For those who celebrate, happy Easter! For those who don't, happy spring! I love to celebrate holidays, and Easter is a great one for extremely cutesy things to bake and make. I decided to use Pinterest to find a recipe to make for this week, and was super excited to see one posted by celebrity Lauren Conrad. She has created an online persona and brand with a very large following. On Pinterest, she has boards that link to food, clothes, and other day-to-day hobbies for her followers. All the pins link to her website where she hosts all of her happenings.
The recipe I made was for Macaroon Bird Nests. These cookies have a tasty coconut base topped with a drop of Nutella and a sprinkling of Cadbury Mini Eggs. I especially wanted to test out this recipe to have a comparison in making French Macarons and American Macaroons. While both have few ingredients, the level of complexity and chemistry is exretemly different. Macarons are a delicate sandwich cookie that requires a certain amount of strokes while mixing to reach the correct consistency. Macaroons are a drop cookie that do not have as many parameters to achieve success. However, I know from experience they are both very tasty!
Lauren Conrad did not create this recipe, but she did receive the recipe from a friend who is a chef. I wanted to do this recipe because I thought it would be a nice and easy recipe to tackle in the middle of a busy week. It is adorable, yet still packs a lot of punch for some Easter-y holiday spirit. I was unable to get pictures of the baking process, but it was a very doable recipe! It was definitely the easiest recipe I have tackled thus far. I was able to complete it in about 2 hours (accounting for all the preping, baking, cooling, and decorating). Enjoy some of the pictures from the final product, including the recipe, below!
The recipe I made was for Macaroon Bird Nests. These cookies have a tasty coconut base topped with a drop of Nutella and a sprinkling of Cadbury Mini Eggs. I especially wanted to test out this recipe to have a comparison in making French Macarons and American Macaroons. While both have few ingredients, the level of complexity and chemistry is exretemly different. Macarons are a delicate sandwich cookie that requires a certain amount of strokes while mixing to reach the correct consistency. Macaroons are a drop cookie that do not have as many parameters to achieve success. However, I know from experience they are both very tasty!
Lauren Conrad did not create this recipe, but she did receive the recipe from a friend who is a chef. I wanted to do this recipe because I thought it would be a nice and easy recipe to tackle in the middle of a busy week. It is adorable, yet still packs a lot of punch for some Easter-y holiday spirit. I was unable to get pictures of the baking process, but it was a very doable recipe! It was definitely the easiest recipe I have tackled thus far. I was able to complete it in about 2 hours (accounting for all the preping, baking, cooling, and decorating). Enjoy some of the pictures from the final product, including the recipe, below!
Ingredients:
Instructions:
- ½ cup butter
- ¾ cup sugar
- 1/8 tsp salt
- 3 eggs
- 6 cups shredded coconut
- ¼ cup Nutella
- 45 Chocolate Cadbury Mini Eggs
Instructions:
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Then, using an electric mixer, beat butter, sugar, and salt.
- Add eggs, one at a time, until mixed thoroughly. Mix in coconut.
- Drop your batter onto a cookie sheet by tablespoons, using a scooper. Roll into balls, then make an indent with fingers to resemble a bird’s nest.
- Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until golden brown on the bottom and browned in spots on top.
- Once completely cooled, spoon a little Nutella into each “nest”. Top with 4 chocolate eggs.