Choc chip cashew oat cookies, and what to do with leftover chocolate Easter eggs.

With me going slightly overboard buying chocolate Easter eggs for my sons and friends, and our friends bringing more and more treats for us, we ended up with too much chocolate. My sons ate most of the little treats which come in big boxed sets (creme eggs, mini eggs), but don't fancy the actual chocolate shells. And I refuse to be a human bin and finish off all the leftovers.

Today we've had an incessant rain since the early hours, and as we're staying indoors, I decided we'd do some baking to cheer us up.

There are a few things which need using in the pantry, not just chocolate eggs. There was recently a ShowYourOats competiton run by Quaker Oats, which I've been entering most of the weeks. I've eaten so much porridge for that comp, that I think I can't stand the sight of it for a while.
Recently I bought a Meridian smooth peanut butter instead of the usual peanut butter, and according to my spoilt family, it is not smooth enough, argghh. And I don't even eat it neat, unless it's used in sweet or savoury dishes.
So, all this could be used in cookies.
And we have at least three Cadbury's chocolate eggs to deal with.

Choc chip cashew oat cookies
Ingredients:
100g caster sugar
100g margarine (Stork)
50g peanut butter
45g cashew nuts, blitzed into small crumbs
150g self-raising flour
1tsp baking powder
1 medium egg
40g oats (1 sachet of Original Quaker Oats)
100g Cadbury's chocolate (half of the bigger sized egg)

Cream the sugar with margarine in a deep mixing bowl, add the peanut butter and mix together. In a separate bowl blitz the cashew nuts into small crumbs (or just chop finely). Add the cashews, flour, baking powder, 1 egg, oats and chopped chocolate egg to the big bowl.
Mix well together.

Pinch a big walnut-sized piece of dough and roll it into a ball, then flatten and place the cookies on trays lined with parchment paper. Bake for about 12-15 minutes until golden at 180C. Don't overcook, they are still soft when you take them out.

My sons love cookies when they are still warm. I often bake different variations on the theme, with oats, different nuts etc.
That's only a half of one chocolate egg used. For inspiration I asked foodie bloggers what they do with the leftover Easter chocolate.
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If you have had enough of Easter chocolate eggs, and don't quite know what to do with all those Easter chocolate leftovers, here is a whole bunch of recipes for your delectation:

If you have leftover Creme Eggs, how about...

Cadbury Creme Egg Cheesecake at Dragons and Fairy Dust

Creme Eggs Monuts at Madhouse Family Reviews

Easter Chocolate Bark with Creme Eggs at Chez Maximka

Creme Egg Chocolate Brownies at FabFood4All

Mini S'More Brownie Cupcakes with Creme Eggs at Chez Maximka

Marshmallow Rocky Road with Mini Creme Eggs at Chez Maximka

Easter Fudge at Cooking With My Kids

Mini Eggs

Chocolate and marshmallow traybake with mini eggs at Chez Maximka

Mini Egg Rice Crispy Squares at Curly's Cooking

Mini Egg Chocolate Rice Crispy Cake at FabFood4All

Easter (Very Rocky) Rocky Road at Mrs H's Favourite Things

Any other chocolate Easter eggs

Salted Caramel Egg Brownies at The Baking Explorer

Galaxy Golden Egg Millionaire's Shortbread at The Baking Explorer

Leftover Easter Egg Chocolate Ice Cream at Tin and Thyme

Easy Chocolate Fudge Sauce at Charlotte's Lively Kitchen

and there's 7 Recipes to use leftover Easter chocolate at Free From Farmhouse

Well, that's a great lot of deliciousness, and I am tempted now to search the supermarkets for any more leftover Creme Eggs and Mini Eggs, just to try some of the recipes above.

Since I've used a few leftovers in the recipe, I'm adding this post to #KitchenClearout linky run by Cheryl at Madhouse Family Reviews.