As an Easter promotion of my book Harrison Braves The Hill I decided to do an Easter Egg raffle at Chloe’s Espresso

I looked into buying a Thornton’s Easter Egg and having it personalised as the prize. But it would have been boring…. The illustrations in the book are colourful and somehow a commercialised egg wouldn’t cut it.

I say this quite often… I’m lazy. And I don’t like gooey, messy cooking. Not my thing. So chocolate was way down my list of things to make. But I just could not find an egg to fit the bill for the Draw.

So I took a deep breath and decided to try my hand at making one in the Thermomix. After all, if I failed, there were Easter Eggs galore in town! And I am so glad I gave it a go. It was SO easy!

The trick to good chocolate is tempering it after melting. I found a recipe on Cookidoo – I used the filter option and chose Australian recipes and found one for Easter Eggs there.

This recipe melts chocolate for 6 minutes at the lowest temperature of 37C and then again for two more minutes before you turn off the temperature and just mix the chocolate for a minute on a slow running blade. This is the tempering that can be the make or break of the egg being dull or glossy and slip out or stick in the mould!

Traditionally you’d pour the melted chocolate onto a marble top and sloosh it with a palette knife to temper it and then pour it back in the bowl. None of that with my Thermomix (and I know, purists will not approve but I’m more than happy with this no mess method). My egg was shiny and the chocolate had a healthy sounding “snap” when broken.

If you haven’t already done it, download the Cookidoo App. Bed is a good place to lie and absorb the logic of a recipe before heading down to follow the method on the Thermomix screen! by the way, the new TM6 comes on 17th June. Please do contact me as advisor if you want to know more!

So, no recipe being posted as you can download it yourself! I’m just going to post the photos I took whilst making the egg in 15 minutes!

450g chocolate melted in 6 minutes on speed 1 – no standing around stirring. No danger of water from a Bain Marie leaking in and ruining the chocolate either!

Then melt again at 2 minutes/37C/speed 1 and then temper at speed 1 for 1 minute with no heat.

Then scrape down and give it a stir. A silicone spatula is a must.

Pour some into the mould and gradually start tipping and swirling to coat right up to the rim. Turn mould upside down to drip.

It is messy but it does solidify and you can pick up the drips and reuse.

When semi solid, use a palette knife to neaten the top. Once completely set, slowly ease out of the mould. Be patient!

Heat a flat baking sheet at 50C in the oven. Press the raw edge of each egg down on the hot tray to melt and then join together. To seal. Use the melted chocolate on the tray to seal gaps. You can fill one half of the egg with goodies and just heat the other and seal in the treasure too. Whilst the egg was setting I ran off to Lakeland and bought edible glitter and sprinkles.

I used melted chocolate to stick on sprinkles and to write a message. All I did was stick the chocolate drips on the tray lined with grease proof paper in the 50C oven for a bit to soften it. Here’s an amazing trick I learnt for painting on chocolate. Looks like a delicate Faberge egg.

And why don’t you make a trip this weekend to the bridge in Primrose Hill and do the quiz at Chloe’s Espresso? Can’t get to Chloe’s for the Draw? The questions are on the sheet above. Email me with your answers by noon on Sunday 21st and I will enter them for you for a chance to win! And I’ll throw in a special offer of a book if you win and want a Thermomix demonstration! You can then find out what Harrison does!

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