Wendy Boys is a fan of edible gifts. In fact, she credits them with helping to woo her husband. “We lived in two different cities when we started dating,” explained the pastry chef in an interview with the Georgia Straight at her East Vancouver home. Boys gave her then-boyfriend a cookie tin and encouraged him to bring it with him for a cookie refill when he visited her. “It worked, and we’ve been together for 13 years,” she said. “The gift of food is pretty powerful.”

Growing up in Alberta, Boys became interested in cooking and baking at a young age, but restaurant options in her small town were limited.

“My job through high school was working at A & W. I made onion rings,” she said. She’d work for a few hours after swim practice and “go home smelling like chlorine and onions”.

However, a year living in Quebec when she was 18 inspired her to pursue her childhood passion, and when she returned to Alberta, Boys enrolled in culinary school. After graduation, she worked at fine-dining restaurants and catering companies, and went on to become executive pastry chef at the now-closed Lumière in Vancouver for eight years. In 2010, she set out to start her own company, Cocolico by Wendy Boys, which produces small-batch handmade chocolates and dessert sauces that are sold in stores such as Edible Canada and Whole Foods Market.

“The holiday season is our busy season at Cocolico, so I don’t do a ton of baking [at home],” Boys said. “I come from a family of very, very good bakers, so I’m more of an enjoyer.”

The idea for her sweet and salty pretzel mix came to Boys when Cocolico was just starting to take off. She had made a large batch of jarred caramel sauce but had forgotten an integral step in sealing the jars. “The caramel sauce—which is mostly butter, cream, and sugar—actually sat on the lids and the vacuum seal didn’t happen, so all 544 jars were unsellable,” Boys explained. “I had some pretzels lying around, because that’s pretty much what I lived off of at the time, and I just took the pretzels and spooned some caramel sauce onto them with spices and brown sugar, and baked them in the oven.” The result? A highly addictive sweet, salty, crunchy snack.

The pretzel mix is an easy holiday project that can be made in large batches. Home cooks can tweak the ingredients to their liking. According to Boys, the mix will stay fresh for about two weeks in a sealed container such as a Mason jar or festive tin.

For an even better gift, Boys pairs the snack with Granville Island Brewing’s Lions Winter Ale.

Wendy Boys's sweet and salty pretzel mix

Ingredients

½ cup (125 mL) Cocolico Salted Butter Caramel Sauce, or other store-bought caramel sauce
1 cup (250 mL) light brown sugar
¾ tsp (3 mL) chili flakes
¼ tsp (1 mL) cayenne pepper
2 tsp (10 mL) cinnamon
2 cups (500 mL) roasted, salted mixed nuts
1 bag (454 g) mini twist pretzels

Method

1. Preheat oven to 325 ° F (170 ° C).
    
2. In a medium saucepan over low heat, mix caramel sauce, sugar, chili flakes, and spices together for 5 to 7 minutes, stirring until melted.
    
3. Divide nuts and pretzels evenly between two baking sheets and spread out across sheets. Drizzle caramel mixture over each sheet of pretzels and nuts. Bake for 15 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes with a spatula. Mixture is done when caramel is crystallized and slightly hardened.
    
4. Remove baking sheets from oven. Wearing clean rubber dishwashing gloves to protect your hands from the heat, separate the pretzels and nuts with your hands without breaking them into pieces. Be careful not to touch the hot pan. Allow the mixture to cool completely before dividing into airtight gift containers such as Mason jars and tins.

Yield: 6 to 8 servings.

Recipe has not been tested by the Georgia Straight.