Recipes

Chocolate Almond Cookie Eggs Recipe

A delicious, eye-pleasing Easter treat inspired by Nordic culture and the promise of spring

By Josh Murray /

A delicious, eye-pleasing Easter treat inspired by Nordic culture and the promise of spring

Gorgeous nature-inspired treats and innovative recipes arrive just in time for Easter as part of the new cookbook Bakeland: Nordic Treats Inspired by Nature by designer, writer and Instagram expert Marit Hovland. In it, she shares recipes that celebrate Nordic culture and cuisine, season by season. Including this beautiful how-to for spring.

“The birds are chirping, and you can tell they’re happy spring is here. The siskin, a European finch, lays especially pretty eggs—white or light blue with brown speckles. I make the spots on these egg-shaped cookies with the help of a toothbrush and some cocoa powder. Covered in lemon icing, they’re just right for the season.

“These chocolate-filled eggs make perfect Easter gifts. Save an empty egg carton and cover the label with fancy paper. Place a cookie egg in each dimple and tie a ribbon around the carton. Pick a small twig of pussy willows and attach it to the outside along with an Easter card.”

ALMOND COOKIE INGREDIENTS

  • 1¾ cups almonds
  • 1? cups icing sugar
  • 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
  • Zest of 1 lemon
  • 1 egg white
  • 2 tablespoons lemon juice

Chocolate filling

  • 5 ounces of milk chocolate

Lemon icing

  • 2 tablespoons lemon juice
  • 1¼ cups icing sugar
  • Blue liquid gel food colouring

Spots

  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 teaspoon unsweetened cocoa powder

INSTRUCTIONS

  1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
  2. Grind the almonds in a nut grinder. In a bowl, stir together the ground almonds, icing sugar, flour and lemon zest. Add the egg white and lemon juice. Using your hands or the dough attachment of a stand mixer, work the dough well until all the ingredients are combined.

  3. Roll out little balls (around 2 teaspoons) of the almond dough. Narrow them at one end so the balls form an egg shape. Flatten the balls onto parchment paper and then transfer to the prepared baking sheet.

  4. Bake the cookies for about 8 minutes on the middle rack of the oven. Transfer them to a wire rack to cool.
  5. Temper the chocolate and transfer to a piping bag.
  6. Find pairs of cookies that fit together.
  7. Pipe out some chocolate onto one of the cookie bottoms and place the other cookie on top. (Don’t pipe the chocolate all the way to the edge. When you put on the lid, the chocolate will inevitably be squeezed a little further out.) Repeat with the remaining cookies.
  8. Prepare the lemon icing. In a bowl, stir together the lemon juice and icing sugar. Divide the mixture into two parts and add the blue food colouring to one part, using a drop at a time until it’s the colour you want.
  9. Dip one side of each cookie in the lemon icing. Shake it well before you turn it over and set it down to dry for half an hour. Use the white icing for half the cookies and blue for the other half.
  10. In a small bowl, stir together the vanilla extract and cocoa for decorating.
  11. Dip a clean toothbrush in the cocoa mixture. Drag your finger over the brush to spray spots onto the cookies. You can also use any other small brush with stiff bristles.
  12. Let the icing harden completely before you put the cookies in an air-tight container.
 

Excerpted from Bakeland: Nordic Treats Inspired by Nature by Marit Hovland. Copyright © 2018 Marit Hovland. Photography copyright © 2018 Marit Hovland. Published by Greystone Books Ltd. Reproduced and condensed by arrangement with the Publisher. All rights reserved.