I made my own chocolate Easter eggs with one major catch, only using things I had at home without heading to the grocery store.
What’s the first thing you think of when somebody says Easter? And you can be honest… it’s chocolate, isn’t it? Don’t worry, you’re safe here. The Christian and cultural holiday is celebrated by many, and part of those celebrations is enjoying good food, especially Easter eggs. Perhaps eating far more than you would if you were chowing down on chocolate bars. However, you’ll find that picking up a seasonal egg costs a lot more than your regular chocolate. I picked one up recently for the first time in years and was surprised by how much it was, and that got me to thinking…
How I made my own chocolate Easter eggs
Eating my first Easter egg in what felt like an eternity, I found there was a satisfying element that wasn’t there when I ate a regular bar. It took me back to my childhood a little, bringing to the forefront memories of waking up on Easter Sunday to an egg hunt around the house.
I hate to admit it but… I kind of wanted one more, but I wasn’t about to go out to the store and buy another. And why? Because I figured, confidently, I could easily make my own.
But could I make my own? There was only one way to find out, but to make it worthwhile, I told myself I’d only do it if I could use the resources I already had. If I went out to buy an Easter egg mold or order one online, I may as well just go by a chocolate egg and cut out the work. Of course, the key things you really need are a mold and chocolate. I had chocolate, but no mold.
I sat for a minute, then I realized that I did have one—well, sort of. I had just eaten an egg, and part of the packaging was some plastic to keep the egg in place in the box. If you search ‘Easter egg mold’ online and compare the two, you’re basically looking at the same thing, albeit one’s dressed up a little nicer.
I had my makeshift mold, I had my chocolate: I was set. With the tools and ingredients in place, I melted a big milk chocolate bar I had in the cupboard. The cheap kind, less than a dollar each. As I only had one mold, I’d be making one at a time, so I only melted one bar, saving a second one for later. If the first attempt worked out well, that is.
Breaking the bar up into small pieces, I microwaved the chocolate in a bowl for around 45 seconds and stirred the mixture. Once it cooled a little, I began coating both parts of the inside of the plastic mold with melted chocolate and smoothed them out with the back of a little spoon, all before putting them in the fridge to set for around half an hour.
Homemade chocolate Easter eggs results
Once set, getting them out of the molds was easy enough because the plastic was thin and flexible. Now I had two halves of an Easter egg shape, and what better way to get them to stick together than with more melted chocolate? Having some I’d previously melted earlier that was still gooey, I got to work, pressed the two halves together, and waited for the egg to set.
As I had some more chocolate to work with, I wanted to make the egg a little bulkier, so I began drizzling more melted chocolate onto the egg, smoothed it over with the back of a spoon, and quickly put it back into the fridge to cool in case it melted the egg.
While it was cooling, I decided I’d melt some white chocolate I had, which I could use to decorate. Once cool, I retrieved the egg from the fridge and, there you have it, I’d made my own Easter egg.
After that, you can decorate it any way you wish, but I decided to add some white chocolate lettering on one side. For this, I simply used the edge of a fork, basically using it like a pen I’ve dipped in ink.
Somebody else certainly could’ve done a better job of it, but at least it’s (barely) legible!
On the whole, it wasn’t all that time-consuming and it was satisfying cracking into the egg at the end, knowing I’d done it myself with a little bit of quick thinking and minimal resources. Next year, I’ll be doing the same—if you fancy giving it a try, it’s easy work and surprisingly quite fun, not to mention cost-effective.
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