Whether it’s caramel topped with sea salt, a baked brie wheel with fig jam, or bacon-wrapped dates, sweet-and-salty pairings always work. Though not a new idea, this flavor combination has become especially trendy in recent years, as millennials and Gen Z seek sweet-and-salty options in packaged snacks and popular recipes alike.
As Food & Wine reports, for the many people out there who love this flavor pairing, social media has created a new — and undeniably fun — way to enjoy it at home, and it starts with one of your favorite childhood snacks.
The Pringles Chocolate Trend Explained
TikTok feeds right now are full of an immediately intriguing sight: content creators pouring melted chocolate directly into tubes of Pringles. It’s unclear who started the Pringles and chocolate trend — also referred to as the Pringles chocolate block — but it’s quickly spread across social media, with users praising the sweet, salty, and crunchy results.
How to Make it Yourself: A Step-By-Step Guide
To make the trend, you’ll need your chocolate of choice and a tube of Pringles. (Content creators often use a full-size container of Pringles for visual effect, but a smaller, single-serving tube would be easier.) Melt the chocolate in 15-second increments in the microwave, then pour it into the Pringles container.
You may need to shake or tap the tube on a table to help the chocolate fill the entire can. This will require a lot of chocolate, and you want to make sure you’re completely filling the tube to produce a smooth, cylindrical piece of chocolate. After the chocolate has covered the Pringles, leaving an inch or two of empty space at the top of the container, secure the lid and refrigerate the sweet treat until it has solidified.
The hardest part of this process will be removing the chocolate block from the tube. Once the confection has set, remove the lid and cut a roughly 2-inch slit into the top of the cardboard tube with a pair of kitchen shears. Use this opening to gradually peel the cardboard away from the chocolate, starting at the top and working toward the bottom of the container. If you’ve ever opened a can of Pillsbury dough, this may feel a little familiar.
Once the cardboard has been removed, you’ll be left with a solid cylinder of chocolate and Pringles that’s ready to enjoy. Don’t expect the chocolate to coat each chip evenly; there will be pockets of chips scattered throughout the chocolate block. You can’t slice the cylinder evenly into rounds. Instead, it will break into imperfect, sweet-and-salty chunks. It might not be the most aesthetically pleasing trend, but a two-ingredient treat starring potato chips and chocolate doesn’t need to be cute to be delicious.
If you’d prefer an impeccably layered, uniform version of the viral treat, there is a more time-consuming way to construct it that yields prettier results. You can take all of the chips out of the tube and alternate pouring small amounts of chocolate into the can with placing individual Pringles back inside. This will produce an evenly layered chocolate block and make it easier to slice once it’s set.
Playing With Your Food is the Point
Some creators have customized the trend by incorporating two types of chocolate, mixing milk and white chocolate in the Pringles tube to create a marbled effect. If you want a less sweet confection, opt for dark chocolate when making the viral recipe. This hack is meant to be playful — after all, you’re pouring a ton of chocolate into a container of potato chips — and you can be as creative as you want when making the sweet-and-salty snack.
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