Mini Egg Cone-olis

It is amazing how crazy the stores get when there is a holiday.   I don't know if it is people getting ready for company or just the fear that the store is going to be closed for one day, but wow.   I need to remind myself of this each holiday and not go grocery shopping the day before.   I hate crowds when grocery shopping.    Being on mat leave is great because I can go during the day when it isn't that busy.  When working I try to go during the week at night, it is so much more relaxing to shop when it isn't busy.

What is my other favorite day to shop, today!  Half price Easter candy.  I scaled myself back this year and didn't buy as much as I usually do. I just picked up a couple bags on mini eggs which I immediately threw in my freezer for a rain day.  Or a day I want these Cone-olis again.

Mini Egg Cone-olis
(adapted from Food Network)

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 cup light ricotta cheese
• 1/2 cup cream cheese, at room temp
• 1/4 cup confectioners sugar, with some for dusting.
• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 1/2 -2/3 cup crushed mini eggs
• 5 sugar cones

 INSTRUCTIONS:
1) Place the ricotta in a sieve over a bowl and let drain in the fridge for at least a half an hour.
2) In a large bowl or mixer bowl, beat together cream cheese, ricotta, sugar and vanilla.
3) Fold in 1/2 cup of crushed mini eggs
4) Cover the mixture and place it in the fridge to thicken, min of an hour.
5) Place the mixture in a piping bag with a large circle tip and pipe into the sugar cones.
6) Decorate with more mini eggs and dust with confectioners sugar

Only fill the cones about 3-4 hours before you are going to eat them as they will softened

These are so simple, light and fun.   Oh the possibilities......

10 Days of Cookies - Day 6 & Cookies & Crafts for SHES

One of my favorite things about blogging is how we all come together to support each other and the community. Today's posts is in tribute to Sandy Hook Elementary School as part of Cookies and Crafts for Sandy Hook.  Many Bloggers are posting cookie or crafts recipes in tribute.  There are also several bloggers who have Etsy shops who are donating a portion of their proceeds today to Newton Youth and Family services. If you would like to a list of the Etsy shops participating check out the following link from Crazy for Crust - Etsy Shops.   I am on my way over to take a look and I hope you do to.

I choose this recipe because what kid doesn't love to eat cookie dough...and now they can.

Chocolate Cookie Dough Sandwiches

Cookie

• 1/2 cup (135 gr) butter
• 1/2 cup (125 gr) light brown sugar 
• 1/4 tsp salt 
• 1 tsp vanilla 
• 1 large egg 
• 1 2/3 cups (250 gr) unbleached all purpose flour 
• 1/2 cup cocoa powder 
• 2 teaspoon baking powder 
• 1 teaspoon espresso powder

Cookie Dough  (You will have extra dough to eat)

• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 can (14 ounces) fat-free sweetened condensed milk
• 2/3 cup crushed Hershey's Eggies or Cadbury Mini Eggs
• Coloured sugar for rolling 

INSTRUCTIONS:

1) Preheat oven to 350F. In a medium bowl sift together flour, cocoa powder, salt, baking powder and espresso powder
2) Combine butter and sugar in a large bowl/mixer bowl and beat together until creamy. Add egg, and vanilla, combine until incorporated
3) Add flour mixture to wet mixture, beating at medium speed until just combined.
4) Turn out cookie dough on to a lightly floured surface and form into a disc. Cover in saran wrap and refrigerator for an hour. If the cookie dough is too firm to roll, allow to soften slightly.
5) On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough to a 1/8 inch thick and cut into 2 ½ inch scalloped circles. Place a on a parchment/silpat lined baking sheet. Bake for 12 minutes. Cool cookies on a wire rack.

Make the cookie dough

6) In your mixer bowl or a large bowl, cream the butter, vanilla and brown sugar until light and fluffy.
7) Slowly add flour, alternately with condensed milk, beating well after each addition. Fold in the Eggies/Mini Eggs

8) Depending on what size cutter you use , will depend on how much cookie dough you use.  Make it about 1/4 inch thick.  Then roll in the coloured sugar. 

I love edible cookie dough.  It is so addicting.  I love how you can almost turn any dessert festive.  

MEG's RATING: D-EEEEE-LICIOUS!

