Chocolate Peanut Butter Easter Eggs

I've never been a big candy eater.

Believe it or not.

It just doesn't interest me. Mostly.

Only at Easter time do I really get my candy on. The focus of my seasonal candy love? The Reese's Easter Egg.

 

This peanut butter chocolate mound is not your standard peanut butter cup. Oh no. It's oversized and stuffed - I mean, stuffed - with peanut butter goodness. There's really nothing better.

Of course I'm always up for a challenge in the kitchen, so I decided to try my hand at creating some Reester eggs of my very own.

These were super simple and so fun to make. Of course, anything that is dipped in chocolate, in my book, can be a serious drain on the fun logistics-wise. But since this recipe doesn't make a huge amount of eggs (and let's face it, even the sweets lovers out there could only devour one or two of these rich confections), I didn't mind the whole melted-chocolate-in-places-I-didn't-know-exist thing.

These eggs would be so fun to bring to a gathering on Easter Sunday...or to any gathering really. I mean, who doesn't love chocolate, peanut butter and sprinkles? Please find me one person. It won't happen.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Easter Eggs
*Makes 16 large eggs
1 C peanut butter
1 C confectioners' sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 tbsp dry roasted peanuts, finely chopped*
3 C chocolate chips of your choice (I used milk and semi-sweet)
sanding sugar, sprinkles or candy decorating materials of your choice

In a stand mixer, mix the peanut butter until fluffy.

Add the confectioners' sugar, 1/4 C at a time until completely combined. Add vanilla extract and chopped peanuts and mix. Place the mixture in the refrigerator for 1 hour to chill.

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Using a melon baller or tablespoon, scoop out the peanut butter mixture and form into large egg shapes, placing on the lined baking sheet.

Put the sheet pan in the freezer while you prepare the chocolate.

I made these 2 ways - using semi-sweet morsels, and milk chocolate morsels. Place 1 1/2 C of semi-sweet morsels into a bowl. Heat in the microwave at 15 second intervals, mixing after each one, until melted. Remove the tray of eggs from the freezer. Working very quickly (so that the pb eggs don't soften and fall apart in the chocolate), coat each one in chocolate and place back on the parchment paper. Add sprinkles or sanding sugar after every 2 eggs are dipped as the chocolate hardens very quickly. Repeat with the milk chocolate or any other chocolate of your choosing (extra dark, white, etc), returning the undipped eggs to the freezer for a few minutes while you make the second batch of chocolate.

Let the chocolate harden and enjoy!

So there you have it. The tale of how I recreated my favorite Easter candy of all time. They tasted extremely on point with the original Reese's version, without being quite as processed. And let's face it, sprinkles just make everything better. So what do you think? What is your favorite candy? Have you ever tried to recreate it in your own kitchen?

*I thought that using creamy peanut butter was the way to go, however, once mixed, I realized that the pb mixture was way too smooth. Wanting to emulate a real Reese's pb egg, I decided on a whim to add the chopped peanuts. This process can probably be eliminated by simply using chunky peanut butter, though I cannot vouch for how finely chopped the peanuts will be. I wanted mine to be super fine, so even in the future, I would choose to do it as noted above. However, to make the process quicker and with fewer ingredients, give the chunky pb a try.

350 Truffles: How we did it

This project started with 3 things.

Perserverance. Comfortable shoes. Clothes we didn’t mind dirtying. And iron stomachs.

Ok so 4 things. All equally as important though.

To make 350+ truffles for my best friend Lindsey’s engagement party a few weeks ago, we truly got our DIY on. Lindsey wanted to have little favor boxes filled with truffles as the party favor.

After a trip to Michael's for all of our supplies, we spent most of a Saturday melting chocolate, mixing filling, and, of course, sampling the goods. It was a fairly simple, yet time-consuming project. So if you too want to make truffles, here's a few things you'll need:

1. The double boiler. I highly recommend this tool. You can absolutely use the glass bowl over the saucepan trick, but since we were melting chocolate for about, oh 8 hours, the double boiler really came in handy. Thanks to bridesmaid Jenny for supplying this wonderful tool (that I'm admittedly a little obsessed with now).

