Sugar Savvy

Look at your calendar or walk into your local supermarket, pharmacy or discount department store and you’ll know right away that Easter is upon us. With the holiday fast approaching, I figured that now would be the perfect time to test and share this recipe that I found on allrecipes.com for Chocolate Covered Easter Eggs. I chose it because it seemed pretty easy and included several different optional flavor variations. Overall, it was a bit time consuming but not terribly challenging.

Chocolate Covered Easter Eggs

Yield: 48

1/2 cup butter, softened
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 (8oz) package cream cheese, softened
2 1/2 lbs. confectioner’s sugar
1 cup peanut butter (optional)
1 cup flaked coconut (optional)
1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (optional)
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

1. In a large mixing bowl, combine butter, vanilla and cream cheese. Stir in confectioner’s sugar to form a workable dough. (Use your hands for mixing if needed.)

2. Divide dough into 4 parts, place in separate bowls. Leave one part plain. Add peanut butter to second part, mix to combine and form a smooth dough. Add coconut to third part, mix well. To the fourth part, add cocoa powder and mix well to form a smooth dough. Roll each type into small egg shapes, about 1 tablespoon each. Place on wax paper lined baking sheet. Refrigerate at least 1 hour.

3. Melt chocolate chips in double boiler or microwave. If microwaving, do so in 1 minute intervals, until almost completely melted, stirring in between. Using a skewer or toothpick, dip the chilled eggs into the melted chocolate. Return chocolate covered eggs to wax paper and return to the refrigerator to chill for at least a half hour.

Would I make this recipe again? Yes, definitely if I was hosting an Easter gathering. Will this recipe become tradition for my family? No, I seriously doubt it. You can see in the photo the eggs before being dipped in chocolate and after. The whole process was a bit messy - rolling the dough into egg-shapes right down to dipping the eggs into the chocolate. The recipe yields 48 eggs, so I scaled way back and used a forth of everything with no problems. I opted to make half coconut and half chocolate. Both were delicious, but the coconut was definitely my favorite.