Confections

My mom has been making homemade chocolate-covered Easter eggs as long as I can remember. It’s funny when I was a little girl I thought she was trying to save money by making marshmallow instead of buying it. Looking back I clearly didn’t know how inexpensive marshmallows were and that my mother was no frugal genius. She made homemade marshmallow because there is simply nothing like it. It is so incredibly silky and smooth. It is like eating a sweet cloud infused with vanilla.

Please, Please, do not let the thought of making homemade marshmallow in the shape of eggs and dipping it in chocolate intimidate you. This is honestly one of the easiest and most impressive recipes you will ever make. The marshmallow is no-bake. You read that right…no boiling, no baking required. You don’t even need a fancy mold. I press a plastic easter egg in a tray of flour to make an impression, then spoon in the marshmallow. I even temper the chocolate used to dip the eggs in the microwave. What could be easier? I make these every year with my kids and when I say I make them with my kids…I mean it. They don’t sit by and watch mom make eggs…they make them. We actually do well over a hundred eggs every year. We make them for friends, family, even the kids in the neighborhood, they are that much fun to make.

We like to decorate our eggs with simple royal icing drop flowers but that is completely optional and decorations could be purchased if royal icing isn’t your thing. These eggs are also amazing using our strawberry and raspberry marshmallow recipe. The take away of this blog post is that you can do this! Try this and recipe and impress everyone with your mad culinary skills.

Ingredients:

2 envelopes Knox unflavored gelatin

4 Tbsp cold water

1 cup boiling water

2 cups sugar

1/2 tsp finely ground sea salt

2 tsp vanilla bean paste

2 lb milk chocolate

assorted drop flowers and leaves

Instructions:

1. Fill several cake pans with flour and use a large-sized plastic easter egg to press 30-40 egg impressions in flour
2. In stand mixer bowl pour 4 Tbsp cold water over 2 envelopes of unflavored Knox gelatin.
3. Let water fully absorb into gelatin.
4. Pour 1 cup boiling water over gelatin and stir until hot water completely dissolves gelatin.
5. Add sugar and salt.
6. Whip on high until stiff peaks form.
7. Add vanilla bean paste.
8. Whip until incorporated.
9. Spoon marshmallow mixture into prepared egg impressions.

1. Let marshmallow mixture sit at least 4 hours before tossing in flour and removing.
2. Dust off excess flour with a pastry brush and place marshmallow eggs on parchment paper.
3. Use a plastic bowl to melt chocolate 1 lb at a time.
4. Melt chocolate in the microwave in 30-second burst, stirring in between.
5. As the chocolate gets close to being smooth drop time to 10-second bursts.
6. Dip marshmallow eggs in the bowl of melted chocolate.
7. Place dipped eggs on a cookie tray lined with parchment paper,
8. Place drop flowers and leaves on chocolate eggs as they begin to dry.
9. Let eggs dry completely before packaging or eating.
10. Enjoy!!!

Tips:

• Personalize eggs with names using royal icing. I like to use a Wilton #2 or #3 tip to scroll names.

Earlier this month we wrote a blog post about cream cheese buttermints. As February was just around the corner, we had Valentine’s Day fever and a surplus of sanding sugar at our house. Needing to utilize the crazy amounts of sugars and sprinkles I had purchased in red and pink we decided to turn the buttermints into Valentine’s Day confections. I have a small addiction for sprinkles if it sparkles and shines I buy and think about the practical use later.  In our original blog post, I mentioned making these mints for my wedding over twenty years ago.  I have since had many people message us asking for ideas on how to make these mints for their own weddings. This weekend I had extra cream cheese in the fridge and a sweet tooth to satisfy so the girls and I decided to make a batch of mints in wedding colors to show how elegant these mints can look displayed at a wedding. The girls were so happy with the results that Maddie made me promise to make them again when she gets married. As much as I love making these mints lets hope I have many years before that happens 😉

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