Koulourakia
Chocolate carrots with bunnies and chicks made from white couverture
Hello food lovers,
Easter is just around the corner! Would you like to fill your Easter nest this year with something very special, or give a loved one a little Easter gift? These sweet Easter cookies are guaranteed to impress everyone.
The base is crispy chocolate cookies shaped like carrots. On top sit small bunnies and chicks made from white couverture, which we decorate with coloured chocolate flavour pens. I'll show you two variations: either you decorate the mould before pouring, or the finished figures from the outside.
Two creative minds were at work on this recipe once again: the idea comes from Karin, and I brought it to life. Let's get started!
Ingredients
Chocolate biscuit dough (approx. 36 biscuits)
Chocolate bunnies and chicks
Step by step
Chocolate cookie dough
Butter and icing sugar
Put 125 g soft butter and 80 g icing sugar into a mixing bowl and beat them together with the paddle attachment to a creamy mass.
Egg and vanilla
Whisk an egg and add 30 g of it together with 1 tsp natural extract to the butter mixture. Mix everything well once more.
Natural vanilla extract
Flour and cocoa
Finally, add 190 g flour and 30 g Cocoa powder and mix everything on the lowest setting, for no more than 1 minute!
Cocoa powder without sugar, 250 g
Finish kneading and rolling out by hand
Do the rest by hand and knead as little as possible. The machine would develop the gluten too much, and bubbles would form on the cookies while baking. I also like to use a dough scraper to help.
Place the ball of dough on baking paper and cover it with a second sheet of baking paper so the rolling pin doesn't stick. Roll out the dough with 5 mm dough guides and make sure it is the same thickness everywhere.
Dough guides
Non-stick rolling pin 50 cm
Chilling
Slide the rolled-out dough onto a perforated baking tray and place it in the freezer for 5 to 10 minutes. This makes it much easier to cut out.
Perforated aluminium tray 40 x 30 cm
Cutting out and baking
Cut out the carrots
Preheat the oven to 170 °C convection. Cut out the cookies with the carrot cookie cutter and place them on a perforated baking mat on the perforated tray, so they bake optimally. You can place them close together, as they barely rise during baking.
Bunny and carrot cookie cutter
Perforated baking mat
Baking
Bake the cookies for 10 to 12 minutes at 170 °C convection, then let them cool down completely.
Chocolate bunnies and chicks
Prepare the chocolate flavour pens
We make the bunnies and chicks with the «Osterfreunde» silicone mold and decorate them with chocolate flavour pens. You can either paint the mold before pouring or decorate the finished figures from the outside. I'll show you both variants.
To use the pens, the chocolate inside the tube needs to melt. Place the pens in a measuring cup and pour boiling water over them. After 2 minutes the chocolate is liquid. Screw the pens shut well after each use and put them back in the water. If needed, replace the water with freshly boiled water.
«Osterfreunde» silicone mould
Set of 10 chocolate flavour pens
Variant 1: Paint the mold
For the first variant, I «make up» the bunnies and chicks before the couverture goes in. It's like a colouring picture! For larger areas, go straight into the mold with the tube and colour it in.
Chocolate flavour pen pastel pink, 25 g
Chocolate flavour pen orange, 25 g
Fine details
For small details such as the eyes, I use a modelling stick or a fine needle. A toothpick works just as well. Once the molds are painted, place them in the fridge.
Fine needle modelling tool
Chocolate flavour pen purple, 25 g
Chocolate flavour pen black, 25 g
Tempering the couverture
Now we temper the white couverture. Warm 230 g couverture in the microwave at 600 watts in 30-second bursts to 42 °C. Be sure to use a Thermometer: at 50 °C the chocolate burns and can no longer be used.
Then add the remaining 115 g couverture and let everything cool to 29 to 30 °C while stirring.
White chocolate 28% 1kg - Callebaut
Infrared thermometer
Colouring and filling
Divide the chocolate into two halves and colour one of them yellow for the chicks. Add a pinch of colour powder and mix with the dough scraper until you like the colour. Be sure to use a colour that is suitable for chocolate. Chocolate colours are fat-soluble and do not change the texture. Gel colours, on the other hand, are water-based, and the chocolate would separate.
Fill the chocolate into a piping bag, cut off a small tip and fill the moulds halfway. Scrape off the excess with the angled spatula.
Yellow chocolate powder colouring
10 disposable piping bags S 30 cm
Stainless steel angled spatula
Freezing and unmoulding
Place the mould in the freezer for 5 to 10 minutes. This way you can quickly remove the figures and refill the mould straight away, because you fill it 3 times for 36 pieces. The hares and chicks come out of the mould without any problems.
