How To | Make Chocolate Easter Nests

I know this isn't the healthiest of recipes, however, Easter is just around the corner and this is a pretty quick, fun and simple thing to make, especially for those of you with a sweet tooth, but hate the hassle of baking. This is also a great thing to do with your kids, or nieces and nephews or even younger brothers or sisters. 

You may even be baby sitting someone's child and stuck for things to do to keep them entertained. There's very little heat involved, but if you do decide to involve children, keep them away from stages that involve hot water or fire (I'm sure you all know this anyway :) ).

Without anymore dillydallying, I will tell you what you need in order to make these cute little nests in the run up to Easter :) 

Time to Prepare: Approx 25-30 Minutes

Time to Set: Approx 1-1.5 Hours (depending n temperature of your fridge)

Serves: 12 (depending on portion/spoon sizes)

Ingredients 

- Chocolate Bar of your choice (200g)

- Shredded Wheat (Approx 83-86g) BUT you can use Cornflakes or Rice Crispies instead

- Mini Eggs (1.5-2 small bags)

- Mini Marshmallows, Raisins etc (optional)

Equipment

- Large glass bowl

- Large saucepan

- Scales

- Bowl to weigh out ingredients

- Cupcake/Muffin tray

- Cupcake cases

- Wooden spoon

Step 1: Weighing Out & Heating Up The Chocolate

Firstly, you need to weigh out the chocolate. I find it best to break the chocolate up into chunks before allowing it to melt as I feel it melts a lot smoother and quicker this way, however this is up to you. 

Once you've done that and you're happy that you have the right amount of chocolate ready, you can prepare to melt the chocolate. 

You can melt the chocolate in the microwave but I don't recommend it. The way I have always done it is to place some (nearly) boiling water in a saucepan and put it on an extremely low heat on the stove, I then place a large glass bowl over the top of it and put the chocolate in there. The heat from the hot simmering water will melt the chocolate nicely. 

PLEASE NOTE: Do not attempt to melt the chocolate in a saucepan, if you do this the chocolate will burn and crystallise and in turn will taste awful.

Once your chocolate looks like this, take it off the heat but don't take the bowl away, leave it sat over the hot water, if you don't, the chocolate will harden and it will be a lot harder to mix in the shredded wheat. Make sure the chocolate is kept warm while you prepare and mix in the cereal :) 

Step 2: Weighing, Preparing & Mixing In The Shredded Wheat

Weigh out the shredded wheat, you can started crushing it in the bowl with a fork or a spoon but I didn't do that as the bowl I used to weigh them out was too small. Instead, I used my hands and crumbled them into the chocolate. This was much less time consuming and surprisingly a lot less messy. Of course, if you used Cornflakes or Rice Crispies then you can skip the 'crumbling' stage and simply pour the cereal straight in.

Again, leave the chocolate on the heat while you mix it in, it's a lot easier to stir and you can then cover every strand of shredded wheat in chocolate (there's nothing worse than finding a dry bit of cereal in the middle of a nest).

Once your mixture looks something like this, you can choose to add more cereal or more chocolate if you so wish and use your personal judgement to assess how much more you need. But, if you feel this is ok, then now is the time to take the bowl off the heat and mix in any added extra ingredients if you have any (e.g. marshmallows etc). I haven't added anything else into my mixture, but you can if you want to :) 

Step 3: Spooning The Mixture Into The Cake Cases

take your Cupcake tray and fill it with your chosen cupcake cases. I find cupcake cases to be just the right size, muffin cases are too big for my liking as chocolate nests have a tendency to be slightly sickly so you don't want one that's too big.

Once the cases are firmly in place, you can start to spoon the mixture, be as generous as you like.

Step 4: Adding The Mini Eggs

Don't wait for the mixture to harden before adding the eggs, if you do it at this stage, the chocolate will help set the eggs in place and they shouldn't move around or become loose. Don't leave the mixture too long or it will harden slightly, making the process of adding the eggs slightly more fiddly and potentially messy.

Step 5: Let Them Set

I would put them in the fridge for a while to allow them time to set properly. A nest is supposed to be crunchy, so let them harden properly and don't be impatient. Once you've left them in the fridge and they have set properly, then take them out and place them in a room that is a comfortable temperature, and let them warm up slightly. 

Step 6: Enjoy

Once they're a nice temperature and not so cold anymore, feel free to try one. They make for an easy, festive pudding or, if they're small enough, you could put them in your child's lunch box as a little treat. No matter what chocolate you used, they will taste insanely delicious.

That's it from me for this Sunday guys, I will see you again on Wednesday with a brand new post for you all :) 

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DISCLAIMER

I have not been paid or sponsored to write this specific blog post. All views and opinions are my own. I am not affiliated with any companies that may be mentioned in this blog post. All photographic content is my own. No Copyright infringement intended.