Printable Recipe: Choose Your Flavor Easter Egg Recipe

"Choose Your Flavor" Easter Egg Recipe

These tasty little eggs are as different from plain chocolate Easter eggs as they could be. Creamy, delicious, and easy to assemble, you'll have a ton of fun making and tasting these chocolate Easter eggs. You can play around with all kinds of add-ins and flavors to get as many different kinds of eggs as you want. Some of our favorites are:

Maraschino Cherry and Almond with Milk Chocolate
Tiramisu: Rum extract, cocoa, and instant espresso powder with dark chocolate
Macadamia Nut and White Chocolate
Dried Pineapple, Coconut, and White Chocolate
Candied Ginger, Dried Mango, Vanilla, and White Chocolate
Raisin Spice with White Chocolate
Mint Chocolate-Chip
Chocolate & Peanut Butter with Chopped Peanuts

Can't find dipping chocolate or just prefer to use what you've got lying around the house? You can substitute 3-5 cups of semisweet chocolate chips and 3-5 tbsp. of shortening melted together, instead, to make the chocolate coating. Or combine the chip flavoring of your choice with shortening, allowing you to coat your Easter eggs in a peanut butter, butterscotch, or chocolate mint flavored coating! Dipping chocolate is a bit easier to work with, but chips are a bit tastier and give you more variety.

This chocolate Easter egg recipe makes about 4 dozen.

Ingredients:
1/2 C. butter, softened
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 (8 oz.) brick cream cheese, at room temperature
2 lbs. powdered sugar (about 7 1/2 C. unsifted)
Add-ins of your choice (see suggestions and quantities below)

Dipping:
3-5 C. semisweet dipping chocolate (chocolate almond bark)
*How much chocolate you need will depend on thickness of coating and size of eggs

Add-in Ingredient Suggestions (quantities per 1/4 recipe):
1 C. peanut butter
1 C. Nocilla
1 C. unsweetened flaked coconut (plain or toasted)
1/2 C. unsweetened cocoa powder
1 C. mini chocolate chips
1 C. mini butterscotch or peanut butter chips
1 C. chopped candy bar pieces (Reese's cups, Snickers, Heath bar, etc.)
1/2 - 1 C. chopped maraschino cherries
1/2 - 1 C. chopped dried fruit (raisin or crasins)
1/2 - 1 C. chopped nuts (your choice)
1 tsp. mint extract
1/2 tsp. orange extract
1/2 tsp. almond extract
1/2 tsp. rum extract
2 tbsp - 1/4 C. instant espresso powder

Instructions: 1. With an electric mixer, combine butter, vanilla extract, and cream cheese until well combined.

2. Using your hands or a wooden spoon, stir in powdered sugar until you get a dough.

3. Divide the dough into as many parts as different flavors you intend to make. Dividing into four parts is easiest, as the quantities you see in the add-ins above are each for a 1/4 of this recipe. To make the add-in quantities above work, use each kind or combination in 1/4 of the dough. If adjusting quantity of dough used, adjust amount of add-in accordingly.

4. Mix in add-ins as desired according to quantities above.

5. Refrigerate mixture until it firms up slightly, 30-60 minutes.

6. Shape into eggs. These are rich, so you won't want to make them too big. Place on waxed paper and refrigerate until quite firm, an hour or longer (longer is better).

7. When eggs are set, melt chocolate in microwave or over a double boiler, stirring often. Thin out with shortening if needed (too-thick chocolate is hard to work with).

8. Dip into chocolate and lift out with two forks, allowing excess chocolate to drip away.

9. Place on waxed paper and refrigerate to set, about 30 to 60 minutes.

10. Decorate outside as desired with melted, colored white chocolate, nuts, sprinkles, colored sugar, etc.

11. Store in the refrigerator until ready to serve.