How to Make Open Chocolate Easter Eggs

You know this week is mainly going to be about Chocolate, don't you? :)

Someone in my family started a 'no more Easter Eggs' rule a few years ago. Definitely not me. So I completely ignore this and usually make something like Easter Chocolate Bark, Biscuits and Nests, however; this year I spotted this collection of Egg moulds in Poundland:

... and decided to have a go at making my own Easter Eggs which I could then keep and eat all on my own*. It also gave me a chance to try out these milk chocolate Candy Buttons, which I picked up in The Range [for about half the price of Candy Melts]:

I have been gathering a nice little collection of Eastery treats for weeks now and the beauty of making your own eggs, is that you can tailor the decoration, flavours and fillings to whoever the fuss-pot is that you are making them for - I decided to treat three of my favourite people with three tailored open eggs - half an egg, filled with their favourite treats:

Making the eggs is nowhere near as scary as you may think - melting a ramekin of chocolate in the microwave, this is poured in to the mould and swirled around to coat a first layer. Leave to set, or quicken the process in the fridge before adding a second [and third, or however many you require to make the shell as thick as you wish] to thicken the chocolate layer and strengthen it ensure the chcolate wont break when removed from the mould:

Once set, a gentle tap and slight bending of the mould sides will allow the chocolate shell to be removed [hopefully, without breaking!]:

...and it really is as simple, easy and quick as that.

Once confident in my egg-making skills, I also had a try of some different colours and flavours for an 'Eton Mess'-themed egg - strawberry and white chocolate:

Half the mould coated in each flavour, with the middles joining in a slightly-designed wave of chocolate:

Create as many halves as you require and once complete, you can start thinking about the fillings. The smaller moulds came in to play for this - completely inspired by the amazing Hotel Chocolat mini filled eggs - the halves were created in much the same way - coating a few times with chocolate, leaving to set and then removing from the moulds in a range of flavoured chocolates:

I then filled some of the chocolate egg halves with Nutella and hazlenuts, and sealed together. If you want a seamless joining for two halves, pop a baking tray in the oven for a few minutes to heat up, place the egg half on the tray to melt the edges and then join to another half to fuse together [dont forget to add any fillings first!]

...for these smaller eggs, the Nutella acted as a glue to keep two halves together and were added to the first egg half to create a toffe, caramel and nut themed egg:

...to keep everything in place and not spill or fall to the centre, I coated the inside of the egg with a little melted chocolate to fuse the seperate treats - toffee and caramel chunks, caramel eggs, chocolate drops and the mini hazlenut and nutella eggs:

The strawberry and white chocolate 'mess' was filled with pastel mini eggs, white chocolate mini handmade eggs, white chocolate drops and strawberry fruit pastilles: