This past weekend I had the opportunity to assist in making some homemade peanut butter eggs for Easter. The process was surprisingly simple and really delicious.
Sadly my post doesn’t have any Star Wars tie-in.. unless these eggs somehow have the force in them that I am not aware of. Regardless I’m certain even Ham Solo would find them out of this world.. (see what i did there?) 😉
Like most people (I presume), I am a big fan of the peanut butter eggs currently sitting beside every cash register in the country at this time of year, but it was really nice to be able to make them ourselves and with a lot fewer and also better ingredients.. and no additives. As always, the recipe is at the bottom of the post.
The recipe we ended up using came from the Brown Eyed Baker Blog. There are a lot of variations out there. I think the part of the process I was most concerned about was coating the eggs in the chocolate at the end. I’ll admit it wasn’t the most coordinated of efforts but in the end it wasn’t all that hard.
Check out all the steps in the photo collage below.
Now, since the whole process was pretty simple and we had a jar of Mocha Cappuccino flavored Hazelnut Spread in the cabinet that was not getting a lot of play, we thought ‘what a better way to get rid of it than to use it to try a variation on the recipe’… So below I give you Mocha Cappuccino Hazelnut Easter Eggs.
The recipe is pretty much the same, though it ended up needing a few tweaks along the way as this spread did not become the same consistency when melted. We ended up adding too much powdered sugar at 3/4 of cup. We should have stopped at 1/2 a cup. Thankfully since you are adding that in portions you should be able to gauge by eye when you should stop (unlike me). So we had to wing it a bit to try to correct. We added a tbsp or 2 of milk at the end to try and bring the consistency back, which helped a bit.
In the end the filling was a lot less creamy, and way more crumbly.. which made forming the egg shapes a tiny bit more challenging. I really needed to press them into shape.
All in all they were pretty good, though I’m not the biggest fan of Hazelnut so that likely taints my opinion a bit. If thats your thing though I suspect you would find them quite delicious.
Happy Easter and happy baking!
Homemade Peanut Butter Eggs
Ingredients
- 1 cup creamy peanut butter
- ¼ cup unsalted butter
- ¼ cup light brown sugar
- 1¼ cups powdered sugar
- 2 cups milk chocolate chips, or 12 oz chopped up milk chocolate
- 2 tablespoons vegetable shortening
Instructions
- Line a baking sheet with parchment or wax paper. set aside.
- In a medium sauce pan combine the peanut butter, butter and brown sugar over medium heat, stirring constantly until everything is melted together and just begins to bubble a little.
- Remove from heat and add in the powdered sugar ¼ cup at a time, mixing in each portion completely before adding the next.
- Set this mixture aside and allow it to cool to room temperature.
- Once cooled, use a cookie scoop or large spoon to scoop out portions of the peanut butter mixture. Roll it into a ball and then place on the baking sheet forming it into an egg shape.
- Refrigerate the tray of eggs until they set completely. (Approx. 30 min).
- Once the eggs are set, melt the chocolate chips and shortening in the microwave (50% power) in 30sec intervals, mixing between each until the mixture is fully melted.
- One by one, lower each egg into the melted chocolate using a fork. Flip it over in order to get the entire egg covered. Allow any excess chocolate to drip off then place it back on the baking sheet.
- Sprinkle with decorations or drizzle with any remaining chocolate if you so choose.
- Once all the eggs are covered return the tray to the refrigerator in order for the chocolate to set. (Approx 30min)
- Store them in an airtight container until ready to serve.
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