Making my own Easter eggs - some questions

Bananaleaf

Hi there

I'm aiming to make my own easter eggs this year but would like to know a few things:


First: Is it best to use cooking chocolate for this?

Second: I'm looking to put mint pieces into one of the eggs and orange pieces into the other. Does anyone know where I could find these?

If anyone is interested by the way, the 2euro shop on Abbey St (Lower I think, beside Boyers) has very cheap moulds.

Thanks

seosamh1980

When you say cooking chocolate what chocolate do you mean? Is there a brand, cocoa solid %, etc?

Re: orange and mint pieces, do you mean bits of orange and mint chocolate? I'd just be breaking up something that flavour if it was me tbh, rather than looking to find these pieces somewhere to buy.

Bananaleaf

Hi

Thank you for your reply. Well, I hadn't got a cooking chocolate type in mind, was just going to pop to tesco n see what's there. Is there something I should look out for?

Re the pieces, I was actually trying to put dried fruit pieces into the eggs - think the green minty bits in the mint crisp and the honeycomb bits in a golden crisp. Is this just coloured/flavoured sugar?

Would a food flavouring (mint essence) give me results?

seosamh1980

They're not fruits...mint is a leaf? No idea what mint in mint crisp is, honeycomb is honeycomb, boiled sugar as a short description.

Generally cooking chocolate that people go for isn't chocolate, it's chocolate flavoured covering, Wunderbar, Homecook, etc. It's gross, only meant for use covering truffles etc. If using actual chocolate you might be needing to temper it to make it shiny, Lidl and Aldi do good chocolate of 50-74% which is good quality and reasonably priced, anything like Green & Blacks is just too expensive to mess with.

Bananaleaf

Yeah sorry, I know mint is a leaf I meant fruit pieces for the orange bits.

I wasn't very clear, I know

I'm just not too sure how bits of mint leaf would go down in an egg for a youngster. I wonder would mint essence just be the way to go?

Yeah that's what I was thinking about the Wunderbar stuff - I knew it wouldn't be right from using it for other stuff in the past.

seosamh1980

No you wouldn't put mint leaf in the chocolate. Break up an aero, or use mint essence or something. I don't like mint so can't be unbiased about mint things, they're all gross!

Bananaleaf

The aero is a good idea, thanks! Will have to look into the whole tempering thing, but you've given me great advice, thank you so much!!

tfak85

I would be cautious about popping mint essence into it, some liquids cause chocolate to seize, the aero bits could be the way to go.

What you might do is pour white chocolate in a decorative way into the mould first then pouring in the milk chocolate, so when it pops out it's a two tone egg!

Bananaleaf

Great idea tfak85!

I think I'm going to do a practice egg tomorrow. Got my thermometer and rubber spatula for tempering today!

Tfak85 - should I let the white chocolate set first? Sorry for the silly questions, but I'm a total novice when it comes to desserts

seosamh1980

Yeah you let it set first, otherwise it'll just mix with the darker chocolate. White chocolate takes very little time to set, particularly in small amounts like thin lines, designs, etc. Pop it in the fridge for a few minutes.

Gbear

I had a notion about doing this before and someone mentioned this website to me:
http://www.pimpthatsnack.com/

Here's a giant Cadbury's Cream Egg

Hopefully there's something there that might help you.
Do us a favour and take pictures!!

Tabitharose

Mr Price have bags of both Aero mint & orange balls. I picked up moulds in Dealz & I wouldn't use cooking chocolate - it'd be horrible IMO - I'd use proper chocolate - either milk or dark - lidl & aldi have good chocolate for a decent price

cobham

Get plenty of chocolate! I was surprised at how much was needed to coat a mould.... done in stages building up to a decent depth.

Bananaleaf

Good points! Okay lots of regular chocolate, melt down and a lot needed! Thank you!!

Tabitharose

was just in lidl earlier, buying chocolate for a cake I was making, they've a dark chocolate bar, with orange bits in it - thought it might be of interest to you