This event is brought to you by: Hezzi-D's Books and Cooks, The Red Headed Baker, Real Housemoms, Crazy for Crust, Something Swanky, Life After Laundry, Two Kids Cooking, Frugal Foodie Mama, The Doctorate Housewife, Heather's French Press, Operation Dinnertime, Lovely Pantry, What's Cooking Love?, Cupcakes and Kale Chips, Occasionally Crafty, Pint Sized Baker, Pineapple and Coconut, Wine & Glue, Lemonsforlulu, A Sweet Baker, Mom On Timeout, The Freshman Cook, Sweet Twist of Blogging, A Family Feast, Julie's Eats & Treats, Eat at Allie's, Here Comes the Sun, The Kitchen is My Playground, Just My Crazy Kitchen, The Sweet Chick, The Tasty Fork, Wholly Delicious Dishes, Chocolate, Chocolate and more , Yours and Mine ARE Ours, Kitchen Meets Girl, Daily Dish Recipes, Sweet Bella Roos, Mom's Test Kitchen Persnickety Plates Food Done Light


Here are a few of Etsy Shops

Ashton Swank (http://www.somethingswanky.com)

On Friday, 12/21/12, the money from all orders I receive for blog designs will be donated to Newtown Youth & Family Services.

Becca Heflin (http://www.itsyummi.com)

In memory of the lives lost yesterday, and in an effort to help the families monetarily, I will be donating 50% of my personal commission from all sales of the online Pampered Chef party that my boyfriend (Brian Donovan) is currently holding, to the following organization: http://www.newtownyouthandfamilyservices.org/donate.php

Sales for the party will close at 6:00pm CST Saturday night. Your payment will not be processed until tomorrow or Monday at the latest, and your shipment will arrive in time for Christmas. (I can only accept orders for delivery within the contiguous United States) 

If you're interested in making a purchase, here is the link to the party's FB event page. Once there, you will see directions and a link to where you can order http://www.facebook.com/events/134060313417873/

Lisa Longley (http://www.wineandglue.com)

I will donate 100% of the profit from orders placed in my Etsy Shop, Hummingbird's View (http://www.etsy.com/shop/HummingbirdsView) on 12/21/12 to Newtown Youth & Family Services.

Heather (www.hezzi-dsbooksandcooks.blogspot.com)

I will donate 100% of the profits from all orders placed in my etsy Shop, HezziD's Baked Goods and Crafts (http://www.etsy.com/shop/HezziDBakesandCrafts) on 12/21/12 to the Newtown Youth and Family Services.

Emily Bruno (www.sweetbellaroos.com)

I will donate 100% of the sales of my 'Sandy Hook Hairbow' tomorrow to the Newton Youth and Family Services.  My goal is $260.  (https://www.etsy.com/listing/118584292/sandy-hook-hairbow-100-donation)

Ode to the Mini egg or Eggie - Part 3

I actually wasn't going to do a part three, at least not until my post Easter chocolate stock up.   Luckily I had some free time this morning before work and I happen to make it to a few stores.  Do you think I bought enough?  I am unsure (wink, wink).    I will let you do the counting but I stopped after 10.   Eighty percent of those bags have already made their way to the freezer, hidden underneath several items so sneaky Brad doesn't eat them like the Christmas peanut butter cups that have magically disappeared. Don't be surprised if you see me bake something with Easter eggs in July.

Anyway, I went out for dinner two weeks ago with some old co-workers and I was mentioning my new appreciation for Eggies.   One of them had no such appreciation, she was a Mini Egg fan all the way.  A week later she emailed me with a request for some Mini Egg cupcakes for her Easter dinner.   I jokingly said I would perform a secret switch and trick her with some Eggies to she if she really knew she difference.  Sneaky but I never did it.   Her request was vanilla cupcakes with chocolate icing and chocolate cupcakes with vanilla icing, both with some mini eggs on top.   To add even more Mini Egg intensity I chopped up some and added them in the vanilla cupcakes.  End result: super cute Easter cupcakes for dessert.

Sadly I never baked any extras for myself to enjoy but I will admit I did snack on several mini eggs.
Here is the end product.  Now if only she would send me a picture of her adorable son, Ronan eating a cupcake so I could add him to my blog.

Ode to the Mini egg or Eggie - Part 2

It is hard to go through an Easter season without seeing nest cookies with Mini Eggs/Eggies in them.   These cookies are classic and very cute.  Most people tend to make these using the haystack recipe using won ton noodles similar to my giant basket - Cake eggs in a Haystack basket.    I decided to make these little nests using a no bake oatmeal coconut cookies instead.   Just as easy to make,  easier to handle and shape and just as delicious.   The hard question is what chocolate egg to use.    Do I use Cadbury Mini Eggs or Hershey's Eggies?    In the past I have been a die hard Mini egg fan, no compromise possible.  After Christmas I went to buy my 50% off candy and only Eggies were available,  I was pleasantly surprised.    Eggies are quite good, they are a bit bigger than Mini eggs with the same great melt in your mouth milk chocolate and crunchy outer coating.  I now found myself to be milk chocolate candy coated egg neutral, a statement I never thought I would make.

