Hope everyone had a great Easter weekend! I didn’t really have any holiday candy-making plans until I saw this linked on PW last Tuesday morning, and I knew I had to make it. It’s the same thing I had going on at Halloween, except with some coloured candy melts swirled in that makes it extra cute. This is the kind of thing I don’t make for myself, because I’ll eat the entire thing, so I made it for Kristine to share with her family, and put lots of stuff she likes on top: Peanut M&Ms, Mini Eggs, mini malted eggs, pretzels and some cute sprinkles.

 

I also made some homemade cream eggs on Sunday night to share with my co-workers. I’m obsessed with the new Longos in Maple Leaf Square, because it’s close to my work, and is an excellent place to go at lunch to hit up the hot/cold lunch bar and sit in The Loft to escape for an hour. Anyway, they have a little magazine with recipes and things inside, and this one was in their latest issue. They are totally insane, because it’s basically a buttercream icing, with the addition of sweetened condensed milk, rolled and dipped in melted chocolate. Kind of fun to know you make them at home though, right?

Easter Candy Bark

Source: Gingerbread Bagels

Ingredients

8oz semisweet or bittersweet chocolate, chopped (I used melting discs you can get at Bulk Barn)

8oz milk chocolate, chopped

7oz candy melts

1/4 cup Peanut M&Ms

1/4 cup Mini Eggs, chopped

1/4 cup mini malted eggs

1/4 cup pretzels

2 tbsp sprinkles

Directions

1. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
2. Melt chocolate together, either in the microwave, or in a heat proof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water. Pour melted chocolate onto parchment paper and spread with a spoon or offset spatula until about 1/4″ thick.
3. Melt candy melts (like above) and drop in spoonfuls over the melted chocolate. Swirl into chocolate using a knife until you get a pretty marble pattern.
4. Sprinkle your candy all over the melted chocolate. Chill in the fridge for a few hours until firm, then break into pieces, taste one for quality control purposes, and then give away 🙂

Homemade Cream Eggs

Source: Longos magazine

Ingredients

3/4 stick butter, room temperature

1/4 cup sweetened condensed milk

1 tsp vanilla

pinch salt

2 1/2 cups icing sugar

8 oz milk chocolate

Directions

1. In large bowl, mix together butter, condensed milk, vanilla, salt and icing sugar with an electric mixer (I threw everything in my food processer). The consistency will be like a really thick icing.
2. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper, and place the mixture on it. Knead it a few times until it’s smooth.
3. Take 1/3 of the mixture, put it in a bowl, and dye it with yellow or orange food colouring. Roll this mixture into 16 little balls.
4. Roll the rest of the white mixture into 16 balls, and flatten into little discs.
5. Place a yellow ball on top of a little white disc, and wrap the white part around the yellow part. If you find the white discs start drying out, just hold them between your hands for a few seconds, and they’ll get soft again. Form into a general egg-ish shape, and place on the parchment lined cookie sheet. Chill eggs for 2 hours.
6. Melt your chocolate either in the microwave, or in a heat proof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water. Dip eggs in roll around until they’re covered, then remove with a fork and shake a bit to remove excess chocolate. Put back on parchment paper, and chill again until chocolate is firm.