The best part of the holidays are the traditions they hold. Of course for me, the traditional food is most exciting. Food consumed during holiday’s are usually set forth by family members and passed down throughout generations. Some things stay the same, some are tweaked, and some become lost arts. Brian’s grandmother had a tradition of making candy Easter eggs. She is the Willy Wonka of chocolate eggs churning out up to 200 a season for those waiting for something the bunny could not deliver.

For the past couple of years  Brian has been asking me to recreate them. As many of you may know baking, and dessert are not my strong suits. So I was intimidated by the idea of making these eggs. Visions of choking on clouds on confectionery sugar and burning myself with melted chocolate filled my head. I was wrong! These were actually easy, manageable, and kind of fun!

I hope this inspires you to start a sweet tradition with your family!

The video is also on my youtube channel!

Grandma’s Buttercream Easter Eggs

ingredients

peanut butter filling

• 2 lbs confectionery sugar, sifted

• 8 oz philadelphia cream cheese, room temperature

• 3/4 cup creamy peanut butter

• 2 tsp vanilla extract

chocolate coating

• 12 oz bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips (i used milk chocolate b/c i prefer it)

• 7 oz chocolate candy bar (baking bar) or I have used chocolate chips as well

• 6 tbsp crisco

instructions

egg filling

1. Using an electric hand mixer, mix together the cream cheese, peanut butter, vanilla and confectioner sugar a little bit at a time.

2. The mixture will start to come together like a cookie dough. At that point hand knead it until the mixture becomes smooth and uniform, almost like pizza dough.

3. Take pieces of the dough and form into the shape of an egg. Place on wax parchment paper and chill in the fridge for at least four hours before coating with chocoalte

coating the eggs

1. Melt the chocolate and crisco in a small bowl set over a pot of warm water, making a “double broiler.” do not let the water boil, because you don’t want the chocolate to get too warm. Stir the chocolate constantly while melting along with cleaning the sides of bowl.

2. Remove the bowl from the pot once the chocolate is melted. Use a fork to dip the already prepared butter cream eggs. Dip the whole “egg” in the chocolate covering completely, and gently tap the fork on the side of the bowl to remove extra chocolate. Place the candy onto a wax paper covered tray or cookie sheet. Place the tray in the refrigerator to chill to allow the chocolate to harden.