Variant 2: filling the mould without decoration
For the second variant, fill the mould with chocolate without any painting. Make sure the couverture is still at the right temperature. If not, heat it in the microwave for a few seconds to bring it back to the right temperature. Fill the mould as before and place it in the freezer for 5 to 10 minutes as well.
This time, paint the finished hares and chicks on the outside with the pens.
Painting the outside
Here too, a fine needle or a toothpick will help you with small details such as eyes and little snouts.
Fine needle modelling tool
The two variants compared
Here you can see the difference: variant 1 at the top, variant 2 at the bottom. The third picture shows the result with a different mould featuring funny hares.
Decorate and finish the biscuits
Colour the carrots orange
Once the biscuits have cooled, it's time to decorate. You'll need the chocolate flavour pens for this too. To work more efficiently, first do the orange part on all the biscuits.
Chocolate flavour pen orange, 25 g
Colour the leaves green
Next, colour the carrot tops green on all the biscuits.
Chocolate flavour pen light green, 25 g
Stick on the bunnies and chicks
Pipe a small dab of chocolate onto the carrot and press a bunny or a chick on top. And your sweet Easter biscuits are ready!
Easter cookies with chocolate bunnies
Ingredients
Chocolate cookie dough (approx. 36 cookies)
Chocolate bunnies and chicks
Chocolate flavour pens
Method
- Dough: Beat the butter and icing sugar until creamy, add 30 g egg and vanilla, fold in flour and cocoa for max. 1 min., then knead by hand until smooth.
- Rolling out: Roll out between baking paper to 5 mm thick, freeze for 5 to 10 min.
- Baking: Cut out carrots, bake for 10 to 12 min. at 170 °C fan, let cool.
- Chocolate figures: Melt the pens in hot water, paint the mould and let it cool. Temper the couverture: heat to 42 °C, then cool to 29 to 30 °C, colour half of it yellow, fill the mould, freeze for 5 to 10 min.
- Finishing: Paint the carrots orange and green, attach the figures with a dab of chocolate.
Nutrition per 100 g
Storage & shelf life
Everything for this recipe
Recommended by our bakery team: exactly the sizes this recipe was tested with.
Ingredients
Natural vanilla extract
Cocoa powder, unsweetened - 250 g
White chocolate 28% 1kg - Callebaut
Yellow chocolate powder colouring
Set of 10 chocolate flavour pens
Chocolate flavour pen orange, 25 g
Chocolate flavour pen pastel pink, 25 g
Chocolate flavour pen purple, 25 g
Chocolate flavour pen pastel blue, 25 g
Chocolate flavour pen light green, 25 g
Chocolate flavour pen black, 25 g
Accessories
Dough sticks
Non-stick rolling pin 50 cm
Perforated aluminium sheet 40 x 30 cm
Cookie cutter bunny and carrot
Perforated baking mat
Silicone mould «Osterfreunde»
Fine needle modelling tool
Infrared thermometer
10 disposable piping bags S 30 cm
Stainless steel angled spatula
Delivery in 1 to 2 working days · Free shipping from CHF 100
To make sure they turn out perfectly
Put the Chocolate flavour pens back into hot water from time to time. This keeps the chocolate liquid, so you can paint completely relaxed.
Mix the flour and cocoa in the machine for 1 minute at most, then knead the rest by hand. This keeps the cookies flat and free of bubbles.
Paint the orange on all the cookies first, and only then the green. This way you don't have to keep switching pens and everything goes much faster.
Frequently asked questions
You can make them up to a week in advance. Store them well sealed in a tin.
Yes, that's quite possible. You can paint the Silicone mold just the same with melted Deco melts.
No, be sure to use an oil-soluble dye for chocolate, for example a powdered chocolate colouring. Gel colors are water-based, and they would make the chocolate seize.
Print recipe
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Comments
Question de Baptistine
By: Baptistine G. On 2024-02-26Bonjour,
J'aimerais tester cette mignonne recette pour Pâques. Combien de temps à l'avance puis-je préparer ces biscuits selon vous ?
Je vous remercie d'avance pour votre réponses.
Salutations
Baptistine
Replied by: Laura On 2024-02-26
Question de Marie
By: Marie M. On 2023-09-21Bonjour,
Merci pour toutes vos recettes et vos idées!
Est-ce qu’on pourrait utiliser les déco melts au lieu des stylos chocolat pour faire les decos de couleur dans les moules en silicone ou les transparents pour le chocolat?
D’avance merci pour votre réponse et salutations
Marie
Replied by: Laura On 2023-09-22