Chocolate Easter Nests? But Leah, you don’t bake!!! Relax, there’s no oven involved and you don’t have to be super accurate about measurements so this is acceptable not-baking for me 🙂 I was listening to a Bon Appetit podcast about how the most potent ingredient in any recipe is nostalgia i.e. food you ate when you were growing up. Which got me thinking about the little chocolate nests we’d make as children at Easter.
3 ingredients, 10 minutes, no actual baking (except a little help from the microwave to melt the chocolate) – this is a great recipe to make with little ones who will get a kick from making the nests, not to mention their tiny fingers are helpful when putting the chocolate eggs in the nest!
The little yellow fluffy chicks are optional but I picked up mine at one of those Party City stores for $1.99 for 12 chicks because they’re cute.
There’s a recipe AND a step-by-step video at the bottom of this post but if you’re looking for the cliffnotes:
– Take out any frustration and stress you have by punching and crushing a bunch of shredded wheat (you can also use other cereal like rice krispies or cornflakes but it won’t look as nest/twig like)
– Melt chocolate
– Mix melted chocolate and crushed shredded wheat
– Drop into cupcake cases and top with mini eggs. Let cool so chocolate hardens (you can use the fridge if you like).
You don’t have to use semi-sweet chocolate, dark chocolate or white chocolate works too! If you want to make mini chocolate nests you can use jelly beans in place of the chocolate mini eggs, 
And…if you’re in the mood for a more elegant, shall we say adult Easter nest then try swapping out the shredded wheat for salted pretzel sticks and dark chocolate. Stop by your favorite chocolatier and pick up some fancier eggs and make dark chocolate salted pretzel nests for the grown ups!
If you use the pretzel sticks you’ll want to put a little more effort into building the nest so the egg stays securely in place.
And I made a little 60-second video so you can see the nests being made. Paul suggested that I post this at a quiet time of the day in case I break the internet, he’s so sarcastic supportive.
Chocolate Easter Nests
Ingredients:
2 cups of shredded wheat (~4.5 biscuits)
11 oz semi-sweet or white chocolate chips (I used Ghirardelli)
18 Cadbury’s mini eggs (or your choice of chocolate/candy eggs)
Directions:
- Crush the shredded wheat. Post Shredded Wheat comes in handy little envelopes containing 3 biscuits. Punch the envelopes to crush the cereal without making a big mess.
- Melt the chocolate. Get all fancy with a bain marie (put a bowl over a simmering pan of water) or just blast in the microwave for 30 second increments giving it a good stir in between each blast. If your microwave is super powerful, try 15 second intervals.
- Stir in 2 cups of crushed shredded wheat into the melted chocolate.
- Divide the mixture between 6 cupcake cases. Use a small knife or teaspoon to make a little hollow in each nest
- Place 3 mini eggs upright in the hollow of each nest. Allow to cool and chocolate to harden (faster in the fridge)
- Leave in cases if you’ll be transporting to an Easter party or peel off the cases and set out on a platter with fluffy chicks!
Grown Up version:
Swap the chocolate for your favorite dark chocolate (I used Ghirardelli 70% dark chocolate) and use salted pretzel sticks in place of shredded wheat. You’ll likely use closer to 3 cups of pretzels as they don’t soak up the chocolate like the shredded wheat. If your fancy eggs from the chocolatier are larger, flatten out the cupcake cases to make larger nests. Place a spoonful of chocolate covered pretzel sticks in as a base and then add the egg. Carefully move around the nest adding the sticks to hold the egg in place.
Enjoy! Did you make anything similar growing up? What’s your nostalgic baking recipe?
Mainely Eating - A Maine Food Blog 
very nice post! I like how you put an alternative way to make the nests with pretzel sticks. I’ll prob be making them this weekend xx
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Thank you! Let me know what you think! 🙂
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I made these lovely nests today with my nephews and we had a great time. Thank you Leah for this great Easter activity and treat.
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