The Raw Brownie Creme Egg

With the Easter bank holiday weekend almost open us, hello hot cross buns and lamb Sunday roast I thought it was about time I popped up this recipe which my rather wonderful fiancé created as a dessert on Valentines Day. Now to give you a bit of background on the creation of this recipe, someone (also known as me) was giddy about the arrival of creme eggs in the shops and had a craving for a creme egg brownie, something I'm yet to make, shocking I know. Craig took this on board and decided to make a slightly better for you alternative (thanks to Madeline Shaw) which tasted divine. I'll be frank, this recipe isn't for the faint hearted when it comes to a chocolatey pud - if you like your puds rich, decadent and overloaded with chocolate then this ones for you.

To make six portions you'll need:

150g of hazelnuts

150g of Medjool dates (these are the big chunky ones)

50g of raw cacao powder

3 tbsp coconut oil

A bag of mini eggs

3 creme eggs

First you need to make your raw brownie mixture so pop the the hazelnuts in a food processor or blender and blitz for 3 minutes. Next add the dates and cacao before slowly adding the coconut oil as the mixture is blending together. Give this a good few minutes to blend and voila your raw brownie mixture is good to go. 

Now are you ready to get messy? Unwrap your creme egg, grab a palm sized amount of raw brownie mixture and mould this around your creme egg. Think of the coating that makes up a Scotch egg and you'll be on the money. Repeat until you've covered each creme egg. Got some leftover mixture? Pop it to one side for now.

Next pop 3/4 of your bag of mini eggs in the food processor and blitz until they resemble pastel coloured pieces. Now put your mini mini eggs onto a plate add the brownied creme egg and roll until covered. Any mixture that is left over can be made into balls as pure raw brownie or can be used to covered any remaining mini eggs. Alternatively you could use the smaller sized creme eggs to make bite sized Easter celebration treats. 

Once all covered pop them into the fridge to set for around thirty minutes then get ready to enjoy. We sliced ours in half and added strawberries to balance the unhealthy/healthy scales and while I'm no food blogger in terms of photography you've got to admit this Easter egg looks pretty darn good. 

What will you be baking this Easter? 

The Twenty Minute Nutella Cookie

One thing I've recently found myself enjoying is baking - ever since I became pregnant I've found baking a good way to relax and even now Sadie is here I still enjoy whipping the odd recipe together while she naps. Now I'd never profess to being a Bake Off Queen as I'm just not that fancy but I'm more than down for the kind of baking where you throw everything together and get something rather scrumptious. Enter the twenty minute Nutella cookie, they're not the sexiest or most Instagramable bake you'll ever make but they taste rather awesome when you're craving something sweet and they're way nicer than those Nutella cookies you can get at Starbucks.

To make a bakers dozen you'll need:

1 large egg

70g plain flour

275g Nutella - yes that's a whole lot of Nutella

60g chopped nuts - I usually pick hazelnuts and they're always delish

Before you get to grips with your ingredients pop your oven on to 180 degrees or gas mark 4 and prep a baking tray with grease-proof paper, now you're ready to get cracking. First combine the flour, egg and Nutella in a large bowl and mix together with your spoon of choice until there's no floury lumps and bumps remaining. Next fold in your chopped nuts of choice, if nuts aren't your bag then give some chocolate chips a bash.

Now it's time to roll your dough into balls. I don't get too precious over the size but would say around 3cm in diameter as a rough guide as they seriously expand while they bake. Place your cookie balls onto your prepped tray leaving a 5cm space in-between each one.

Bake your cookies for ten minutes and leave them to cool before tucking in....if you can wait that long!

Do you find baking therapeutic? Do you dig Nutella as much as me?