How good do these look?
If you're dipping into a bit of baking during your time at home, then look no further.
Aldi have a come up with a number of Easter-inspired recipes that you can try out over the next few weeks. They have loads over on their website but here are three that caught our eye:
Chocolate Peanut Butter Brownies
Ingredients
For the Brownie:
- 150g x Salted butter
- 100g x dark chocolate
- 100g x milk chocolate
- 200g x Caster sugar
- 3 x Eggs
- 200g x Self-raising flour
For the Topping:
- 100g x Everyday essentials milk chocolate
- 65g x Salted butter at room temperature
- 125 g x Smooth peanut butter
- 1 handful x Honey roasted peanuts
Method
- Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/Gas Mark 4.
- Grease a 25cm square tin.
- Melt the milk and dark chocolate and butter together in a bowl over a pan of simmering water.
- Stir in the sugar and add the eggs 1 at a time.
- Add the flour and mix to a batter.
- Pour into the greased tin and bake in the oven for 15-18 minutes for a gooey brownie or 20-22 minutes for a more cakey brownie.
- Allow the brownie to cool in the pan.
- To make the ganache, gently melt the chocolate over simmering water.
- Remove from the heat and whisk in the butter then add the peanut butter and whisk into a smooth consistency, spread the ganache over the cooled brownie and sprinkle over the peanuts.
- Chill in the fridge for 1 hour before cutting and serving
Easter Chick Cupcakes
Ingredients
- 250g The Pantry Madeira Cake Mix
- 30ml Vegetable Oil
- 500g Unsalted Butter
- 300g Icing Sugar (plus extra for dusting)
- 50g Ready to Roll Icing
- 1 Lemon
- Red Food Colouring
- Yellow Food Colouring
- Green Food Colouring
- 1 tbsp Vanilla Extract
- 1 packet of Dairyfine
- Mini Chocolate Eggs
Method
- Preheat the oven to 180°C. Line a cupcake tin with the paper cases.
- Make half of the Madeira cake mix according to instructions on the pack (or double up the recipe, using the full 500g mix for more cupcakes). Add the zest of half the lemon and vanilla extract, then give the batter a final mix.
- Add 1 heaped tbsp of batter to each cupcake case (filling roughly one third of the case) and bake for 15 minutes. Allow to cool.
- In a large mixing bowl, cream the softened butter using an electric whisk to make the buttercream. Gradually add the icing sugar and keep mixing. Finish with the juice of half the lemon. Remove half the buttercream into another bowl. Gradually add green food colouring to one bowl and yellow to the other (one drop at a time) and mix until pastel shades are achieved. Add to piping bags with round nozzles, using small for the green and large for the yellow.
- Pipe the green loosely and freely around the edge of the cupcake to resemble grass. Pipe the yellow in 2 stages to make the chick. First, make a large round base, then add a smaller round head. Set aside for 5-10 minutes to allow to dry a little. Place the ready to roll icing in a mixing bowl and knead together with a little yellow and red food colouring, mix until a pastel orange is achieved. Add more icing sugar if the mix is too wet.
- Shape small pieces of the orange icing to form a beak and feet and add to each chick, then decorate with one or two mini chocolate eggs.
Chocolate Shredded Nests
Ingredients
- 200g block Milk Chocolate
- 4 Shredded Wheat biscuit
- 150g Mini Chocolate Eggs
- 1 x 12-hole bun tin
- A little butter
Method
- Break up the chocolate and put into a heat resistant bowl. Put the bowl over a pan of simmering water, make sure the bottom of the bowl doesn’t touch the water.
- Stir gently until the chocolate is melted. In a bowl, gently break up the shredded wheat into strands. Pour over the melted chocolate and stir to coat all the strands.
- Slightly grease the bun holes with a little butter. Divide the mixture between the holes, gently pushing the mixture down into the tin with the back of a teaspoon.
- Put in the refrigerator to set. With a spoon, ease the nests out of the tin. Put on a serving dish, divide the eggs between the nests and serve.
