I am a sucker for white chocolate + coconut. This combination reminds me of Hawaii and happy sunshiny days. Earlier this week I made delicious lemon coconut macaroons drizzled with white chocolate for Passover. I had some coconut and white chocolate left over so I decided to making white chocolate nests for Easter. I searched online for recipes and they all seemed a little complicated and needed more ingredients than I had on hand so I thought I'd see what would happen if I just mixed the melted white chocolate with the coconut. It turns out that it's all you need.
I tried several variations and the best mix was 2:1 with a bag of white chocolate chips and 1/2 a bag of coconut. Here's the recipe:
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Ingredients
1 11 ounce bag of white chocolate chips (I use Ghirardelli)
1/2 of a 14 ounce bag of sweetened shredded coconut
Candy almonds or jellybeans for the nest
Directions
Prepare a cookie sheet with parchment paper. Set aside.
Add coconut to medium size bowl and set aside.
Pour white chocolate chips in a microwave safe bowl and heat for one minute in microwave. Stir and heat for one more minute. Stir again. If chocolate is not melted all the way, heat in 30 second bursts, stirring each time.
When chocolate is melted, add to coconut and stir with a spatula. If the mixture seems too thin, add coconut a tablespoon at a time.
When incorporated and cooled a little, use your hands to form balls. Place ball of cookie sheet and press down a hollow in the middle of the ball. You may have to push the sides in a little to keep the shape. Continue making nests.
Place cookie sheet overnight in refrigerator to cool. To serve, add candy to the nest. I used shimmery chocolate almonds.
Notes
The white chocolate will be VERY hot! I made the mistake of trying to mix the chocolate (taken right from the microwave) into the coconut with my hands. I burned myself. Use a spatula until the chocolate is cooled.
The glass bunnies are from World Market
The glassybabys are in Dream
The Fail
I thought I would try making Tiffany blue nests. Last week at Sur la Table I bought turquoise food coloring and I was just waiting for the perfect project to use them. I started by adding a little food coloring to a large Ziploc bag then adding half a bag of coconut flakes. I shook the bag to distribute the color. However, the color never distributed evenly. I went forward with adding the chocolate and making the nests but they just looked like a really bad kindergarten project.
I Facetimed my husband who is in Boston this week and showed him the nests. First I showed him the white chocolate nests and he said "Those look amazing. Save some for me!"
Then I showed him the blue ones. He stared at them. "Are those edible?"
"Yes, they're edible. I think."
"They look like the Smurfs made them." My husband, the clever one. "You're not going to put those on the blog, are you?"
"No, they look awful, don't they?" I laughed. "I mean, they really look awful."
"They probably taste good though. Nice try, honey."
So, the lesson here is keep it simple. And when working with food coloring, wear gloves because it's going to be awhile before my hands are no longer a shade of turquoise.
Happy Easter!
