Ah, spring time. A time when the budding flowers perfume the love soaked air. It's a great time to be in California, the sun begins to toast the skin, yet there remains a chilly sea misted coastal breeze that keeps everything perfectly chilled to 75 degrees. I love the spring, in my book, it’s an extremely close second to the fall and I seriously adore Easter. I love any excuse to don a girlie dress and plant my bare feet in between fresh cut grass. Easter is always an outdoor occasion in my family and my mother (the expert entertainer that she is) always goes all out. Easter egg hunts for my nephew and one for the adults, a brunch that could feed an army and of course, amazing cocktails. I also happen to have the world's biggest weakness for Easter candy. Give me any other holiday and I can easily brave the sugar rush storm of sweets, but put baby chick shaped fluff of pink sugar in front of me? I can't resist it. One year I made the mistake of doing a cleanse right through Easter and I really realized what a problem I have with Easter sweets. I broke my cleanse with a handful of jelly beans. I've been known to call every store in the area in February just to find out when their shipment of Cadbury Creme Eggs will arrive. I always tell myself I just need one, one milk chocolate covered creme egg all year in order to get my "fix". So, naturally, one lazy Sunday siesta a couple of weeks ago, I found myself tossing and turning unable to sleep. Visions of Cadbury Creme Eggs were dancing in my head. A reoccurring idea that would not budge; annoyingly keeping me from my slumber. Fried Mini Cadbury Creme Eggs. It is crazy! I had enough, I abruptly jumped from my rest and googled my vision, had it ever been done before? To my surprise, I found many recipes for fried regular sized Cadbury Creme Eggs. That's all fine and dandy but just one of those suckers is enough sweet for me for a while, and fried? Holy moly, that might be overboard for me. But the fried mini Cadbury Creme Egg, it did not find. I do prefer to take all my deserts in mini size, it's less guilt and it's usually all you need to kill a nagging sweet tooth. I decided to end my google search and begin my journey in the kitchen. I will confess I'm not typically a fan of fried; anything, let alone sweets and I have never done any frying myself so this was surely an adventure. This recipe was so much fun to make and super easy, the result is seriously sinful. They are best eaten hot while the inside is still nice and gooey. I could only stomach just a couple before I overdosed on sweet, but I think that is the beauty of them. I lightly dusted them with powdered sugar just for aesthetics. They are a little smaller than the size of a silver dollar. A small and delicious treat for a little Easter joy.
Chocolate Chip, Waffle Battered, Fried Mini Cadbury Creme Eggs
12 mini Cadbury Creme Eggs
1/3 cups flour
1/2 tablespoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 small egg
1/4 cup milk (I used almond milk)
1/8 cup + 3 cups of vegetable oil
1/8 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup of coarsely chopped chocolate chips
Combine with a whisk, flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, egg, milk, 1/8 cup of oil, vanilla and chocolate chips in a bowl. Whisk until smooth and incorporated. Depending on the size of your saucepan, add enough oil in your pan to submerge the eggs, in a medium pan it was about 3 cups. Heat the oil to 350 degrees (we used a candy thermometer). Drop the Cadbury Creme Eggs one by one in the batter, heavily coat, using a fork; gently transport it to the oil, carefully dropping them in, one at a time. Fry until the batter is golden, about 1 - 2 minutes. Remove, drain the oil on a paper towel and enjoy while warm.
