Easter Egg Cookies

Flat Easter egg cookies are fairly common and can be striking and adorable (the Easter egg cookies over at I Am Baker are a prime example).  But, not all of us have the artistic talent, time, or patience to create such intricate cookies.  To make my Easter egg cookies, you need only enough skill to form dough into a shape somewhat resembling an egg.  Trust me, you can do this.  What makes my Eater egg cookies cute is the colored foil they are wrapped in - reminiscent of the ever-so-popular chocolate Easter eggs.

Let's forgot about the cute factor for a minute and focus on the taste of these Easter egg cookies.  They are nutty (I used hazelnuts, but you can choose from any of your favorite nuts) and loaded with coffee flavor.  They taste a bit like biscotti dunked in coffee, but with the texture of Christmas snowball cookies or the similar Mexican wedding cookies.  In fact, I may repeat the Easter egg cookie recipe again as a ball come Christmas-time. 

Easter Egg Cookies Recipe

I based my Easter egg cookie recipe off of the nut ball recipe from The Passion Fruit.  My adapted recipe is below.

Yield: 18 Easter Egg Cookies

Ingredients:

• 1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 cups flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons instant coffee
• 2 cups finely chopped toasted hazelnuts (or any other chopped nuts)
• powdered sugar, to taste

Special Supplies:

• Colored foil candy wrappers in whatever colors you like (you can buy them at kitchen specialty shops or online)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 F. 
2. In a medium-sized mixing bowl, mix butter, sugar, and vanilla until fluffy.
3. Mix in flour, salt, and coffee. 
4. Stir in hazelnuts. 
5. Shape dough into eggs.  I suggest having an egg on hand as a model.  You could also use an egg serving tray like the one in the photo to test the eggs for size (they will not rise in the oven). 
6. Freeze the cookie dough eggs for 20 minutes to help them hold their shape.
7. Bake on an ungreased cookie sheet or Silpat for 12 minutes. 
8. Once cool to the touch, roll in powdered sugar.  If you lift them off of the cookie sheet too soon, they may crumble in your hands.
9. Wrap in colored foil.

Hazelnut Coffee Cupcakes

Nutella is so in vogue that it's hard to think of doing anything with hazelnuts other than mixing them with chocolate.  It's easy to forget that Hazelnut (I prefer to call her Hazel) and Coffee are coffeehouse soul sisters.  They love their guy pal, Chocolate, but sometimes they need some bestie time.  I'm here to help.

I've created hazelnut coffee cupcakes with vanilla mascarpone frosting that closely mimic the aroma and flavor of a mug of hazelnut coffee.  As you eat, your "mmmm" may transition to a soft acoustic coffee shop soundtrack.  Just go with it!

Honey Nutella Rice Krispie Treats

Rice Krispie treats are on a short list of kid-friendly, three ingredient, always popular things to bring to a holiday party without resorting to a store-bought snack.  Most people will smile pleasantly when you show up with them, the host will put them out on the dessert table, and they will get eaten. However, they will be the Dasher or Prancer of desserts - definitely not the steal-the-show-and-save-Christmas Rudolph.

Arrive at your affair with these honey Nutella Rice Krispie treats and heads will turn as if Santa himself had just walked in the door.  It's your choice whether you share the secret that honey Nutella Rice Krispie treats are just as easy to prepare as the original Rice Krispie treats - just three ingredients and a microwave. If you'd like, you can tell people that little elves worked on them all day (they'll never have to know that the elves were your kids and that most of the working was licking the Nutella-filled spoon). 

Ferrero Rocher Cupcakes: Rich Chocolate Cupcakes with Hazelnut

Kimberly of Kimberly C Baking emailed me about the idea of a Ferrero Rocher cupcake. After I wondered, "What the heck is a Ferrero Rocher?" I looked up Ferrero Rocher on Wikipedia and declared it a great idea.

We talked about her idea for a bit and Kimberly suggested that we both bake different styles of Ferrero Rocher cupcakes and blog about it; another great idea. I was on board still never having tasted the chocolate behind the gold foil.

I picked some up and and gave it a try. Damn. That's a good chocolate. It was no wonder people liked these things. Try some if you have never had them!

I was ready to create. I decided to make a chocolate hazelnut cupcake and give it a gooey ganache filling (like the gooey surprise in the chocolate) and top it with a chocolate ganache with hazelnuts bits in it (again, like the chocolate).

