Chocolate Easter Nests

I love quick and easy recipes, and these Easter nests are super yum, impressive and quite easy to make. I’m starting by making almond brittle, which tastes like the croquant eggs you get for Easter. Then I cover the cooled almonds in chocolate and shape them like little nests. After decorating them with festive Easter sprinkles, they need to set for a good hour in the fridge.

These nests are best made with chocolate ‘couverture’ (Kuvertüre) – which is a special baking chocolate. Thanks to its higher fat content, it sets without the need of chocolate tempering. So you get a glossy finish without the tedious work of tempering.

If you don’t mind a more matte finish on your nests, you can simply use normal chocolate, melt it and mix it with the croquant almonds. The perfect use for any leftover Easter chocolate!

And a note on the almonds: If you don’t feel like making croquant, you can simply use toasted almonds, or use cornflakes, rice crispies or broken pieces of Salzstangen instead.

Happy Easter everyone!

Ingredients

30g butter
50g sugar
100g almond slivers
a pinch of salt

45g candied orange peel
200g chocolate couverture or leftover Easter chocolate (dark or milk)*

To decorate:
15 mini chocolate Easter eggs
sprinkles

Method

Makes 15

Lay out a piece of baking paper on a baking tray.

Melt the butter in a frying pan and add the almonds, sugar and a pinch of salt. Fry on a medium heat, stirring constantly, until the sugar has melted and the almonds are golden – this takes about 4 minutes.

Put the nuts on the baking paper and spread them as much as you can to separate them. Leave to cool completely.

Once cool, break up the candied almonds so most of them don’t stick together anymore and put in a large bowl. Finely chop the candied orange peel add to the bowl with the candied almonds.

Melt the chocolate in a saucepan over a bain marie. Pour the melted chocolate in the bowl with the almonds and mix well so all the almonds are covered in chocolate.

Lay out two pieces of baking paper on two plates. Put little mounts of chocolate almonds on the baking paper, stick a mini chocolate Easter egg in the middle of each and decorate with sprinkles.

Put the chocolate nests in the fridge so they can set for about an hour.

Once set, remove the nests from the baking paper and store in an airtight container in the fridge for a week.

TIP: You can skip the caramelizing and just toast almond sticks, or use cornflakes, rice crispies or broken pieces of Salzstangen instead.

*These nests are best made with chocolate ‘couverture’ (Kuvertüre) – which is a special baking chocolate. Thanks to its higher fat content, it sets without the need of chocolate tempering. So you get a glossy finish without the tedious work of tempering.
If you don’t mind a more matte finish on your nests, you can simply use normal chocolate, melt it and mix it with the croquant almonds. The perfect use for any leftover Easter chocolate!