Monday, April 18, 2011

Cadbury Creme Style Chocolate Easter Eggs From Scratch?

Welcome to Easter week at Mystery Lover's Kitchen!

All week long we'll be posting Easter recipes. I'm kicking it off with chocolate Easter eggs, Cadbury style. I read that Italian godparents make chocolate Easter eggs for their godchildren. Sounds like a lovely tradition to me. In addition, I discovered a recipe for Homemade Cadbury Creme Eggs. Was it possible or just an Internet gimmick? I promised my newsletter readers that I would be giving it a try.

The only name I see on the recipe is Scoochmaroo. She deserves full credit for this recipe. You can see her original recipe here. Had I only noticed the button to the right of her recipe, I wouldn't have learned how to do this the hard way. (Note to self: read all instructions before covering self in chocolate and sugar.)




There aren't very many ingredients in this little project. And I should add that it's much more a project that it is cooking.

1 12-ounce bag of milk chocolate chips
1/4 cup butter
3 cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 teaspoon salt
turmeric or yellow food coloring


The first thing you do is melt the chocolate. I usually melt chocolate in the microwave, either at half power or in very short bursts of 30-50 seconds. Chocolate will fool you in the microwave. See the little unmelted chips in the photo below? They're completely melted, just like the center. After each short burst, stir the chocolate with a fork to see if it has melted yet.




Then the fun part. Apparently, I have not missed my calling by not being a chocolatier. You can see my imperfections below. But, hey, they're going on the inside of the eggs, so no one will notice them, right? I found the back of a spoon worked best to smooth (very loose use of that word) the chocolate around the form. As the picture indicates, this is a somewhat messy proposition. Fortunately, I had placed a piece of waxed paper on the counter as my work surface.


To speed the hardening process along, I popped the tray into the refrigerator, and then the freezer.

Meanwhile, I mixed all the other ingredients together. I don't recommend doing this by hand as it becomes quite thick. Use your handy dandy mixer. Then I removed about 2/3 of the white filling and placed it in a bowl. I'm not keen on food coloring, so I sprinkled turmeric into the remaining mixture until it reached a nice bright yellow color for the egg yolk.


I removed the tray of chocolate egg halves from the freezer, ready to pop them out. Hah! Tap, tap, tap. One fell out. Tap, tap, tap. Nothing. Wham, wham, wham. Ah, now I was getting some results. Still, were I to do this again, I might prefer to use a silicone mold that bends so that they'll pop out more easily. In the first batch, I was unsure of myself, so I made them a little bit on the thick side -- a plus if you're going to bash them from behind with a knife. I was feeling a little cocky by the time I made the second batch, and they were too thin. Fortunately, they can be repaired by adding a bit more melted chocolate to the inside for support where needed.

Next step -- filling them. Aargh. Did I mention yet how messy it is to make these? Chocolate all over my hands. The waxed paper looked like I had butchered someone who bled chocolate. In fact, I replaced it about four times. The white filling didn't want to cooperate. I leaned a spoon into it. Perfect. Except now it was in love with the spoon and not letting go. I brought a knife to the rescue. Fickle stuff left the spoon and clung to the knife. Nevertheless, I persevered with my fingers. Yes, you know what it clung to then. A dab of yellow in the middle proved equally uncooperative.

And then the chocolate halves started melting. And I had chocolate, and yellow and white filling all over my hands. I kid you not, I washed my hands after every single egg. The rest of the eggs went into the freezer and were taken out one by one to be filled.

Had I to do this over again (which I might add is extremely questionable at this point), I would temper the chocolate first. But it was too late for that, and I forged ahead, thinking I could have baked an entire Black Forest Cherry Cake from start to finish by that time.




Gluing the egg halves together proved fairly simple. A bit of melted chocolate "glue" around the edge of one did the trick very nicely. Not so nice was trying to smooth the outside of the egg where the halves joined. Yes, more chocolate on the hands. I'm hoping one doesn't absorb calories through the skin.

Too late in the process I had the brilliant notion to stick the fillings into the freezer (which I would have done sooner, had I read all the instructions). Oh, so lovely to work with! See the nice little egg centers below. Oh well, maybe next time. (Fat chance.)



And this is the result. 11 eggs. One broke beyond repair. Not perfect by any means. But you know what? According to my godsons and their mother, Susan, they taste remarkably like Cadbury Creme Eggs!


My godsons are on notice, however, that they should take careful note of these eggs, because while I do love my godsons, these are likely to be the only chocolate Easter eggs this godmother will ever make for them. Mr. Cadbury, I am more than happy to fork over a few dollars for your perfect eggs!

Susan summed it up beautifully, though -- "Boys, enjoy the eggs. There's a lot of love in these eggs."

Aww. Maybe if I bought a silicone form next year and . . . .




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23 comments:

  1. Sounds like these eggs were a little temperamental with you, Krista! They sure are pretty, though, and look like the perfect Easter dessert. :)

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  2. I'm laughing out loud at this post! You had me at wham, wham, wham! Candy is definitely something we should thank the candy stores for, in my humble opinion, and I'm with you about forking over $1 to Mr. Cadbury. I just gave my adult son his Easter stash. He loves these eggs! Thanks for a morning laugh. PS. Your eggs look amazing.

    ~Avery
    AveryAames.com
    @AveryAames

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  3. Bleeding Chocolate sounds like a great book title.

