Easter Spirit = Chocolate Bunnies!

Although the extent of my Easter celebration typically consists of overloading on cadbury eggs, I thought I might do something cutely delicious this year that involves other people eating, too. And I'm not talking about an entire dinner shabang, but just something small and sweet. As I was perusing at Williams-Sonoma.com, I came across the cutest little nugget of Easter festivity, note the photo. It inspired me to step outside the box and do something "cute." It is a "robin's nest" complete with truffle-filled "eggs". In other words, candy-coated, white chocolate-covered truffle goodness! And I thought, 'hey buds, instead of spending $39.95 plus shipping for these bad boys, why not make 'em yourself?' And if I can do it, you're one step ahead of me. I'm not going to do that whole nest thingamajigger; I'd rather not go fetch twigs and berries. The truffles alone will be festive enough for my standards. And my eggs may not look as pretty as Williams-Sonoma's either, but I kind of prefer the homemade appearance. If you disagree, then NO EGGS FOR YOU! If you don't appreciate what I'm cookin', then get out of my kitchen (ultimately, my life). Here is a recipe for truffles:

Truffle-Fluffles:

1 pound of chocolate (have your pick)

1 cup plus 3 tablespoons heavy cream

1 teaspoon good vanilla extract

Chop the chocolate medium-finely and place into a heat-proof bowl. Heat the cream until just before it has come to a boil. Pour into the bowl with the chocolate and stir constantly with a whisk until the chocolate has completely melted. Then whisk in the vanilla extract. Let the mixture cool for one hour. Then, with a melon-baller or a teaspoon, scoop the hardened mixture and form it into little oval-shaped balls (just like eggies). Place them onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.

At this point, it is up to you whether you are almost done or not. You can, at this point, roll your egg-shaped truffles into powdered sugar as the finishing touch (it helps with the stickiness and it gives them the white color) and be done with them. Or you can go the extra mile by dipping your hardened truffles into melted white chocolate--of which you can dye blue if you want to be as festive as Williams-Sonoma with a drop or two of blue food coloring. Plain melted chocolate (no heavy cream or vanilla) will not be moist and sticky like the truffle mixture; it will harden like a normal chocolate bar. Thus, you can enclose your truffles by draping them in melted chocolate and allowing them to harden on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet, or you can roll them in powdered sugar (or cocoa powder if you don't mind a brown egg!) It is really up to you how festive (a.k.a. effortful) you want to be. I am going to start with a mixture of milk/bittersweet truffle. Then dip them in white chocolate dyed blue. I may even finish them with a toss in powdered sugar when they are almost hardened to give them that air-brushed robin-egg look. The bottom line is: experiment. Do whatever sounds froofy-cutesy to you, even if froofy-cute isn't necessarily your thang. Get in the chocolate-bunny spirit! I guarantee whoever shares them with you will be very appreciative because no matter how they look, there's no way you can screw up the taste!

Moral of the story? Get creative with something adorably delicious this Easter. Don't worry, my fellow Jews, Passover will have its day!

*Photo is from the Williams-Sonoma website