How To Make Chocolate Easter Eggs

Chocolate is irrestible to so many of us and has been eaten and enjoyed for hundreds of years. There are many shops full of the most beautiful confections, made with ever more flavour combinations not know to many people. You do not need any special heavy machinery or hours of training to create delicious treats at home.

Of course, making chocolate requires a few essential skills. I promise you all these techniques are easily learned and you can make your own chocolate from scratch in the comfort of your own home. Start at the beginning and gradually slowly build up – provided you can temper chocolate, you can make melt in your mouth treats and what is more important to have lots of fun and have fun with your kids too. Since Christmas big supermarkets are already selling Chocolate Easter Treats. My kids love eating anything sweet, but more importantly they like making it too. So, after a careful consideration we agreed to make our own Chocolate Easter Eggs.

For homemade chocolate you would need:
1 cup cocoa butter
1 cup cocoa
7 tbsp. maple syrup (honey is ok too)
1 bean

Place cocoa butter in a saucepan and gently melt over medium –low heat. Stir cocoa powder, maple syrup and vanilla seeds into melted butter until well blended. Pour mixture into a candy mold or any pliable tray. Refrigerate until chilled (1 hour). Moulds must not be porous and must have some level of flexibility.

Many household items make suitable moulds – ice cube trays, jelly moulds, canape moulds, moulds from children’s activity kits, plastic seasonal containers.
Just use your imagination, bear in mind the criteria and take care that what you are using is suitable for food. Clean and polish your Easter egg mould so that your chocolate release easily when set.

Using your chocolate and your clean finger, spatula or brush paints a thin layer of chocolate over the entire inside of the mould. Leave it to set. Spoon or brush your chocolate into the  Easter egg mould. Tip the chocolate out of the mould, banging on the side of the mould so that all the excess chocolate is removed. This gives a second coating of chocolate. Carefully remove any excess chocolate on the top of the mould using either a palette knife or your finger. When the chocolate it set do a third coating the same way and place the mould in the fridge for about 15 – 20 minutes to set fully. Remove the mould from the fridge and it can now be tapped out onto a clean surface.

You can decorate your Easter egg further, if you wish. Use a piping bag or stick on sweets using a little melted chocolate as glue.