    I've got a pair of delightful antique chocolate molds in the form of eggs--maybe I need to get them out and dust them off.

    But as a substitute, I tried making the ricotta cookies yesterday (something I can do without standing up!) The only drawback was that the recipe made 80 cookies, which was a bit much for our small family. I sent half of them off with my daughter to her bookstore job. Bribery? You bet. (She did help decorate them, which doesn't explain why half of them are mustard colored.)

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  4. This post was so much fun, Krista! I loved it. What an adventure and I bet they taste great and have only natural ingredients.

    The Diva rules!

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  5. Elizabeth, the result, while not perfect, was sort of satisfying. And it helped that they tasted good!

    Avery, so glad I gave you a laugh. It was a good learning experience for me, and funny now that I'm not covered in chocolate!

    Sheila, the other employees at the bookstore certainly are lucky! Go ahead, dig out those egg forms and give these a shot. I dare you! ; )

    ~ Krista

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  6. Hilarious! Your chocolatier adventure was great fun (for us, anyway, and I thank you). Good tips for the brave souls who forge ahead on this project, too. Happy Easter (and Passover) Week!

    ~ Cleo Coffeehouse Mystery.com
    Cleo Coyle on Twitter

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  7. Definitely warned off trying this Krista! We have lovely chocolate shops in our town and the next town over and that's where I'm headed...

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  8. Thanks, Mary Jane! I was surprised that the turmeric didn't add a funny flavor. Not a single complaint!

    ~ Krista

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  9. Thanks, Cleo! My kitchen is often a pretty funny place. Gotta keep a sense of humor when things don't go quite right.

    ~ Krista

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  10. Lucy, what a great idea! LOL!

    ~ Krista

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  11. Krista, I was laughing through your entire post. You won't need to convince me further - I'm buying all my Cadbury eggs.

    But you know what my favorite Easter treat is? Dove Truffle eggs. Mmm... Maybe you should try those next time? LOL

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  12. Julie, I'm laughing about it now -- not so much then! Dove Truffle eggs, huh? I do like a challenge . . .

    ~ Krista

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  13. This was hilarious to read, especially after finally finishing taxes! Krista, you're a real trooper & we applaud your tenacity!

    On a related Easterish note, last Dec. a friend gave me 3 large milk chocolate Easter Bunnies from his freezer --this would never happen in our house, leftover chocolate? What's that?! ;)So I experimented by thawing, air-drying, then melting the chocolate bunnies in the microwave, and made a batch of peppermint bark with 2 of them, and dipped pretzels in the other melted one--both turned out to be successful & tasty holiday treats! Just thought I'd pass that tip along in case anyone might have a few too many chocolates leftover from Easter!

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  14. Thanks, Lynn!

    Chocolate holds up well in the freezer. I have frozen chocolate cakes (iced chocolate cakes) before and they thawed fairly well. And unfortunately, every dieter knows that brownies are sometimes even better straight from the freezer! ;)

    ~ Krista

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  15. Well, the grandmother was very thrilled---- to hear about the happiness from the recipients, as well as see the tremendous effort you put forth to create such a delicacy. What a terrific godmother!!!!!Love, Harriet Smith

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  16. Bless your heart, Krista!!! You are a far more adventurous cook than I am...
    While pregnant with Emily, when Cadbury Eggs were first in the stores I fell in love with them...actually it was my craving!! My sweet husband Les went out the week before Easter and bought every one he could find so that my cravings would be satisfied all through the pregnancy...darling Em wasn't due until lat July so you can only imagine the amount of eggs our freezer held!!! To this day (almost 21 years ago) I just shudder at the thought of them!! They will be in Em, Connor's and Mr. Nanc's basket this year along with coconut bird's nests, snickers and all the candies I DON"T like!!! Weight Watchers doesn't encourage the emptying of Easter baskets ;-)
    Thanks so for making me chuckle and for reminding of our freezer filled with Cadbury Eggs!!
    Wishing you a blessed Easter!
    Nanc

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  17. Wait, frozen brownies? OMG, I think I forgot about them. Gee, thanks, Krista. It's all your fault. ;) lololol

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  18. Sorry not to see any of you, or your sinfully delicious recipes, on
    http://www.bookclubcookbook.com/MainRecipePage.htm

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  19. Hi Harriet! It's always so nice to see you here. Fortunately, your daughter and grandsons have a fondness for sweets. I enjoyed their visit. And I look forward to seeing you soon in person!

    ~ Krista

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  20. Nanc, that's such a cute story. At least they're one thing you don't have to worry about overindulging in!

    ~ Krista

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  21. Oops, so sorry, Lynn! LOL! Now that the weather is getting warmer, I'm trying to forget about the existence of ice cream. It's not working . . .

    ~ Krista

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  22. Hi Liz! I had never heard about that site before. Will check it out.

    ~ Krista

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  23. Krista,
    Oh! I want to try those. Maybe not this year, though. And to take it to all-out-pain-in-the-neck-to-make territory, you could decorate the tops with pastel tinted icing or white chocolate.

    I had no idea that Cadbury Creme Eggs would be that "easy" (I guess I mean "possible")to recreate. When I first heard of them (mid '80s or so) I thought they were gross. Later, I really liked them. Still do, darn it.

    Maybe AFTER Easter this year I'll see if I can find clearance egg molds for next year, and clearance Cadbury Creme Eggs to eat THIS YEAR!

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