Under the influence of all of the pastel colored Easter treats in blogland this week, I almost broke down and bought some colored sprinkles. But I just needed to take a quick peek at the ingredients to put me back on the right track. I just can't do it - those chemicals should not be going into my body or my daughter's, despite the claims of those who say it is okay. (Read this article with all of its scientific language and then tell me you haven't lost your appetite for a bright blue slushie).
But don't depair, we still have Easter fun around here!
Did you see them? Want a closer look?
Yep, those are Easter Island moai - just the thing for Easter Sunday! For Christmas, my husband received a moai shaped ice cube tray. Just perfect for melted chocolate!
So the first super simple Easter treat: buy some Ghirardelli white chocolate bars, melt them on low heat in a saucepan, then pour them into silicone ice cube molds. (Silicone is not my favorite thing to use in the kitchen because of its plastic-like consistency, but I think it is actually okay.) Put them in the refrigerator until they are hard. Mine were done in 1 hour. They came out perfectly (the noses got a little flat) - no need to grease the mold.
The second simple Easter treat I made was homemade chocolate peanut butter cups.
The chocolate is not as soft as the real deal, but that is because it doesn't have any sugar or preservatives in it. I made up a batch of my homemade peanut butter. Then I took a cup of the pb and added about 3 tablespoons of 10x sugar. (You wouldn't have to add any sugar if you wanted to be really healthy.) I had two bars of Ghirardelli chocolate - one semi sweet and one 60% dark - and I chopped those up and melted them on low heat in a saucepan, stirring until smooth. I had bought mini-cupcake liners and put those in my mini-muffin tray (so cute). I put a dollop of the melted chocolate in the bottom of the liner, then added about a teaspoon on the pb, then poured more chocolate on top. Pop those in the refrigerator to cool, and you're all done! You can then choose to remove the liners or leave them on. Since I was combining them with white chocolate in the same container, I chose to keep the liners on. I also made some white chocolate hazelnut honey butter cups with the leftover chocolate from the moai. They are okay. I am just really not a fan of hazlenuts.
Then I put the three kinds of chocolate into pint sized mason jars...
added a pretty piece of fabric...
and you have prizes for the Easter Egg Hunt on Sunday! Yummy handmade goodness! No pastel sprinkles required.
Whether you celebrate Easter or not, hope you have a wonderful day that includes some chocolate!