CHOCOLATE ORANGE HOT CROSS BUNS: Easter

A few years ago Jo Pratt posted this Easter recipe for Chocolate Orange Hot Cross Buns on  Mailonline. I've converted the measurements from the U.K. to the U.S. If you want to check out the original recipe with UK measurements, go HERE. Makes 12 buns. If you want to make hot cross buns and add chocolate without making a chocolate bun, you can make regular hot cross buns and add chocolate chips instead of raisins. But give this one a try.

CHOCOLATE ORANGE HOT CROSS BUNS

Ingredients
1/2 cup milk
4 Tbsp superfine sugar (castor sugar)
5 Tbsp unsalted butter
3 1/2 cups white flour
4 tsp dark cocoa powder
1 tsp mixed spice  (combo of allspice, cinnamon, clove, coriander, ginger and nutmeg)
1 tsp salt
2 1/2 Tbsp chopped mixed peel (candied citrus peel)*
Finely grated zest of 1 orange
1 3/4 fast action dried yeast
1/2 cup or 4 ounces dark chocolate, chopped, or chocolate chips
1 egg, beaten
Flour for dusting

For the Crosses and Glaze
1/4 cup white flour
1 Tbsp sunflower oil
2-3 Tbsp water
2 Tbsp orange juice
2 Tbsp caster sugar

Directions
Place milk in saucepan over low heat. Just before it boils, remove from heat and stir in sugar and butter, until dissolved. Add 1/4 cold water and leave to cool down until you can comfortably hold your finger in it for a few seconds.

Sift together flour, cocoa, mixed spice (if you're using it), and salt in large bowl and stir in mixed peel, orange zest, and yeast. Make a well in center and pour in warm milk mixture and beaten egg. Mix together until you have a sticky dough. Add chocolate chips or chopped chocolate, and knead on a floured surface for 8-10 minutes until smooth and elastic.

Place dough in large, lightly oiled bowl, cover with damp tea towel and leave to rise in  warm place for about 1 hour, or until doubled in volume. Punch dough and knead for a couple of minutes. Divide into 12 pieces and shape into buns.

Place on greased baking sheets, leaving enough space between each for rising. Cover with tea towel and leave to rise again until doubled in size – about 30 minutes. Preheat oven to 400 F.

For glaze, mix flour and oil with 2-3 Tbsp water until smooth.

Lightly cut cross in center of each of buns with knife to mark out your crosses. Using piping bag (or  plastic bag with corner snipped off), pipe on crosses. Cook buns for 15-18 minutes until golden and sound hollow when tapped underneath.

Place orange juice and sugar in small pan, and gently heat until sugar dissolves. As soon as  buns are out of oven, brush with glaze and leave to cool slightly on wire rack before serving warm.

CHOCOLATE COVERED STRAWBERRY 'CARROTS' IN CHOCOLATE DIRT

Photo Credit: Driscoll's

Searching for the Perfect Edible Easter Centerpiece? You've found it! These Chocolate Covered Strawberry 'Carrots' in Chocolate Dirt are adorable and easy to make. Thanks once again to Driscoll's Strawberries for the recipe and for their always perfect strawberries! These Chocolate Covered Strawberry Carrots in Chocolate Dirt are also great for a Spring Table!

This has to be the best presentation I've seen in awhile. I actually use these little tin buckets for my succulents, so I have plenty. Don't have tin buckets? You can use small mason jars.

CHOCOLATE COVERED STRAWBERRY 'CARROTS' IN CHOCOLATE DIRT

Pudding 
1 cup sugar
4 Tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp pure vanilla extract
8 ounces bittersweet chocolate
4 cups whole milk, divided
6 Tbsp cornstarch

Dirt Topping
2 cups chocolate wafer cookie crumbs (about 40 cookies) You can also use Oreos.