Where to Buy Hazelnut Extract
In order to make said cupcake, however, I needed hazelnut extract. Apparently, there is no demand for hazelnut extract in St. Louis, because nobody carries it. I do have to give special props to Straubs and Penzey's Spices who both went out of the their way to suggest other places I could possibly find it in town. The lady at Penzey's actually called 3 other places for me. Finally, I had to purchase it online here and wait... and wait.. and wait.. OK, it took just a week to arrive, but when I have my heart set on baking something, I am ready. I do not want to wait!

How to Pronounce Ferrero Rocher
While I was waiting, I had more time to plan. I was always hesitant to use the name "Ferrero Rocher" when telling people what I was making because I had/have no idea how to say it. It turns out though, that most people don't know how to say it. Only one person I asked seemed confident in his pronunciation. However, saying the chocolate in the gold foil seemed to be understood by everyone. The cupcake also needed to be easily recognizable. It needed gold.

Using Edible Gold on Cupcakes
For the gold on my cupcakes, I used actual edible gold. What else? I had no idea that gold was edible. Apparently you can eat gold, but it has no nutritional value. It just goes in and comes out. Hmm... I forgot to check for gold flakes in my poop. Good thing I still have some cupcakes left so I can try this experiment.

Finally, my extract came and I was ready to bake. Alas, Kimberly, my partner in crime, was sick. Then, she had to go and be nice and bake someone some chocolate cupcakes for Christmas. She hasn't gotten to bake her Ferrero Rochers yet. I was going to wait and post with her, but did I mention that I don't like waiting?

You are just going to have to promise to check Kimberly's blog and her cupcakes when she get them done. I'll also update this post with a link to her completed cupcakes.

Ferrero Rocher Cupcake Reviews

My husband: "Wow! These are just like the chocolate!"
My friend: "These are some of your best ones yet."
My Mother-In-Law: "These are good, but not as good as the caviar cheesecake ones." (She is alone in this line of thinking.)
My blogging friend: Said nothing at the time, but mentioned them on her blog.
Me: I thought they were perfect. They were a rich, moist chocolate with great hazelnut undertones - but not too sweet. The gooey surprise inside worked really well, as did the ganache. It all just came together.

Ferrero Rocher Cupcake Recipe

The cupcake recipe came from Laura of Sweets Made Here. It is for 12 cupcakes. I doubled it.

• 1/2 c boiling water
• 6 T unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/4 c milk
• 1/2 t vanilla extract
• 1 T hazelnut extract
• 1/2 c unsalted butter, softened
• 10 T dark brown sugar
• 6 T granulated sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 c all-purpose flour
• 1/2 + 1/8 t baking soda
• 1/4 t salt

In a bowl, whisk the boiling water into cocoa until smooth and whisk in milk, vanilla, and hazelnut extracts. In a large bowl, beat together butter and sugars until light and fluffy, about 2 to 3 minutes, and beat in eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Into another bowl, sift together flour, baking soda, and salt and add to egg mixture in batches alternately with cocoa mixture, beginning and ending with flour mixture, and beating well after each addition. Fill each wrapper slightly more than 1/2 way. They will rise a lot. Bake in a preheated 350F oven for about 18 minutes. Cool on a wire rack.

Note: I have never used that much of an extract in a recipe before. I actually worried that it was a typo and she meant teaspoon. However, it definitely needed that much. In fact, I added another whole tablespoon (1/2 if you are only making 12).

The Gooey Chocolate Hazelnut Filling Recipe

If you have some Nutella around, I think you could easily just fill this with Nutella. I did not have Nutella around and didn't want to go to the store.

• 1 c heavy cream
• 1 c semisweet chocolate chips
• 2 t hazelnut extract
  

Bring heavy cream to a boil. Pour over chocolate chips to melt them. Add extract. Mix until fluffy. Let cool. Cut a cone in each cupcake and put a teaspoon or two of the ganache in. Replace the cone.

The Chocolate Hazelnut Ganache Recipe

I used the ganache recipe from Sweets Made Here. The only change I made was that rather than putting hazelnuts on top as she did, I mixed 1 Cup of toasted, ground hazelnuts into the ganache before spreading. Also, while I doubled the cake recipe, I did not double the ganache recipe and I still had plenty.

• 1/2 c heavy cream
• 8 oz good semi-sweet chocolate chunks
• 2 T light corn syrup
• 2 t hazelnut extract

Heat the cream on the stove until it boils. Pour over the chocolate and stir to melt, adding the corn syrup and hazelnut extract.