What is your preference?  Are you a die hard to one or the other or can you be converted?

NO BAKE OATMEAL COCONUT COOKIES
- Thanks Mom for the recipe

INSTRUCTIONS:

• 1/2 cup butter
• 1/2 cup milk 
• 5 tbsp cocoa powder
• 1 1/2 cup granulate sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 1/2 cup unsweetened coconut
• 3 cups instant oatmeal
• Bag of Mini eggs or Eggies

INGREDIENTS:

1) Combine butter, milk, cocoa powder, salt and sugar in a sauce pan. Slowly bring to a boil, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon until sugar is dissolved 

2) Remove from heat and add coconut, vanilla and oatmeal - leaving 1 cup of oatmeal out, incorporating and covering all coconut and oatmeal. Add the remaining oatmeal if mixture, any additional if the mixture seems to wet. 

3) Scoop a heaping tablespoon on to a sheet with silpat and form into a ball and press down with the back end of a tablespoon to create an indent where the mini eggs/eggies will sit.  

4) Place 3 or 4  in the dent while still wet so that the mini eggs/eggies stick to the cookie as it dries. 

5) Refrigerate or put in a cool place to set and dry.

So easy and full of chocolate and nutty goodness.  They are also made with oats which makes them  healthier than your traditional cookie. Right? (wink, wink).   These cookies are great to make with kids, no baking and fun to put together.  You can also rest easy when all they want to do is snack on the batter, or you can just let them enjoy eating all the mini eggs/eggies in the process.  This recipe is no doubt a 5 E rating.  Just for the record I used Eggies this time around. 

MEG's RATING: D-EEEEE-LICIOUS!   

Ode to the Mini egg or Eggies - Part 1

I think if you were to ask people what is there all time favorite chocolate bar or treat, Mini eggs or Eggies would be high up on the list.  I know they are in the top 3 for me, along with Twix and Skor. The next few posts I am going to focus on using mini eggs/eggies into different treats, as they will also be sadly hard to find post Easter.  Thankfully Cadbury decided to sell Mini Eggs all year round catering to my chocolate fix.   Today's blog incorporates my new favourite kitchen tool - the ice cream maker attachment.   After my first successful attempt two weeks ago of Coffee ice cream, I now have the need to try so many more flavours.  I tend to however prefer frozen yogurt over ice cream when given the option so I though I would try that instead this time around.   This recipe uses Greek yogurt instead of regular yogurt.  If you haven't tried Greek yogurt in general I highly recommend it, along with having an excellent amount of protein, Greek yogurt is creamy and tangy and a great compliment to fruit and oatmeal.  This recipe has few ingredients and is quick to put together, aside from the freezing time.

Vanilla Frozen Yogurt with Mini Eggs or Eggies

INGREDIENTS

• 1/2 cup light brown sugar
• 2 tbsp light corn syrup
• 1/4 cup water
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 2 cups plain 0% fat Greek-style yogurt
• 1 cup well-shaken buttermilk
• 1 tsp vanilla bean paste
• 1 cup mini eggs, chopped

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• 
  
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• INSTRUCTIONS:
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• 1) Combine sugar, corn syrup, water, and salt in a small saucepan over low heat, stirring, until sugar has dissolved. Transfer to a large bowl and cool to room temperature, stirring occasionally. 
• 2) Whisk in yogurt, buttermilk, and vanilla and chill until cold about 3 hours.  

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• 3) Pour the mixture in your ice cream maker or attachment and follow maker instructions.   I used the kitchen aid attachment mixing on low for about 20-25 minutes, adding the mini eggs for the last 10 minutes.  Use a spatula to mix and scrape down the sides if needed. Transfer to an airtight container and put in freezer to firm up.

This frozen yogurt is definitely tangy and quite different from frozen yogurt in the stores.  If you are a big fan of Greek yogurt you will enjoy this.  The sweetness of the mini eggs offset the tanginess of the yogurt and give some more texture and crunch.  Different from the coffee ice cream when this was frozen it was really frozen and scraping out became a bit difficult.    Take it out of the freezer about 15 minutes before you want to eat to allow it to soften so it can be scooped.

MEG's RATING : D-EEE-LICIOUS


Stay Tuned for Mini Eggs/Eggies - Part 2