Chocolate Cadbury Egg Cookies

With spring and Easter around the corner, it makes me want to bake delicious deserts with beautiful spring pastel colors. These chocolate Cadbury egg cookies are a perfect start to spring baking. Soft and chewy, with that signature crunch from the mini eggs.

How to make chocolate cadbury egg cookies

• Start by whisking all your dry ingredients together in a medium bowl and set aside. I used dutched process unsweetened cocao powder, but natural cocoa powder works as well, just make sure that whatever you are using is unsweetened.
• Crush 1 – 1 1/2 cups of Cadbury mini eggs. The easiest way to do this is by putting the candies in a ziplock bag and press down on them with a meat tenderizer or the back of a bowl. Start with 1 cup of Cadbury mini eggs, and add more if desired. I like lots of Cadbury mini eggs in mine, so I went with 1 1/2 cups!
• Cream together the softened butter, shortening, white and brown sugar together until light and fluffy.
• Add the eggs one at a time, and then add the vanilla extract until combined.
• next; gradually add in the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients in small increments, mixing well in-between. (Don’t just dump all the dry ingredients in, or you will have a cloud of flour, and cocao powder when your turn your electric mixer on!)
• Once you have the dough mixed together its time to add in the mini eggs! fold them in to the batter with a wooden spoon or spatula.
• Drop onto a cookie sheet by the tablespoon 1-2 inches apart. 1 tablespoon makes nice sized cookies, if you want smaller cookies, drop by the teaspoon.
• Top each cookie with 2-3 more Cadbury mini eggs.. because why not! more is better.
• Bake 8-10 minutes.

Why do you use butter and Shortening?

In this recipe; it calls for 1/2 cup of butter and 1/2 cup of shortening. The reason for this is you get the best of both worlds. Butter has approximately 80% butterfat, 16-18% water and 2-4% additional components such as milk solids and salt. When a cookie made with butter is baked; it creates steam from the water, which results in a browner crispier cookie. Butter is also used because you get that wonderful buttery flavor we all know and love. Shortening is 100% fat; it contains no water which means that there isn’t any steam created during baking, resulting in a softer cookie. Shortening also has a higher melting point which will keep the cookie from spreading too much and will hold its shape better. Therefor using butter and shortening gives this cookie nice crispy edges and a soft gooey inside.

Can I use butter in place of shortening?

Butter and shorting are considered interchangeable at a 1:1 ratio. If you only use butter, you may notice that your cookies will spread out more, and you will have a browner crispier cookie. If substituting butter in place of the shortening, you may need to refrigerate your dough for 30 minutes before scooping and baking. Shortening is very widely available at grocery stores in the baking isle for only a couple dollars. My shortening of choice is Crisco all-vegetable shortening. They also make butter flavor all-vegetable shortening which you can also use in this recipe.

Recipe notes

• The easiest way to chop the Cadbury mini eggs is to place the candies in a zip lock bag and lightly tap them with a meat tenderizer. If you don’t have one, you can also use the underside of a bowl.
• After you drop the cookie dough on your baking sheet; top each cookie with a few whole Cadbury mini eggs for a pop of color.
• Store in an air tight container at room temperature for 3 days. For longer storage; store in the freezer for up to 3 months.

Tried this recipe? or have any Easter recipe suggestions you would like to see? Leave a comment below!

^{Recipe source: Our Best Bites}