Creme Egg season is upon us – and nothing, and we mean nothing, is going to stop us from indulging in such gooey chocolatey goodness this year. Let’s face it, the start of 2020 has been stressful.
Cadbury unveiled its Creme Egg Cookbook back in March, with 60 delicious recipes. There’s Creme Egg sourdough toast, pavlovas, biscuits, cakes and brownies – it’s a serious sugar crash waiting to happen.
The chocolate brand has teamed up with Great British Bake Off quarter finalist Martha Collinson and cake designer Georgia Green to create the treats.
Here are three dishes to sink your teeth into.
Creme Egg Dodgers
Makes: 10 | Prep time: 30 mins | Cooking time: 15 mins
Ingredients:
For the biscuits:
- 150g self raising flour
- 50g plain flour
- 125g caster sugar
- 125g butter
- 50g cocoa
- 1 egg, lightly beaten
- 1 tsp vanilla essence
For the buttercream:
- 75g butter, softened
- 150g icing sugar
- 1 tsp milk
- 1 crème egg.
Method:
1. Preheat the oven to 180°C/fan 160°C/gas 4 and line two baking sheets with baking parchment. Put the self-raising flour, plain flour and sugar in a food processor and whizz briefly to combine.
2. Add the diced butter and mix again until it resembles fine breadcrumbs. Add the cocoa powder, egg and vanilla essence and pulse until the mix starts to come together. Tip the mix onto a lightly-floured surface and gently knead together to form a smooth dough.
3. Roll out to the thickness of a £1 coin then cut out eggs using an egg-shaped cookie cutter (9cm x 7cm) and place on the baking sheets. Using a small cutter cut out an egg shape from the centre of half the cookies. Re-roll the scraps of dough and continue to cut shapes until you have 20 cookies.
4. Bake in the oven for 15-18 minutes until crisp and have darkened slightly. Remove the cookies from the baking sheets and leave to cool on wire racks.
5. For the buttercream, beat the butter with a handheld electric whisk to soften, then gradually add the icing sugar, beating well between each addition until soft and smooth. Add the milk with the last of the sugar. Chop the Creme Egg into small pieces and fold into the buttercream.
6. Spread the buttercream onto the whole egg cookies then top each one with the cookies with the holes in the centre.
They will keep for about one week if stored in an airtight container.
Creme Egg & Raspberry Tart
Serves: 8 | Prep time: 15 mins | Cooking time: 20 mins
Ingredients:
- 320g pack ready rolled puff pastry
- 1 egg, lightly beaten
- 250g mascarpone cheese
- 250ml double cream
- 50g icing sugar
- 225g raspberries
- 3 or 4 Creme Eggs (to suit you)
- 10g milk chocolate.
Method:
1. Preheat the oven to 200°C/fan 180°C/gas mark 6 and line a large baking sheet with baking parchment.
2. Unroll the pastry and place on the baking sheet. With a small sharp knife score a 1.5cm border around the edge of the pastry and with a fork prick the pastry inside the border. This ensures the edge of the tart puffs up during cooking, but the centre keeps flat. Brush the border with the beaten egg and bake in the oven for 20 minutes until golden.
3. Remove from the oven and leave to cool on a wire rack – if the middle of the tart does puff up during cooking press it down gently to flatten before it cools completely.
4. Meanwhile beat together the mascarpone, double cream and icing sugar until smooth and once the pastry case is completely cold spread over the centre in an even layer.
5. Dot the raspberries over the cream filling, then cut the crème eggs into quarters and place in between the raspberries. Finely grate the milk chocolate over the top and serve.
Creme Egg Profiteroles
Makes: 18 | Prep time: 45 mins | Cooking time: 25 mins
Ingredients:
For the profiteroles:
- 75g butter
- 1 tsp caster sugar
- 50g plain flour
- 50g strong white flour
- 3 eggs, lightly beaten
For the filling:
- 300ml double cream
- 2 Creme Eggs
- 100g mascarpone
For the Creme Egg sauce
- 150ml double cream
- 4 Creme Eggs.
Method:
1. Preheat the oven to 200°C/fan 180°C/gas 6 and line two baking sheets with baking parchment.
2. For the profiteroles put the butter and sugar in a saucepan with 175ml water and heat gently until the butter has melted. Bring to a rolling boil then remove from the heat and add both flours to the pan and beat until smooth.
3. Return to the heat and cook for 1-2 minutes stirring constantly until the paste starts to come away from the sides of the pan. Spoon into a large bowl and leave to cool for a few minutes.
4. Add the eggs to the paste a little at a time, beating well between each addition. The dough should be glossy and smooth with a soft dropping consistency – you might not need to add all of the egg.
5. Spoon the dough into a large piping bag fitted with a 1cm plain nozzle and pipe walnut sized rounds on the baking sheets, leaving a 2cm gap between each one.
6. Bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes until golden and crisp. Remove from the oven and leave to cool slightly on the baking sheets. Then cut a small slit in the side of each one and put on a wire rack to cool completely.
7. Meanwhile make the filling. Heat 50ml of the double cream in a small pan, add the chopped Creme Eggs and heat until melted and bubbling. Remove from the heat and whisk until smooth and pour into a bowl to cool. Once cool, beat in the mascarpone and leave in the fridge to thicken slightly.
8. Whip the remaining double cream until soft peaks start to form then whisk in the cooled mascarpone mix until fully incorporated. Spoon into a piping bag fitted with a 1cm plain nozzle then fill each profiterole by piping the cream in through the slit.
9. For the Creme Egg sauce heat the cream in a small pan, add the chopped eggs and heat until melted and bubbling. Remove from the heat and whisk until smooth and pour into a jug to cool and thicken slightly. Serve the profiteroles in bowls with the sauce poured over.
The Cadbury Creme Egg Cookbook is available in Waterstones, Asda, Tesco and Sainsbury’s stores nationwide for £9.99.