Macaroons are an intensely sweet Scottish treat usually in the form of a bar, but as a fun Easter twist I've made an Easter egg version. Simple to make, with relatively few ingredients, the chocolate setting time is the longest part of the process.
You can let your creativity run wild with the decorating, and it's a great activity for kids too. I chose to create a selection, with some completely coated in coconut, others with bunny heads, and the rest piped with pretty icing flowers.
I've linked a pdf version of the recipe at the bottom of the page so that you can easily print off the recipe without all of the pictures or save it to your device.
The Recipe
Ingredients
200g white Chocolate
100g Dark Chocolate
100g White Chocolate
150g Unpeeled Potato (about 130g peeled)
750g Icing Sugar
100g Desiccated Coconut
125g Royal Icing Sugar
Gel Food Colourings (I used green, blue, pink, violet, yellow and orange)
Equipment
Egg Mould (my moulds had egg halves that were 6cmx4cm, making 24 halves)
Piping Bags
Small Round Piping Tip
Method
Roughly chop 100g of each of the chocolates and place in three heat proof bowls. Set one over a shallow pot of water, the water shouldn't touch the bottom of the bowl. Place on a low heat, try not to let the water simmer, you want to very gently melt the chocolate. Once melted, use the back of a spoon to spread a thin layer into one third of the moulds. It's best to do at least two thin layers, layering as the previous layer hardens, rather than one thick layer as the chocolate will pool at the bottom of the mould. Repeat with the two other chocolates so that you have three lots of chocolate eggs. Set aside to completely harden, leave them in the moulds.
Wash, peel and chop your potato. Boil till softened. Drain, mash then leave to cool. I found it easiest to mash the potato in a food processor, you want it as creamy as possible as you don't want any lumps of potato in your final eggs. A stick blender would also work well.
A third at a time, sieve in your icing sugar and work into the potato. I also did this step in a food processor, but you can also just beat it in with a wooden spoon. Once its all incorporated, taste it to see if the potato taste is completely gone. If its not, add a wee bit more icing sugar until its perfect.
Spoon into the chocolate shells, which should still be in the moulds. Gently push into the shells so that they fill the shape. Leave a lip of chocolate, as you will melt this to stick the two halves together.
Heat a frying pan on a very low heat. Pop out two halve eggs of the same chocolate and place open side down onto the pan. Let them melt a little, then lift them out and press the open sides together to create a whole egg shape. There will be a seem of chocolate that bulges out, leave this alone as you'll trim it later. Repeat with all the eggs and leave them to harden.
Once set, trim the seam of each egg using a sharp knife. Melt the remaining 1oog of white chocolate in the same way as before. Set your coconut in a bowl. Once the chocolate is melted but not hot (or you'll re-melt your eggs) use to decorate your eggs. You can dip some of the bases in the chocolate then coconut, coat others completely in chocolate then roll in coconut and pipe a bunny head on some then sprinkle coconut onto the design. You can decorate however you like!
Once they have hardened, you can start to pipe. Make your royal icing up to stiff peaks following your packs instructions. Separate out into bowls, one for each colour you are using and dye them. If you are a slow piper, or want to take your time, cover the colours you are not currently using in clingfilm, touching the icing so that they are not exposed to the air and start to harden.
It's easiest to pipe on the eggs if they are held still in an egg cup or somethings of similar size. I piped flowers by first piping stems of varying heights, some with leaves at the base, with green icing. Leaving this to harden then piping dots of yellow and orange icing for the centre of the flowers. Once these had hardened, I piped petals of various types. Some had eight petals, others I gave four big petals and others that I didn't give a yellow or orange centre too, I piped little balls of two colours to look like hydrangea flowers.
Once your designs have hardened, your eggs are ready to serve!
Notes
The quantities will differ based on the sizes of your mould. Most egg moulds will work, though it may be tricky with very small egg moulds, such as under 3cm. I found my mould made eggs that were very easy to decorate but were too big to be eaten by one person all at once (unless they have a very sweet tooth!).
If you want smaller eggs, you can make half eggs. Rather than sticking the two halves together, after you have filled the shells, melt some more chocolate and spread over the tops, spreading flat with a knife or palette knife. Leave to set then pop out to decorate.
You can decorate these eggs however you like, if you're short on time then I suggest you stick to the coconut rather than piping.
You can temper the chocolate if you want as this will create a shinny chocolate shell with a good snap. I chose not too as it takes some time and patience and I think the decoration makes them very attractive without the need for tempering.
If you prefer, you can make the eggs all with one type of chocolate, just have 300g for the eggs and 100g for decorating.
If you have any questions or comments about the recipe then please add them below. If you make these Easter eggs then I'd love to see them! On Instagram tag @bake_a_day_of_it
Happy Easter!
pdf of recipe: