Cookie Dough filled Easter Eggs (vegan, gluten-free)
Ingredients:
Chocolate
250 gr of cacao butter, chopped in small pieces
180 gr of cacao powder
pinch of salt
150 gr of powdered coconut/cane sugar (simply grind the sugar in a blender or spice grinder until fine)
Plain cookie dough:
1/2 cup of coconut flour
2 tbsp of vanilla plant based protein
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup of cacao nibs or chocolate chips
1/2 cup of tahini or nut butter
1/4 cup of maple syrup or any other liquid sweetener
optional: add 2 tbsp of cacao butter. This will make the dough slightly harder and give it a velvety smooth chocolate taste.
Hazelnut cacao cookie dough:
1/2 cup of hazelnut flour (hazelnut blended until fine)
1 tbsp of vanilla plant based protein
1 tbsp of cacao powder
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup of cacao nibs or chocolate chips
1/2 cup of hazelnut/almond butter or tahini
1/4 cup of maple syrup or any other liquid sweetener
For the chocolate, if you have a high speed blender, place the cacao butter and blend until it starts to melt. Then add the rest of the ingredients until smooth. Make sure to not overheat the chocolate. If you have a normal blender, simply melt the cacao butter first over a bain marie (simply a glass or metal bowl over a pot of simmering water), then transfer to a blender and add the remaining ingredients.
Transfer to a glass or metal bowl and stir with a spatula to cool down the chocolate slightly (5/10 minutes). It’s a similar process to what chocolate makers do when tempering chocolate to reach that nice crunch and snap that we all love when we reach for a square.
Pour two tablespoons of the chocolate in each egg mould and gently rotate the moulds with your hands to evenly cover the bottom and sides. Repeat these for a couple of minutes to make sure you can get a thick enough chocolate coat on the mould. Pour the excess back in the bowl.
Place the mould in the fridge for the chocolate to set and make the filling.
Mix all the cookie dough dry ingredients in a bowl until combined. Add your liquid sweetener of choice and nut butter mixing by hand or with a spoon until the dough sticks together. If too dry, adds a splash plant milk. But you don't want if to be too sticky. Repeat the same for the hazelnut cacao cookie dough.
Once the chocolate is set, pour enough filling to cover half of the mould. Then, put back in the fridge to set.
Once it’’s hard to the touch, fill the rest of the mould with chocolate and place back in the fridge.
When the chocolate has harden up, gently flip the mould over a piece of parchment paper so the eggs can come out. You can slightly tap if they don’t slip out right away.
You can enjoy your eggs as they are or like I did, drizzle some more chocolate on top, sprinkle some coconut, chopped chocolate, cacao nibs, any topping you prefer and set one more time in the fridge.
Store in an airtight container outside in a cool place or in the fridge if you prefer the filling to have a firmer texture.
If you have any leftover cookie dough, you can roll it out to make cookies to set in the fridge or roll into cookie dough truffles and store in the fridge.
Notes: I suggest to powder the sugar first to give the chocolate a smoother texture.
Also, using a dry sweetener will give that chocolate that typical snappy texture that you get when you break a bar of chocolate or bite into it. Using a liquid sweetener will instead give the chocolate a soft, more truffle like consistency.
