Christmas Crack Pretzels are no bake ranch pretzels with an irresistibly crunchy, salty, buttery taste. These seasoned pretzels are the perfect snack!
I was shopping at a local grocery store and had the opportunity to visit with some lovely people while shopping. An elderly woman was reaching for a bag of Christmas pretzels at the same time as me and we struck up a conversation.
I was buying the pretzels to make Peanut Butter Cup Pretzels and she was buying them to make ranch pretzels. She told me that she makes them every Christmas and they are so amazing that you can’t stop eating them.
She went on to explain how to make the pretzels. The woman told me to mix butter flavored popcorn oil, powdered ranch (she said to make SURE to use the salad dressing mix NOT the dip mix), garlic powder and dill weed.
You pour it over the pretzels (she noted that the bag of pretzels doesn’t have thirty ounces so she adds some pretzel sticks to the mix) and stir them every fifteen minutes for a few hours until the oil is absorbed. That’s it, no baking needed! She told me that she had already made one batch this year and was planning to make more.
Well, after her description and our delightful chat, I had to try making the pretzels. I’m not sure where she got the recipe, so I decided to make a few changes to make it mine, just in case.
When I searched for ranch pretzels online, I discovered that these ranch pretzels are referred to as Crack Pretzels because of how addicting they are!
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How To Make Christmas Crack Pretzels
Step One: Make Seasoning
To make the seasoning for the Christmas Crack Pretzels, whisk together Orville Redenbacher’s Butter Flavored Popcorn Oil, Hidden Valley Ranch powdered salad dressing mix, garlic powder, and cajun seasoning.
Step Two: Season Pretzels
Pour the seasoning oil over the pretzels and stirred to coat. Then, sprinkle the pretzels with grated Parmesan and stir well.
Step Three: Stir Pretzels
Allow the pretzels to absorb the oil for about three hours, stirring every fifteen minutes. You don’t turn the oven on, just stir occasionally until the oil is absorbed!
These Christmas Crack Pretzels were gobbled up by everyone we shared with. The crunchy, salty, buttery combination is fabulous!
Christmas Crack Pretzels FAQs
1. Will other kinds of pretzels work?
Any shape or style of pretzels can be used from twists to spirals and sticks to squares. Use the football shaped ones during football season. The mini twists for Valentine’s Day and the circles for Easter.
2. What other seasonings can be added? Lots of readers left great suggestions for additional seasonings! Here are a few of them: lemon pepper, lemon crystals, dill weed, Old Bay, paprika, chili powder, cayenne pepper, celery salt, seasoned salt, and creole seasoning.
3. How can this be turned into a snack mix? Great idea! I love snack mixes. To turn these crack pretzels into crack snack mix, use fewer pretzels and add other snack items instead. Try any combination of pretzels with Cheez-Its, oyster crackers, Chex cereal, Goldfish, Bugels, cashews, peanuts, oyster crackers, Cheerios, or Fritos.
4. Do you have a substitute for the butter flavored popcorn oil? You can try canola oil or melted butter.
Christmas Crack Pretzels
Ingredients
- 30 ounces pretzels I used Old Dutch Holiday Pretzels but any pretzels will work
- 12 ounces Orville Redenbacher's Butter Flavored Popcorn Oil
- 3 tablespoon powdered ranch salad dressing mix
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon cajun seasoning
- ¼ cup grated Parmesan
Instructions
- Put the pretzels into a roasting pan.
- Whisk together the oil, powdered ranch, garlic powder, and cajun seasoning.
- Pour the mixture over the pretzels in the roasting pan and stir to coat.
- Sprinkle with grated parmesan and stir to coat.
- Stir the pretzels every 15 minutes for three hours, or until the oil is absorbed. (No need to turn the oven on!)
Video
JODY STRICKLAND says
This could be made in two half batches I assume? I would like to do one with cajun & one without.
Tonia Larson says
Yes, that would work well!
Linda says
I have been make my gorbuears and give as gifts in Saran Christmas bags with a ribbon. A big hit
Linda Corkins says
How many pretzels make a serving? It’s not listed in the nutrition section of the recipe.
Tonia says
Hi Linda,
There are 30 servings when you use a 30 oz bag of pretzels making each serving one ounce. The nutrition facts on my bag of Rold Gold Tiny Twists pretzels says that 1 oz is about 17 pretzels.
Best,
~Tonia
Linda Corkins says
Thank you very much.
Carol Mathias says
Would baking this pretzel mix make for less salty?
Do I bake at 250 for 15 minutes?
Also not as oily.
Tonia says
Baking will not make them less salty but it will help the oil absorb. I would suggest baking them at 220˚F for 30 minutes, stirring after 15 minutes, (or until the oil is absorbed). Enjoy!
Kelly S. says
All recipes similar to this say to use the ranch dressing mix, not the dip mix. why? What’s the difference? I accidentally bought the dip mix 😓 can I still make this? Will it still turn out?
Tonia says
Hi Kelly,
While I’ve never tried using the dip mix, I think it would work just fine. The package of dressing mix also includes buttermilk so that flavor might be a little different when using the dip mix but still delicious! Let us know how it turns out if you do try it!
-Tonia
Amy Kristen Gillock says
I have found from experience we only use the dip seasoning when we’re making the dip for vegetables for some reason it is different we were at Costco and they were selling the powder ranch dressing I bought a huge thing of it thinking it was the same big mistake it was not so the ranch regular seasoning powder is for meats and these pretzels. The dips is only to mix with sour cream in my Pinyan
Dee dee says
These sound good; but also extremely salty. Is that correct? I don’t mind some salt; but this looks like a lot!! The parmesan cheese, ranch seasoning and cajun seasoning all contain a lot of salt. ???
Gina says
I use epicure spices which don’t have the salt in and they are pure. I used ranch, curry, lemon dill, the different options are amazing especially if using epicure.
Nancy says
I made this as written and they were crazy salty. I don’t say this lightly, because I always use quite a bit of salt in my cooking. I expected these to be salty as a snack food, but it was too much even for me. I am going to make them again but will back off of the ranch dressing mix a bit to see how that works.
Tammy Pruett says
Can you please provide your exact recipe – I’d like to test your “less salty” recipe and benchmark it. Thank you!
Jayna says
A really interesting addition I’ve had to this recipe was lemon crystals! Sounds weird, but it gives it such an interesting, delicious, keep-you-coming-back-for-more flavor!
WJewel88 says
I suppose that would make it similar to the slightly different Spicy Pretzels my mom likes to make. It has lemon pepper in it.
Tammy Pruett says
Great – I have lime crystal salt and gonna add it to the original ranch recipe – it’s not salty enough for my tastes! Good idea! Thank you!
Judy says
I have made the ranch pretzels for several years now. When I make the ranch pretzels, I use about 12oz of canola oil instead of the popcorn oil, worked great! I also used 2-one pound bags of pretzels. All the other ingredients were the same with the same amounts. I am going to make these Cajun Crack Pretzels, the recipe sounds awesome!
Judy says
In an air tight container, I have had them last for several weeks, but usually they are long gone before then!!