2. Good chocolate. Not to go all Ina on you with the pretentious ‘good’ ingredients (I still love ya girl!), but since you are eating this chocolate straight, please, for the love of your sister (or brother. or parents), use good chocolate that you would happily consume raw. Because you will. Ya dig?

3. Mini mini baking cups. We got them at Michael's. Separating each cup from the stack was a feat in itself, but well worth it because they were so darn cute.

4. Giant trays. You'll want to load up your mini cups on to some giant baking trays (so they can each rest comfortably, no smooshing together please) for filling.

5. Packaging. We used favor boxes. Decide what you want to use these for and go from there. If you are bringing some to a party, perhaps set them up on a pretty platter with little flags denoting the flavors. Cheeseboard style...

6. Good company.

7. Some treats for the chefs.

bonus for stemless glassware since the last thing you want are broken wine glasses around your chocolate making.

How we did it

1. Lay out the baking cups and melt the chocolate. Spoon just enough melted chocolate into each cup to cover just the bottom. Set them aside to harden. We did not need to refrigerate or freeze them. A solid 20 minutes of sitting out on the counter top should do it.

2. Once hardened, get a tag team going on filling them. Use any filling ya like! We used pb+j, graham crackers + fluff, and Oreos to make 4 different flavors. Be creative!

3. Once your cups are filled (we tackled one variety at a time), it's back to the stove for more melted chocolate. With a spoon, cover the truffle filling with melted chocolate. Now is also the time to put someone on topping duty. If you want to add sprinkles or any kind of garnish (like crushed up graham crackers), then go ahead and add them now before the chocolate hardens.

Some more tips:

Decide on how many you are going to make, and then make at least 10 more of each variety. There will undoubtedly be some rejects in the pile. Trust me on that one. Plus, you need some samples for taste testing.

This project was made easier by all the help that was had. We had a team of 5 people working on various baking projects for the party, with Lin and I primarily on truffle duty. Lots of company and iTunes made this project fun.

Have fun! You are making chocolate after all.

So what do you think? Have you ever tried candy-making? How about cooking or baking on a large scale?

psst...The Book Club page is up and running! Head over to check it out, along with my first write up of Lisa See's Shanghai Girls.

350 Chocolate Truffles

How is everyone on this gray Monday? (at least here in NJ it is very gray!) I took today off from work to spend some time with my sister Christine who is home from college for spring break, and who bravely had her tonsils removed on Thursday. Talk about a bummer of a break!

Anyhoo, I spent Saturday at Lindsey's parent's house out in Long Island. Next week is her engagement party so she needed some serious girl time in terms of prepping and baking for the occasion. So of course, I headed out to the island to get our DIY on!

And when I say DIY, I mean DIY. Apparently Lindsey has a case of the Rachel when it comes to taking on big projects for own engagement party. After some brainstorming, Lin decided that edible favors were the way to go, and we decided on chocolate truffles. These aren't exactly traditional truffles, but chocolate candy cups with delicious, decadent filling. After lots of deliberation, we came up with 4 varieties so each favor box would get one of each. Oh and did I mention that to make this happen, we had to make upwards of 350 truffles. Yeah.

Between Lindsey, myself, her sister Britt and 2 other bridesmaids Jenny and Julie, we managed to get 'er done after a looooong day of chocolateering. The result? Nothing short of fabulous party favors that could easily have come from Godiva herself. And all I can say is, praise Jesus (and Jenny) for a real double boiler. Oh and for Yellowtail and their affordable oversized bottles of Shiraz.

On the list were classic chocolate Oreo filled truffles...

Golden Oreo + raspberry jam truffles

Peanut butter + jelly truffles

...and s'mores truffles, garnished with crushed graham crackers.

Don't you wish you were attending this upcoming party?

This guy does...

With chocolate on our clothes (and in our pores), the chocolateering was completed by 1AM on Saturday, which left Sunday for the girls to box everything up (I had to head home before this point!), but they sent me a snapshot of the work in progress...

Considering none of us had made chocolate confections like this previously, I'd say we got 'er done without a hitch. And had a fantastic time in the process. There's nothing like a little girl time! Stay tuned for next week when I wrap up the whole shebang with finished photos and recipes if anyone is interested! So what's the last DIY project that you tackled?