 g pistachios, 100 g cranberries and 50 g freeze-dried strawberries* into a sweet-and-salty crunchy gift in 20 minutes. We melt the chocolate in the Thermomix® at 50°C on speed 2 for 8 minutes, mix everything together and spread the mixture onto a baking tray. After 1 hour in the fridge we break the crunch into pieces and pack it into gift bags.
We give the crunch as a gift in cellophane bags with festive ribbon, in preserving jars with a label, or in gift boxes on a bed of straw. From 900 g of mixture you get 6 parcels of 150 g each, perfect for colleagues, teachers and family.
Christmas Crunch from the Thermomix® "Reindeer Food"
Ingredients 0 / 8 ✓
- 130 g white couverture chocolate
- 30 g dried apricots
- 40 g salted pretzels
- 40 g walnut halves
- 100 g Smarties
- 50 g nougat bits or Kellogg's Tresor
- 30 g popcorn
- 30 g coloured sugar sprinkles
Instructions 0 / 3
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1
Melt the chocolate.
Break the couverture chocolate into pieces and place in the mixing bowl, chop for 6 sec / speed 6, push down with the spatula, then melt for 5 min / 50°C / speed 1.
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2
Add the ingredients and mix.
Meanwhile, cut the dried apricots into small pieces and place in a bowl. Break the salted pretzels and walnut halves into rough pieces and add.
Add the Smarties, nougat bites and popcorn and mix. Pour the melted chocolate over the top and stir well to combine.
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3
Spread on a baking tray and set.
Line a baking tray with baking paper, spread the crunch over it and scatter with sugar sprinkles to taste. Once set, break into pieces and enjoy.
Tip: You can swap the ingredients to suit your taste, for example cashew nuts instead of walnuts, dried prunes instead of apricots, and so on.
Do make sure to include a salty component in the mix.
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Nutrition per serving
Sweet and salty is the secret formula
The combination of white chocolate (sweet and creamy) and salted pretzels (salty and crunchy) triggers what food chemists call a “reward contrast” in the brain. Sweet plus salty activates more taste receptors than sweet alone. Cranberries and freeze-dried strawberries add acidity, pistachios give a satisfying snap and a vivid green colour. Four flavour notes in one bite: that is what makes this treat so popular.
Many Cookidoo recipes make crunch with milk chocolate. We specifically use white chocolate because it shows off the red (cranberries, strawberries), green (pistachios) and brown (pretzels) colours much better. Presentation matters when it is a gift.
Tempering the chocolate correctly
White chocolate melts at around 45°C; above 50°C it scorches and turns grainy. In the Thermomix® we set exactly 50°C on speed 2 for 8 minutes. Going higher risks a burnt flavour. If you want a particularly glossy finish, temper it: melt the chocolate to 45°C, cool it to 27°C, then warm it back to 30°C. This gives the professional patisserie look with a pearlescent sheen.
Mixing and setting the crunch
Transfer the melted chocolate from the mixing bowl into a large mixing bowl (do not carry on stirring in the mixing bowl or the pretzels will turn to crumbs). Fold in the pretzels, pistachios, cranberries and strawberries with a wooden spoon so that all the ingredients are thinly coated in chocolate. Tip onto a baking tray lined with baking paper and spread roughly with the spoon; do not smooth it out. The irregular surface is part of the handmade charm.
Refrigerate for 1 hour, then break into pieces. The irregular shards look more authentic than even squares. Break with your hands rather than cutting; cutting causes the chocolate to splinter.
Six crunch variations to keep things interesting
Milk chocolate version (milk chocolate, salted caramel pieces and peanuts), dark crunch (dark chocolate, orange zest and flaked almonds), Halloween crunch (milk chocolate, Smarties and Reese’s), berry crunch (white chocolate with 100 g freeze-dried raspberries), nut-free (cornflakes, rice crackers and dried fruit), vegan (vegan white chocolate such as iChoc and vegan pretzels).
Speculoos biscuits make the crunch truly festive
Most recipes use cornflakes, cereal, popcorn or M&Ms. That tastes like the cinema, not like Advent. Our twist: 100 g of roughly broken speculoos biscuits replace half the salted pretzels. The cinnamon, clove and cardamom from the spiced biscuits bind with the white chocolate and give the crunch the aroma we associate with gingerbread houses. For an even more intense flavour, add 50 g of chopped soft gingerbread as well.
From 900 g of mixture you get six parcels of 150 g each. We put the gift set together like this: a cellophane bag with Christmas Crunch, a mini jar of mulled wine liqueur (100 ml) and three vanilla crescents wrapped in greaseproof paper. Everything goes into a small gift box on a bed of hay or wood wool, finished with a pine-green ribbon. The set costs us around 4 euros per piece, yet it looks worth considerably more.
What goes well with Christmas Crunch
In a gift set with our Mulled Wine Liqueur, add our Vanilla Crescents or Spitzbuben biscuits. For more gifts from the kitchen, browse our gift collection. More Christmas highlights in our festive season category.
