Easter; a time of bunnies, bonnets and not forgetting a mountain load of chocolate. With Easter only around the corner, it's hard to go into a shop without spying a pile of creme eggs sat on the counter. So in order to address my cravings, here is my DIY vegan creme egg recipe!
These were surprisingly simple to make and don't require any weird ingredients you sometimes fine thrown in vegan recipes. Well, other than Tumeric, however this is a natural way to get that perfect 'yolk' yellow and I assure you this won't add too much of a strange flavour to your eggs, unless your hand slips and you add a bit too much (which I did on my first attempt).
The first time I made these I used a cake pop mould to make my creme eggs (so they turned out more of a dome shape), however there are plenty of egg moulds available on amazon so I decided to invest in one for a more traditional creme egg shape. You can either leave the eggs as a half, like I did or combine the two parts to make a whole egg which is a bit more fiddly. The final result is a super rich chocolate shell with a sweet icing filling that will take you back to your childhood egg hunts on Easter morning.
Vegan Creme Eggs
Prep time: 45 minutes
Total time: 45 minutes
Servings: 24 halves (or 12 whole eggs)
Ingredients
200g vegan chocolate
50g dairy-free butter
200g icing sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tbsp plant-based milk
1/2 tsp yellow food colouring (or tumeric)
Instructions
Gently melt the chocolate in a bowl over a pan of simmering water (keep the bowl here throughout the recipe so the chocolate will stay melted the whole time).
Add a little chocolate to each of the moulds and spread it up to cover the sides, this should be quite thick to avoid the shells breaking. Then place the mould in the freezer for 10 minutes, or until the chocolate has set.
Whilst the shells are in the freezer, mix the vegan butter, icing sugar and vanilla extract until well combined. Then use the non-dairy milk to thin out the mixture to your desired consistency (add slightly more to make it runnier).
Take around 1/4 of the mixture in a separate bowl, add the yellow colouring and mix until the icing changes to a yellow 'yolk' colour.
Remove the mould from the freezer and add around 1 tsp of the white icing to each shell. Next, add a smaller amount of the yellow icing to the centre of each shell, this will be the egg yolk.
Place the mould back in the freezer for a couple of minutes for the icing to slightly firm up.
Remove the mould from the freezer again and cover each icing filled shell with the remaining melted chocolate. Place the mould back in the freezer for a final time to set. I left mine for around 30 minutes just to make sure.
Once they are set gently remove each of the shells from the mould to reveal the egg half. If desired you can stick two of the half eggs together using a little melted chocolate or by slightly warming the flat side of the egg.
Notes
Feel free to decorate the eggs once they have set, this is your chance to get creative!
I'd definitely recommend using a silicone mould as it is much easier to remove the shells than with a plastic mould and you're less likely to damage the eggs in the process.
If you don't like the thought of adding tumeric to your eggs you could use a little yellow/orange food colouring as an alternative.
In addition to the standard 'egg' filling, you could also be inventive and try alternative fillings. My personal favourites include strawberry flavoured and coffee flavoured yolks!
Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoy making these super easy vegan creme eggs and have a happy Easter. If you do try any of my recipes I'd love to know how they turn out - tag me on Instagram @josiewalshaw!
Josie xox