What a Sweet Mess!

Most of you who know me know I love chocolate.  And sweets.

Several weeks ago when I went to Ligonier for the get-together at Kathy's Kreations yarn shop.  One of the other ladies brought these amazingly yummy chocolate covered Easter eggs made by a small candy company in her home town.  They came in a variety of different interesting flavors.  One I really liked was fruit and nut (the healthy choice!  hahaha!!!)

I've always wanted to make Easter eggs and never tried them.  I went to the internet and found some recipes I thought would work for me.  I like easy!  One began with butter and Eagle Brand sweetened condensed milk, the other with butter and cream cheese and then you added flavoring and powdered sugar to both.  Since Eagle Brand is already very sweet, I went with the cream cheese so it wouldn't be overpoweringly sweet.  I bought dried pineapple and cherries.  There was already dried cranberrys and peanut butter on hand.

I chopped the fruit VERY fine, added 1/2 stick of butter, 1/2  of an 8 oz. block of cream cheese and then started pouring in the powdered sugar.  I worked it in with my hands until it became a stiff dough that no longer stuck to my hands.  The peanut butter eggs were made the same way but I added about a 1/2 cup of creamy peanut butter.  Then I shaped my sugar dough into egg shapes.

When they were all shaped, I put them in the fridge to harden for a while.

Both recipes used chocolate chips for the coating chocolate with the addition of a little butter.  I had semi sweet, milk chocolate and some leftover white chocolate coating wafers.

Working with chocolate is an exact science.  It's tricky, at least for me.  I started out with a makeshift double boiler affair with two pans, thinking the water would keep the chocolate nice and fluid while I did the dipping. 

It started out fairly well.  Long ago I had bought this little loop-shaped device for dipping candy (in case I ever got the urge).  Did the eggs stay on the little loop?  No they did not!  Next I tried a two-tined fork.  Not ideal!  I tried a skewer, but that definitely did not work.  Back to the fork.  But it left holes in the egg!  I want pretty!!!  Oh well, time to settle for just OK.

I completed about eight decent looking eggs and then I slopped a few drops of water into the pan by mistake.  Voila!!!  Chocolate turns to concrete!!!  My chocolate had seized up and the party was over.

The eggs went back in the fridge and I made a new attempt the next morning.  This time with the white coating chips.  I used the microwave with no chance of splashing water.  Things went much better. 

Emboldened by success, I decided to try the other bag of chocolate chips.  For some reason the chocolate was not very melty right from the beginning.  I soldiered on, determined to finish and not waste any more chocolate.  I ended up with a nice batch of spiny looking eggs, but they taste good.

I only put the prettiest ones in the picture!  There are some REALLY lumpy ones.

How do the ladies at the churches make those hundreds of eggs and they all come out pretty???

Maybe I should become a volunteer....

Happy Easter, Everyone!