Easter Cookies

Hey foodies!

Easter is already less than a month away!

Would you like to fill the Easter nest with special cookies this year? Or give a little Easter gift to someone you love? These chocolate Easter cookies will impress everyone! ;0)

Two creative minds came together to develop this recipe. ;-) The ideas for these adorable cookies came from Karin and the execution was done by my own hands.

For approximately 36 cookies, you will need:

Cookie dough

- 125gr butter

- 80gr icing sugar

- 30gr egg

- 1 tsp vanilla extract

- 190gr flour

- 30gr unsweetened cocoa powder

Chocolate rabbits and chicks

- 345gr white couverture chocolate

- Chocolate pens in different colours:

- 1x yellow

- 2x orange

- 1x pastel pink

- 1x purple

- 1x pastel blue

- 1x light green

- 1x black

Cookie dough

Start by placing 125gr of tempered butter in your bowl with 80gr of icing sugar and mix with the K beater.

You will get a creamy texture. Perfect!

Crack one egg into a bowl and lightly whisk it with a fork. Add 30gr of it to the butter/icing sugar mixture.

Also add 1 tsp of vanilla extract and mix everything together again.

Finally, add 190gr of flour and 30gr of unsweetened cocoa powder and mix at the lowest speed for a maximum of 1 minute!

Finish mixing the dough by hand! If you continue with the mixer, the gluten will develop too much and you will get bubbles on the surface of your cookies during baking.

That is why it is important to finish mixing by hand. I also use a dough scraper for this.

Once you can form a ball, place it between two sheets of baking paper. This way the rolling pin won't stick to the dough. ;-)

Get yourself 5 mm thickness guide sticks and a rolling pin.

Place the guide sticks on either side of the dough.

Roll the dough out to 5 mm thickness, making sure it is even throughout.

Once it is rolled out, slide it onto a perforated baking tray and place it in the freezer for 5 to 10 minutes.

This way, the dough will be much easier to cut out with cookie cutters.

I always do this with my cookie doughs, tart doughs, puff pastries...

It also makes it easier to do workshops with children, without the dough melting in their little warm hands. ;-)

Your dough is now nice and cold. It's time to preheat your oven to 170°C, fan-assisted.

To stay in the Easter spirit, I chose a carrot-shaped cookie cutter.

Cut out your cookies and place them on a perforated baking tray lined with a perforated baking mat. This ensures optimal baking!

You can place your cookies fairly close together as they will barely rise during baking. :o)

Once all the cookies are cut out, bake them in the oven for 10 to 12 minutes at 170°C (fan-assisted).

Chocolate rabbits and chicks

To create these adorable cookies I used the "Easter Friends" silicone mould from Silikomart.

And for the colourful touch, I used these chocolate pens. There are two different ways to use them: either you decorate the mould with the chocolate pens before pouring in the white chocolate, or you do it afterwards. I will show you both methods here.

To use the pens, the chocolate inside the tube needs to melt. To do this, place them in a jug and pour boiling water over them. After 2 minutes, the chocolate is melted and ready to use.

Make sure to close the cap of the pens after use and put them back in the water. If necessary, replace the water with fresh boiling water.

For the first method, I first draw the rabbits and chicks with the chocolate pen before pouring in the white chocolate.

It's like colouring! ;0) For large areas, I go directly into the mould with the pen and colour it in. For small details like the eyes for example, I use either a scribing needle or a modelling stick with a tip. A toothpick also works.

Once the cavities are decorated, place the mould in the refrigerator.

Now the white couverture chocolate needs to be tempered. To do this, we will use the microwave, in 30-second intervals at 600W, until the chocolate reaches 42°C.

Place 230gr of white couverture chocolate in a glass bowl and microwave it for 30 seconds at 600W.

Take it out and stir with a spatula so the heat is distributed evenly.

Put it back in the microwave, again at 600W for 30 seconds.

A thermometer will allow you to temper your chocolate correctly, so it is essential. Be careful not to exceed 50°C, otherwise your chocolate will be burnt!

Once the chocolate reaches 42°C, add 115gr of white couverture chocolate, stir and let it cool down to 29-30°C.

Your chocolate is now tempered! :-)

Divide the chocolate into two portions and colour one portion (which will be for the chicks) with yellow chocolate colouring.

To do this, add a small amount of colouring to the chocolate and stir with a spatula until you reach the desired colour.

Make sure to use colouring specifically made for chocolate, this is important! Chocolate colourings are fat-soluble (oil-based), so they will colour the chocolate without altering its texture.

Now pour the chocolate into a piping bag, snip the tip with scissors and fill half of the mould cavities.

Then place the mould in the freezer for 5 to 10 minutes so you can quickly unmould the chocolates and fill the cavities again, because to get 36 pieces, you need to fill the mould 3 times.

After 5-10 minutes in the freezer, the chocolates can be unmoulded without any trouble.

For the second method, there is no need to decorate beforehand. You can directly fill the mould cavities with the tempered white chocolate.

Make sure the chocolate is still at the right temperature; if not, you can put it back in the microwave for a few seconds to bring it back to the correct temperature, i.e. 29-30°C.

Fill the mould as before and place it in the freezer for 5 to 10 minutes.

This time, the chocolate will be decorated on the outside with the pens.

Here you can see the difference between the two methods in image No. 3, at the top is method 1 and at the bottom is method 2. This is also the result of the "Funny Rabbits" mould.

Decoration

Once the cookies have cooled, it is time to decorate them. For this, we will use the chocolate pens again.

To be more efficient, I do the orange part of all the cookies first, then the green part.

To attach the rabbits and chicks, place a small dot of chocolate on the carrot and press them gently on top.

And there you have it, the little chocolate Easter cookies are ready! :o)

You can store them either in a metal tin or in cookie bags.

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial and I wish you a lovely Sunday.

Jenny

P.S.: You will find all the materials used at the bottom of the recipe.