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.

Marshmallow rocky road with mini creme eggs

Last Thursday our Sasha arrived from school with a package of sweet treats they've been making at the food tech lesson. There were a couple of chocolate rice krispie eggs and a few slices of rocky road with marshmallows and creme eggs.
Sasha generously shared these delicious goodies with his brother. After gobbling up a big slice of rocky road, Eddie looked at me and asked if we could make some at home.

While I don't know exactly which proportions and ratio of chocolate to marshmallow and biscuits were in Sasha's school (I must ask them), I had a quick look online, and realised there are no rules. Basically, chuck in whatever you like, from nuts to dried cherries or cranberries, use more butter or even condensed milk, experiment with different biscuits and brands of chocolate.

When I asked Eddie what he would like in our rocky road, he vetoed raisins or any other dried berries and nuts too. I would have loved both, but then it was a fun activity for him and me to do on a rainy day.

Marshmallow rocky road with mini eggs
Ingredients:
140g unsalted butter
150g milk chocolate bar
1 Cadbury milk egg - 105g
100g dark chocolate
3tbsp golden syrup
2 bags of mini creme eggs (89g each)
100g mini marshmallows
155 digestive biscuits (a dozen of biscuits)
50g white chocolate

Start by melting the butter and chocolate. You will need a pan with boiling hot water underneath a glass or ceramic container where the chocolate goes. The top container should not touch the hot water.
First goes the butter, so that it starts melting before you add the broken chocolate and golden syrup. It prevents chocolate from going grainy. Mix it all with a wooden spoon until thick and glossy.

Set the container aside to cool before adding the remaining ingredients. If you add the marshmallows while the chocolate is hot, they will melt.
Once cool enough, add the biscuits, broken into small pieces, marshmallows and half of creme eggs, also chopped.
At this stage you can add whichever other ingredients you fancy - dried berries, nuts, mini eggs, smarties etc.

Line a deep tray with cling film, scoop the rocky road into the tray and flatten with the spoon.

Melt half a white chocolate, and make the splats of it over the rocky road. We didn't go for artistic drizzle, as I was going to press it all in anyway. Add the halved mini creme eggs.
Cover with the film, and press all over.

Set the tray in the fridge for at least a couple of hours, ideally overnight.

Cut into chunks before serving.

While a satisfying sweet treat for anyone who has a sweet tooth, MasterChef it is not. We didn't aim for a perfect presentation, and could hardly wait for it to set.
I started cutting it after an hour and a half in the fridge. It would benefit from a longer stay in the fridge.

Eddie ate his big piece and then asked me: "On the scale from 1 to 10, how would you grade our rocky toad and the one that Sasha brought home?" This was his "cunning" way to tell me that our rocky road was not as good as Sasha's. Oh well, harsh critics in the family.

This is a good way to use any leftover Easter eggs. And yes, such thing does exist, if you receive over a dozen of chocolate eggs for Easter (friends, family, school).

Easter chocolate bark with creme eggs

One of the easy holiday projects for today was to make a batch of Easter chocolate bark. We went to Poundland on Saturday to buy different kinds of confectionery including jelly beans, mini chocolate eggs and Skittles. When I started getting all the sweet stuff out today, I realised that all the Skittles were gone. Tut tut, I haven't even noticed when they gobbled them all up.

We had Cadbury creme eggs and Maltesers at home, just perfect for the project.

You will need 400g milk/dark chocolate and 100g white chocolate, plus lots of different sweets for decoration.

Line a baking tray with foil (or parchment paper. Break the chocolate - we used a mix of milk and dark - into a medium sized bowl. Place the bowl in the oven preheated to 150C for about 5 minutes, until all the chocolate has melted.

Pour the chocolate onto the foil, and shift the tray a bit from side to side, so that the chocolate is spread evenly.

Start adding decorations - first the halves of creme eggs, then whatever sweets you fancy.

Put the white chocolate in the bowl and place it in the oven preheated to 150C. Once it's melted, use a spoon to drizzle the white chocolate over the bark.

Leave to set at a room temperature, then break into shards.

It is supposed to keep up to two weeks in a closed container, but it won't last that long in our house.

I thought only Eddie would be excited about making Easter chocolate bark. But our Sash wanted to join in as well.

March Degustabox

"Oh Mummy, look, chocolate!!! And Jelly beans too!"

We are always looking forward to our Degustabox delivery, which arrives every month and is full of foodie surprises. This monthly food and drink subscription box is an excellent way to discover products which have only just appeared in the shops or those which might have been around for while, but you haven't had a chance to try them yet.

Thanks to Degustabox, I have found new favourites to add to our shopping list, including some products which I probably wouldn't have tried otherwise.
For example, after sampling Little's Vanilla-flavoured coffee in one of the previous food boxes, I am now quite addicted to this lovely instant coffee. I drink it every day now.

