Peanut Butter Cream Eggs

BEST OF THE TASTY CHEAPSKATE

Sometimes I drop the tasty cheapskate ball. When I do, it's usually about pictures.

This week my sister was here with her four kids. She brought me a gorgeous peanut butter cream egg. Do I have a picture?

No.

Then Wednesday, while I made dinner, she and several of the kids proceeded to make and then decorate approximately 10 million more peanut butter cream eggs. They were so beautiful--an army of spring calorie bombs marching along the table. Did I get a picture of that?

Nope.

So today after my sister left (and I took myself a luxurious couch nap because Bec and I had stayed up till after midnight every single night because we are masochists). Anyway, after that, I scrounged around for a single solitary egg to photograph. My youngest daughter had one that I snagged, and then another daughter came out about to eat hers and I stole it too. That's all we had.

The moral of this story: Make these. They're not hard. They make great gifts, look beautiful in Easter baskets, and are a big crowd favorite. You'll be lucky to have a couple left at the end of the day.

Peanut Butter Cream Eggs
Makes about 30 1 1/2 inch long eggs
Prep time: 30-40 minutes, but there's some wait time while things harden/set.
Cost: $3.05 and if you flavor it with coconut, peanut butter, or chocolate that will add another $.50-1.00
(sugar: .60, butter: .40, chocolate: 2.00, other: .05)

1/3 C butter, significantly softened 
1/2 C peanut butter (crunchy or creamy depending on your preference; you can also use Nutella in place of the peanut butter if you want to go with more chocolate)
1 tsp vanilla
2-3 Tbsp milk (or cream, if you're a stickler about keeping the 'cream' in your butter cream--I used milk and it was very good)
1/2 tsp salt
2-4 C powdered sugar
1 bag (12 oz) semi-sweet chocolate chips (or melting chocolate or white chocolate or whatever shivers your timbers)

Soften/Melt butter. Add peanut butter, then vanilla, then milk. Add salt and powdered sugar. Mix by hand. It will turn into a thick mixture. I like mine a little  softer (because dry PB eggs are the worst), but having it a little thicker makes it easier to work with. Just add the powdered sugar bit by bit at the end. You need to be able to roll it into a ball. 

Refrigerate the filling, and then when it's firm, roll it into egg-shaped balls. 



When it is rolled, melt your chocolate in the microwave in 30 second intervals. (Note: If using real chocolate, melt until a few chunks remain and then stir until those are melted. This will keep it from getting that white swirly-old-chocolate the next day.) 

You can use nice chocolate (my preference) or melting chocolates. Melting chocolates do not taste NEARLY as good, but they are delightfully easy to melt; they harden quickly, and they re-melt beautifully, and they don't ever get the white swirly-old-chocolate look. We opted for real chocolate on the overall egg and melting chocolate for the swirly parts. 

When the chocolate is melted, dip the eggs. You can use a slotted spoon, or you can blob and drizzle it in a completely messy, but finger lickin' good kind of way. 



Allow chocolate to harden, then decorate if you wish. If you'd like to give them away, you can put them in little muffin liners or bon bon liners (depending on size). Then put them in a small plastic gift bag. My sister did this and it looked like it had been bought from a store. Ours never quite hit that level. 

Note: I have instructions for other flavors (plain butter cream, chocolate, and coconut) on another post. Feel free to hop on over HERE if you'd like.