Chocolate Buttercream Eggs

My grandmother on my dad’s side, is 86 years young and she still can out dance and out party some people my own age. She gave my mother this chocolate Easter egg recipe over 40 years ago.

When I was a kid, we would go over to Mama and Papa’s house for Easter dinner. We would hunt for Easter eggs and win money! We would eat ham and jello salad. Then head home with these delicious, full of sugar, chocolate Easter eggs.

Eventually my mom took over the tradition of making the eggs for both sides of the family. There were a lot of eggs! My mom is trying real hard to pass on the tradition to one of her children. We have not taken the bait yet, unless of course me asking her for the recipe to do this post has somehow passed the torch to me without me realizing? Uh Oh!

The recipe is for a plain buttercream chocolate covered egg. Mama would sometimes make peppermint flavor, coconut, peanut butter and some had nuts. This post has the recipe for the vanilla buttercream and I have included steps for making the coconut and peanut butter eggs. To shake things up a bit, I will offer two other flavors in this post; amaretto and Chambord (raspberry).

These should remain refrigerated and will last a few weeks. Unless you are like me and have little self control for these eggs. I had a college buddy of mine eat an entire egg in one sitting. You’re talking 1/2 pound of butter and sugar! Although, I don't eat a whole egg in one sitting, I’m certainly not big on sharing.

My kids are 10 and 6. I don’t think they realize Grandpatti, my mom and egg maker extraordinaire, gives us a few eggs every year for Easter. I have hidden them in the fridge and eat them when they go to bed. Terrible parenting, or is it? I mean the Easter Bunny brings them candy and I am just saving them from more sugar ingestion. This makes room for more veggies!

However, they have seen me making the eggs for this post and I think that will mean there is no more hiding the buttercream goodness. Maybe I can get the Easter Bunny on the phone and ask him to bring less candy this year. Wonder if he will take my call?

PREPARATION TIP: If you choose to double or triple or quadruple this recipe, I suggest setting your egg making in stages. Prepare your buttercream centers one day, mold and cover with chocolate another day and decorate on the third day. These can be time consuming, easy but they do need a lot of love.

CHOCOLATE COVERED BUTTERCREAM EASTER EGGS:

Serving: 4 large eggs or 8 small eggs

1 pound of confectioners sugar (About 4 cups)

Pinch of salt

1 teaspoon of vanilla

1 stick of unsalted butter, room temperature

3-4 tablespoons of evaporated milk

1-11 ounce bag of semi sweet chocolate, melted to coat the eggs

In a stand mixer or with a handheld mixer, cream the butter, salt and vanilla for 3-4 minutes. Scrape the sides of the bowl every so often. Add a cup of confectioners sugar at a time. Mix well after each addition of sugar. Add a tablespoon of evaporated milk at a time. Beat for 2-3 minutes. You are looking for a stiff, moldable consistency in the buttercream.

Refrigerate the buttercream for 30 minutes or overnight before molding.This will make your life easier.

Portion out the buttercream to make 4-8 eggs. If you have a kitchen scale, weigh the batter and dived by how many eggs you want to make from each batch. This will ensure your eggs are evenly portioned. Mold them to look like eggs. Place each egg on a parchment lined baking sheet. Cover and refrigerate the buttercream for about 30 minutes or over night.

Use a double boiler to melt the semi-sweet chocolate. In a small sauce pan, bring about an inch of water to a simmer. In a small bowl that will fit inside the sauce pan without touching the water, add your chocolate chips. Stir the chocolate chips until the chocolate is almost all melted. Remove from the heat and stir continuously until the chocolate is smooth.

Remove the butter cream from the fridge and pour enough chocolate over top of the eggs to cover the buttercream. You can also transfer the buttercream to a cooling rack and pour the chocolate over top of the eggs. You wanna make sure you place a sheet pan or something underneath the cooling rack to catch any dripping chocolate.

Don’t worry about the eggs looking messy. Once the chocolate sets, you can trim up the sides. Besides, it’s homemade and not factory made.

Place the eggs back in the refrigerator to set the chocolate, 30 minutes or overnight.

Meanwhile, prepare your decoration frosting. See below for the recipe.

PREPARATION TIP: Leftover evaporated milk? Click here for some ideas for how to use left over evaporated milk. No need to let it go to waste. However, if you make 5 batches of these eggs and a batch of the buttercream decorating frosting, 1 can of evaporated milk will be just about gone.

BUTTERCREAM DECORATING FROSTING:

1/2 stick of unsalted butter, room temperature

1/4 cup of shortening, room temperature

Pinch of salt

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

2 cups of confectioners sugar

2-4 tablespoons of milk, or evaporated milk

Using a stand mixer or handheld mixer, beat the butter, shortening, salt, and vanilla for 3-4 minutes, scraping the sides every so often. Add a cup of confectioners sugar at a time. Mix well after each addition of sugar. Add a tablespoon of milk or evaporated milk at a time. Mix well and separate the frosting into small bowls. Add your favorite colors to each bowl. Prepare a few  piping bags with your favorite decorating tip and fill with each color of frosting.

PREPARATION TIP: Any leftover decorating frosting can be used as a filler for sandwich cookies. You can prepare the frosting up to a week in advance. You will have to bring the frosting to room temperature and give it a good stir before you are ready to frost. You can also store the filled piping bags in the refrigerator. Keep the filled bags in a closed container.

PEANUT BUTTER CREAM EGGS:

Use the buttercream egg recipe above and add a 1/2 cup of natural peanut butter. You will cream the peanut butter with the unsalted butter, salt and 1/2 teaspoon vanilla. You are adding more volume to the buttercream when peanut butter is added. This will make 5 large easter eggs and 10 small easter eggs.

COCONUT BUTTERCREAM EGGS:

Follow the recipe for the buttercream eggs. Fold in 2 cups of sweetened coconut to the mixture. You are adding more volume to the buttercream when coconut is added. This will make 5 large easter eggs and about 10 small easter eggs.

AMARETTO BUTTERCREAM EGGS:

Use the recipe for the buttercream eggs but replace the vanilla with 1 1/2 teaspoon of amaretto extract.

CHAMBORD CREAM EGGS:

Reduce the amount of evaporated milk to 1-2 tablespoons in the buttercream egg recipe, omit the vanilla and add 2 -3 tablespoons of Chambord Liquor (Raspberry Liquor).