Each time the box arrives, it's a total surprise, as you don't know what you might find there. You get a good selection of foods and drinks.

If you haven't tried Degustabox subscription box yet and would like to have a go, I have a whopping £7 off discount from your first box (and you can unsubscribe any time) - just use a code 8EVI8 when you place an order.

What did we receive in March Degustabox? Let's have a peek.

£onepounders are a range of over 65 popular confections including chocolate, toffee, fudge, mints, gum and jellies all priced at £1. This is the first time we have tried this brand - we received a packet of chocolate eclairs. These candies are not the best chocolate eclairs I have ever tried, but for a pound worth there was quite a lot of them, and my sons enjoyed them.

More confectionery - there were two Cadbury Dairy Milk Oreo bars. We have already discovered a Peanut butter-flavoured chocolate bar.

You get a generous layer of peanut butter filled with big crumbs of Oreo cookies. If you like Oreos and peanut butter, you'll love this chocolate bar.

We're not the biggest fans of minty chocolates, and so far haven't sampled Mint-flavoured Oreo chocolate bar,

The Jelly Bean Factory is a classic brand of jelly beans. The 75g Fairtrade box contains 36 gourmet flavours of jelly beans. Each gourmet jelly bean is made using natural flavours, no artificial colours and are gelatine-free, gluten free and Vegetarian Society UK certified.
Jelly beans are our favourite cupcake and cake decorating material (see my posts for Vanilla Cupcakes with Jelly Beans and Festive star cookies).

Moving onto healthier part of the food box - Whitworths Full of Super Cacao Raw Bars are crammed with almonds, flakes of coconut, chia seeds, golden flax seeds, quinoa and acai. They are a natural source of thiamine which helps to maintain energy, gluten free, no soy and suitable for vegetarians. It contains 187kcal per two pieces.
I do love nutty bars, but as for chia seeds and quinoa, they are quite an acquired taste.

Weetabix On The Go are breakfast drinks which were created as a convenience breakfast, when you don't have time to stop and sit at the table for a bowl of cereal and a cup of tea/coffee.
They have the same energy, fibre and protein as two Weetabix biscuits and semi-skimmed milk.
I know protein drinks and smoothies are very trendy these days, but I'm an old-fashioned girl and prefer a cup of tea and something to bite. I gave these drinks to a friend.

Rebel Kitchen Chocolate Mylk is a dairy free organic coconut milk drink with cacao. It received a Great Taste award in 2014. At 52kcal, it makes a perfect chocolatey boost for anyone who counts calories.
It has no refined sugar, no additives or preservatives, it's vegan and non-GMO. But I still don't know why it's called Mylk.

Gusto Organic Lemon Energy drink is an energising blend of whole crushed Sicilian lemons, Amazon guarana, Siberian ginseng and wonder herb astralagus. It is a tasty refreshing grown-up drink. Gusto Lemon Energy is sweetened with agave nectar, apple and grape juice.

Two ciders are included in the alcohol version of the Degustabox. This Pure Hopped Cider is a collaboration between Westons Cider and Purity Brewing, and has a hoppy aroma with a well-balanced smooth taste.
Made in small batches, the Caple RD Dry is matured for up to 18 months and is a complex cider with a crisp powerful finish.
If you're not a fan of cider as a drink, you can always use it as a great ingredient in cooking - from chicken with cider and cream sauce to cider pound cake.

Naturelly is a refreshing juicy jelly snack, something between a drink and a jelly. It has a 100% recommended daily intake of vitamin C and is suitable for children aged 12 months +. It contains no added sugar or sweeteners.

Pipers Crisps make "Crisps as they should taste". Burrow Hill Cider Vinegar & Sea Salt flavoured crisps are made with cider vinegar using old fashioned English apple varieties such as KIngsotn Black grown in Burrow Hill in Somerset. I think this flavour would appeal more to grown-ups.

Heinz [Seriously] Good Sauces is a range of sauces for quick and easy meals. We got a jar of Creamy Tomato & Garlic Sauce. It has a creamy and smooth texture, and is suggested to be used as a sauce for chicken.
Degustabox flyer has a recipe for Spanish chicken and manchego, where you marinade chicken breasts in Heinz [Seriously} Good sauce.

The product which I got most excited about is Maldon Smoked Sea Salt.
Maldon sea salt is one of my most favourite brands. Their sea salt is of superior quality.

Smoked sea salt flakes are gently smoked over oak to add a rich, sophisticated flavour to any dish.

The sea salt flakes are quite big in size, as you can see from the photo.
It's an excellent product, which adds a unique smokiness to cooked meals.

