Homemade peanut butter Easter eggs


If I haven't found the recipe for a creamy, smooth, perfectly-peanutty homemade Easter egg, I'm closer.

This recipe is from my sister-in-law, Gloria. I modified it slightly.

6 tablespoons butter, softened
1/4 cup creamy peanut butter
1/4 cup marshmallow cream
1 3/4 cups powdered sugar (See Note)
6 ounces semisweet chocolate chips
2 tablespoons shortening
Note: I needed only 1 1/4 cups of sugar. I think the amount you need depends on the room temperature and humidity when you make them. If the batter is too soft and won't hold together, add more sugar. If it's a good consistency after just a cup, leave it alone. More sugar means more sweetness overriding the peanut butter flavor.

Mix the butter, peanut butter and marshmallow cream together. Stir in 1 cup of powdered sugar. Add the rest of the sugar 1/4 cup at a time, mixing after each addition, until you reach a consistency you can mold into egg shapes.

Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and place it in the freezer for 10 minutes.

Remove the bowl and shape the "dough" into eggs. I got 19 eggs from three batches. (I did not triple the batches, but made them individually.) If you make them realy small, like two-bite eggs, you might get 12 eggs out of each batch.

Place the shaped eggs on a plate in the freezer for 10 more minutes.

In a bowl, place the chocolate chips and shortening. Microwave for 1 minute. Stir. Microwave for 15 seconds at a time, stirring after each cycle, until the chocolate is smooth. I took 1 minute 15 seconds for this.

Remove the eggs and dip them, one at a time, in the melted chocolate to coat them. If you do not have a candy-dipping fork, use a plastic fork and break off the middle two tines. Let the excess chocolate drip off. Place them on wax paper to harden completely. Store in refrigerator.

If you like, you can pipe flowers, names or designs on each egg in buttercream or royal icing. I realized my frosting technique is rusty.




Here's my half recipe for buttercream:

1/4 cup butter, softened
1/4 cup shortening
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups powdered sugar
2-3 tablespoons milk
Beat the butter and shortening together until creamy. Mix in vanilla. Add powdered sugar and beat until combined. Add milk, 1 tablespoon at a time, until icing is fluffy but thick enough to hold its shape when piped. Tint with your choice of gel food coloring. I was trying for light pink and peach. I failed.

This was my first attempt at making Easter eggs. I have another recipe for a coconut cream candy that would make a good egg filling.

Russell Stover Candy
(Mom's Coconut Bon-Bons)
contributed by Edna McCray of the 36th Street Church of Christ in Vienna, W.Va. to "Down Home Recipes"

1 can sweetened condensed milk
2 sticks margarine or butter, melted
1 to 2 boxes powdered sugar
4 cups coconut
Mix all ingredients together and chill.
Roll into balls (form into eggs). Chill again.
Coat with chocolate. (See above recipe.)

Happy Easter!

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