Chocolate Nests and Eggs

I made these to stuff into my girls' Easter baskets. The nests don't take a lot of time, but they're delicate, so you may want to make a few extras. The eggs take slightly longer, they're basically a truffle that is egg-shaped. You can tint some flaked coconut with green food coloring to use as a grass bed in the nests. Be creative with this one and have fun!

Chocolate nests:
Blow up about a dozen small balloons (I used water balloons), tying them off when they're the size that you want your nest to be. Wash them after they're inflated (just in case). Melt 12 oz of semi-sweet or milk chocolate chips (you could probably use any chocolate for this) in a bowl. (I zap mine in the microwave for 30 seconds at a time, but be sure not to scald your chocolate). Then simply dip the bottom of the balloons into the melted chocolate to the desired size of your nest. Place them on parchment paper (waxed paper would also work I think) and pop them into the freezer for about 20 minutes. Melt another 4-6 oz of chocolate and scoop it into a sandwich bag. Take your nests out of the freezer. Then snip the corner off of the bag with the melted chocolate, turn your nests over and pipe on some twigs, and pop them back into the freezer for a bit. Take them back out and use scissors or a pin to pop your balloons, and gently peel them out of your nests. You can store these in the freezer or fridge for a couple of weeks, I would suggest separating them with parchment and storing them in a freezer bag with a clean paper towel to absorb any moisture that gets in.

Truffle Eggs:
For the eggs, use this truffles recipe (for better instructions you can refer to the truffles post):
8 oz. cream cheese - softened
12 oz. melted chocolate
2-3 cups powdered sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract

Beat it all together well and chill it for at least an hour. Roll into eggs slightly smaller than what you want in your nests and chill it again while you make your shells. Chill them for a couple of hours.

I covered mine with white modeling chocolate that I tinted with blue, pink and purple (but my pink failed for some reason when I tried putting it on the egg, I think I used too little corn syrup) food coloring. Go easy on the color, I used too much and discovered that they don't need a lot. I melted my white chocolate for each color separately, about 4 oz for each color, and added the food color with the corn syrup, about 1/2 to 3/4 of a tablespoon per color batch. I have listed better instructions for this in my modeling chocolate post.

Once your eggs are covered in modeling chocolate chill them to harden up. You can then rest them in the nests (use coconut for the grass if you wish to) and I placed mine on parchment and wrapped them in cellophane for the Easter baskets.