I used it already in a few different meals, including Tuna stir fry with exotic mushrooms.

Disclosure: We receive the monthly Degustabox for the purposes of testing and reviewing. All opinions are our own.

Mini s'more brownie cupcakes with Creme Eggs

When it comes to Creme Eggs, our family is split quite unevenly. They are way too sweet for me, but my boys and husband are always happy to eat a Cadbury Creme Egg. So that makes 3:1 in favour of these classic gooey treats.
In the lead up to Easter, Cadbury has joined forces with Rinkoffs Bakery to create irresistible dessert recipes, using creme eggs.
The Creme Eggs have been back on shelves nationwide and are only available until Easter.

Creme egg fans can enjoy their favourite Easter treat as an ingredient in scrumptious Easter dessert recipes. I knew that my family would approve of the creme eggs-topped brownie cupcakes.

Mini s'more brownie cupcakes with Cadbury Creme Eggs (recipe courtesy of Rinkoffs Bakery)
Ingredients:
125g dark chocolate (70% cocoa solids)
100g unsalted butter
125g light muscovado sugar
2 large free range eggs
75g plain flour, sifted
1/4tsp sea salt
for the marshmallow topping:
1 tub of marshmallow fluff roughly 10g per cupcake (you will have fluff left over)
12 Cadbury creme eggs, crushed into pieces (I used 4 creme eggs, and that was plenty)

Method:
1. Heat the oven to 180C/160C fan/350F/gas 4. Melt the chocolate and butter together in a large saucepan over a low heat. When completely melted, stir in the sugar, then the eggs one by one. Fold in the flour and salt, and then spoon into the cupcake cases so they're nearly full.
2. Pipe the fluff onto each cupcake and bake in the centre of the oven for 12 minutes. Leave to cool. Once cooled, add the crushed creme eggs on top.

I didn't pipe the marshmallow fluff, just spooned it over each cupcake. Also I didn't add it before baking, as it would have been too crispy. I added it in the last five minutes of cooking, plus placed the cupcakes with  broken pieces of creme eggs on top for another minute in the oven to soften and melt them.

As I imagined, I was a very popular person today. These brownie cupcakes are a lovely seasonal treat, great with a cup of tea or coffee.

For a full range of Cadbury seasonal treats, check out Cadbury Gifts.

Disclosure: I received a selection of creme eggs and a voucher to buy ingredients for testing the recipe. All opinions are our own.

Cadbury Cadvent Christmas Knitwear Collection

"Best chocolate ever" (Eddie after eating a Cadbury Dairy Milk Snow Ball)

A family of chocoholics, we can't imagine a festive season without chocolate treats and gifts. Cadbury chocolate is one of our family favourites. A tub of Roses doesn't last very long here, a chocolate bar disappears faster than you can say "a chocolate bar".

There is a wide selection of Cadbury festive treats - from Dairy Milk buttons to Winter edition bar, from Snow Bites to Snow Balls etc - so there is something for everyone's taste.

Cadbury Dairy Milk Snow Balls are chocolate shells filled with creamy and smooth vanilla mousse. Eddie has been rhapsodical about it since he tried it first a while ago. I believe there was an Easter equivalent of snow balls. When we travelled to Italy at Easter, I took a couple of packs with us as gifts for extended family.
My older son is very partial to Cadbury Dairy Milk Winter Edition bar - which is a combination of milk and white chocolate, interwoven into a pretty pattern of Christmas trees.

If you're a fan of Cadbury or are looking for a Christmas gift for a chocoholic in your life, you might be excited to discover that Cadbury has launched a new range of Cadvent Knitwear Collection.
The range includes a Cadbury Festive Scarf, a Cadbury Festive Jumper and a Cadbury Festive Hat.
And these are not simple jumper, hat and scarf, they have pockets and brims where you can hide your favourite chocolate treats. How cool is that?!

Imagine yourself skating on the ice rink, and nibbling on a favourite chocolate?!
Many years ago, when I was 10-11, I used to go skating with a friend. The temperature would have been well below zero. We carried chocolate truffles with us, and when we took them out of pockets to eat on the rink, the chocolate was as hard as rock in the cold. Still, those were the best times. And priceless memories.

The knitwear looks cosy and soft, with a familiar logo and snowflakes pattern. You can make a gift hamper with hot chocolate, chocolates and knitwear. I'm sure any Cadbury fan would be pleased to receive such a gift for Christmas.

Cadvent Christmas Knitwear Collection/Image credits - Cadbury

Cadvent Christmas Knitwear Collection/Image credits - Cadbury

Disclosure: We received a selection of Cadbury chocolate as a Thank you for mentioning the new knitwear range on the blog. All opinions are ours.