Strawberry Carrots 
1 package (16 ounces) Driscoll's Strawberries (the 8 largest from the package for dipping)
11 ounces white chocolate (make sure it's 'real' white chocolate--made with cocoa butter)
Gel food coloring (red and yellow)

Directions

Pudding 
In double boiler melt bittersweet chocolate. Set aside.
Whisk together 1 cup milk and cornstarch.
Bring remaining 3 cups milk, sugar, cocoa, and salt just to simmer over medium heat. Stir cornstarch mixture then add to milk mixture in saucepan and bring to a boil, whisking constantly. Cook 1 minute. Remove from heat and stir in melted chocolate and vanilla. Divide pudding between 8 food safe 6 oz stainless steel mini pail buckets or small 6 - 8 oz jars or glasses. Cover surface directly with plastic wrap to prevent skin from forming. Chill.

Preparing strawberries
Rinse and dry strawberries. You do not want water on the berries when you dip them in chocolate. For best results berries should be at room temperature for dipping to ensure that the chocolate will adhere to berry.

Melting the Chocolate 
To melt chocolate on stovetop, put white chocolate in double boiler (or saucepan over saucepan) over simmering water.

Dipping and Decorating
Line baking sheet with wax paper or parchment paper. Once chocolate has melted, add 4 drops of yellow gel food color and 4 drops of red food gel color and stir well until thoroughly blended into chocolate.
Holding strawberry by green leaves, dip it into chocolate swirling the strawberry until coated. Coat about 3/4 of the way up the strawberry leaving some strawberry showing. Shake off excess chocolate and place on prepared baking sheet to set.

After dipping strawberries, take remaining chocolate and gently reheat until fully melted again. Prepare pastry bag fitted with piping tip and fill bag with remaining chocolate. With berries lying on baking sheet, start at tip of each berry and pipe lines half way across strawberry, alternating starting from left, then right until up to chocolate line below the calyx (strawberry stem). Repeat with remaining berries. If you don't have a pastry bag, you can dip  fork into the melted chocolate and drizzle the lines on--or you can use a ziploc with corner cut out.
Place decorated strawberries in refrigerator until chocolate is firm.
Before serving, remove plastic wrap from pudding and sprinkle tops of each pudding with cookie crumbs.
Once finished, add chocolate covered strawberry to center. Serve immediately.

 

HOMEMADE CADBURY CREME EGGS

Do you love Cadbury Eggs? Are they a part of your Easter tradition? If they are--or you want to create a new tradition-- make your own Cadbury Eggs this year. So much fun!

Instructables has a great recipe for Homemade Cadbury Creme Eggs. I think they're really good. They're easy to make, although a bit time consuming. Even if they don't come out egg shaped, or the shell breaks, they're yummy! And, you can use good quality dark chocolate for even better flavor! 

HOMEMADE CADBURY CREME EGGS

Ingredients
1/2 cup Lyle’s golden syrup or light corn syrup
6 Tbsp unsalted butter, softened
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp pure vanilla
3 cup powdered sugar
yellow food coloring
12 ounces dark chocolate, chopped (or a bag of bittersweet chocolate chips)

The Filling:
Cream together corn syrup, butter, and vanilla. Sift in confectioner's powdered sugar and beat until incorporated. Separate filling into whites and yolks! Take out about third of filling and stir in some yellow food coloring. Put the two bowls in fridge to set up a little.

Shaping the Yolks:
This step is sticky! Keep your hands clean and cold. Make little yolk balls out of yellow mixture. Place them on parchment. Put them back in the fridge or freezer to firm up.
When yolks are set up, start embedding them in whites. Scoop an amount of white filling out and flatten it into circle. Place yolk ball inside, and wrap white around it. Put them in fridge.

Hint from Instructables: 
If you decide to use egg molds instead of dipping method, pipe whites and yolks into chocolate molds with  pastry bag. This would save a LOT of time. 

Filling the Molds 
Melt chocolate in double boiler or short bursts in the microwave. Fill molds with  chocolate and swirl to coat  sides. Once molds are set, put filling ball into half of each mold. Using more melted chocolate, join two halves of egg together. Let set and unmold. Use freezer to help set this up.

Alternative Method: If you aren't using molds, try this:
Melt chocolate + 2 teaspoons of butter in microwave in short bursts until just melted. Either dip fillings into chocolate with fork and let set on parchment, or skewer fillings and dip them --kind of like cake pops! Once chocolate is set, dip them again for a thick chocolate shell!

Want to see another recipe -- similar...always good to have two to compare! Check out Ashley Rodriguez's (Not Without Salt) adaptation of this recipe on Food52.

Or you can just buy some Cadbury Creme Eggs for Easter!

CHOCOLATE PEEPS FOR EASTER!

"Are You My Mother?"

Of all my childhood Spring Confection memories, PEEPS stand out. My sister and I still buy each other PEEPS around Easter, although we rarely eat the sugary marshmallow-y creatures any more. She buys me purple rabbits; I buy her classic yellow chicks -- the original PEEPS. You see where this is going? I'm a purist, but since this is a Chocolate Blog, I've made room in my Easter PEEPS inventory for Chocolate PEEPS.

So, PEEPS: You love them or hate them. People do all sorts of things with PEEPS, only some of which involve giving them to kids at Easter or eating them straight from the box. For me, it's the elastic quality of the "old" PEEPS that's fun for me--pulling them apart.

Chocolate PEEPS Bunnies off to work in the fields

Chocolate: The ultimate in the ever improving PEEPS. Chocolate-Covered PEEPS are available from the original company in both Dark and Milk chocolate. These are not the small peeps packed together in rows. No, these Chocolate Peeps come in individually wrapped packages, as well as in a three pack. Sadly, in the big ones, the cool sparkly coating of sugar is missing, and I think it would have been a nice buffer between the chocolate and marshmallow to make it stand out from the rest of the chocolate marshmallow candy.

However, the Chocolate Dipped PEEPS do have the sugar. I love the three pack of PEEPS Chocolate Dipped Chicks (both dark and milk chocolate), as well as the Dark and Milk Chocolate PEEPS Chocolate Dipped Mousse Flavored Marshmallow Chicks!

I'm a fan of Chocolate Eggs, and PEEPS has a very fun individually boxed hollow milk chocolate egg with a PEEP chick inside. Maybe it's been around for awhile, but I missed it.

And, just as an aside, Jacques Torres makes fabulous chocolate, and they sell Chocolate-Covered PEEPS. Their name: Chirp'N'Dales. They are adorable. Also, Asher's Chocolates makes Milk and Dark Chocolate Dipped PEEPS.

Other great uses for PEEPS:

1. Make PEEPS S'Mores, especially with the chocolate covered ones.
2. Plop a Chocolate Covered PEEPS down in your Hot Chocolate or Coffee.
3. Decorate cakes or cupcakes with PEEPS.
4. Create Your Own PEEPS Diorama.
5. Bake PEEPS in your brownies!

Want to make your own Chocolate Covered PEEPS using the original PEEPS?

1. Melt some good dark chocolate or milk chocolate (about 16 oz/depending on how many you plan to make)

2. Remove PEEPS from package. I would use Chicks since they're the original, but the other shapes (rabbits, etc) work well.
3. Insert a lollipop stick into the Peep. If you're using the chicks, put stick in the widest part (maybe this is why they're sideways standing up in the packaged ones--and why bunnies work better). 
4. Dip the Peep into the melted chocolate. Two choices: Either cover the entire Peep or just dip one end as you would chocolate covered strawberries. Be sure and let any excess drip off.
5. Put on wax paper covered plate or cookie sheet and freeze or refrigerate for 20 minutes. 

Question? When is a PEEP, not a PEEP? When it's Chocolate-Covered.

Chocolate Dipped Peeps complete the flock!