It's almost Easter. Cue a week of chocolate and bakes featuring mini eggs, bunnies and baby chicks. I wouldn't say the boys are as excited as at Christmas, but it definitely ranks up there and we're frequently counting down the number of sleeps until the Easter bunny arrives with an abundance of yet more chocolate! For those of you that don't know me so well, I kind of like Pinterest - not quite as much as some of my friends (you know who you are!!!) - but I love it for inspiration and ideas from cooking to baking to crafts to homes to travel and more. But pinning me down to do something with the pins is another thing entirely. I first saw this idea on Pinterest a year ago and it's taken me this long to do it (well, my excuse is that I was waiting for Easter as that kind of feels like the best occasion for this one!)
Baking brownies in eggshells. Cute, eh? Originally in Italian. I followed a crude translation and my own ingredient quantities but the idea came from Brownies In Eggshells and is inspired. A touch fiddly to create this little work of art, but still lots of fun and I decided to add my own twist and pop in a small chocolate egg into each eggshell. This meant that the holes I had to create in the bottom of the eggs were a touch larger than you'd ideally need but I experimented with two different types of egg: Mini Cadbury Creme Eggs (these mini eggs are actually quite large compared to an actual egg so you do have to create quite a gaping hole) and Lindt Eggs (white and milk chocolate).
So, the results. Well, the recipe suggested baking them for 20 mins. This seemed a long time considering the size of each egg so I went with 15 mins, but really my instinct alarm bells were ringing and I should have gone for 10-12 mins I think for the perfect bake. The Cadburys Creme egg (I only made one with this) exploded out of the top so there was little Creme Egg left in it! The Lindt eggs fared better but still needed a little less cooking I think. I will definitely make this again but perhaps next time, I might try Chocolate Oil & Almond Cake for a change and freeze the chocolate eggs before putting them into the batter. The kids love them. They're addicted to eggs anyway but present them with an egg that they can peel and find a chocolate brownie inside - awesome! And the possibilities are endless with these little creations - definitely fun for Easter and for making with the kids in the school holidays :)
Egg Chocolate Brownies (adapted from Craft Marmalade) Makes 6
Ingredients
- 70G DARK CHOCOLATE
- 40G BUTTER
- 1 EGG
- 60G CASTER SUGAR
- 40G PLAIN FLOUR
- PINCH OF SALT
- 10G COCOA
- 6 EGGSHELLS
- 6 MINI CHOCOLATE EGGS
Method
- To prepare your eggshells, make a small hole in the bottom of each egg - I used the sharp point of scissors, made a small hole and then picked away some of the eggshell until I had enough of a hole to be able to fill with batter
- Shake the eggs until the insides come out into a bowl and then soak the eggshells in salty water for 30 mins
- Remove from the water and allow to thoroughly dry
- Pour a little olive oil into each eggshell to coat the insides
- Turn on the oven to 180 degrees
- Then to prepare the batter, start by melting the chocolate and butter in the microwave (around 1 min but keep an eye on it so it doesn't burn) and then set it aside to cool
- Put the egg and sugar in a bowl and whisk it by hand and next add the chocolate until thoroughly mixed
- Then add the flour and cocoa and mix evenly
- Finally add the salt and stir through until the batter is smooth
- Pour the batter into a pastry bag and fill the eggshells until they're ¼ full and then insert a little chocolate egg. Then top up the batter until the eggshells are ¾ full
- Bake for 10-12 mins until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean
- If the batter spills over the edge of the eggshell you can wipe away the excess when they're still warm
- Allow to cool, peel and enjoy :)