Easter Candy Bites

This month’s Master Baker theme is Easter candy. At first, it sounds like it might be easy to bake something with Easter candy, but I had a hard time coming up with something. I wanted to highlight one of my favorite Easter candies. I planned to use either Starburst Jelly Beans, Peeps, or Cadbury creme eggs. The creme eggs are my absolute favorites and I prefer the mini-eggs because they are bite size and less messy. The big eggs are also a lot of sugar to handle all at once.

Immediately I thought of putting a Cadbury egg in a cupcake. But since the eggs are so sweet, I thought it would be overkill. Instead, I came up with this idea. It was a trial and error effort. I found out that if you bake creme eggs, the inside gets hard. I wanted the creme filling to remain in it’s gooey goodness state. I found a solution on the third try.

Cadbury Egg Bites – Adapted from Allrecipes.com – makes 18
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 (3 ounce) package cream cheese
1/4 cup white sugar
1 cup all-purpose flour
15 unwrapped mini Cadbury creme eggs

Preheat oven to 375F.

In a medium bowl, mix together the butter, cream cheese and sugar until smooth. Stir in the flour and mix thoroughly. The dough should be somewhat firm. Roll into 18 small balls (I used a cookie scoop), place them on a plate and refrigerate for one hour.

While dough is chilling, unwrap creme eggs and put into a bowl in the fridge.

Press the chilled dough balls into the bottom and up the sides of tart pans or mini muffin cups. Bake for 15 minutes in preheated oven. IMMEDIATELY upon removing from oven, push one mini-egg into each cup. Push them in as far as you can.

Allow to cook 5 minutes in the pan before removing to a cooling rack. These are best enjoyed the same day they are prepared.

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17 Responses to “M&M Cookies to Celebrate Valentine’s Day”

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    Carrie — February 12, 2010 at 2:26 pm

    I love freezing dough but somehow most ends up in my tummy unbaked when I do that ๐Ÿ™‚

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    oneordinaryday — February 12, 2010 at 2:40 pm

    What a great gift! I’m thinking that would be wonderful for all sorts of occasions. Thanks for the idea!

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    Carly — February 12, 2010 at 5:00 pm

    These are adorable and I love that idea! Two questions, though: 1) Were these as good as the cookies from the other recipes? and 2) When you freeze them, do you bake right from frozen?

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    Jen — February 12, 2010 at 5:04 pm

    Great questions Carly – As far as comparing them to the other cookies. I enjoyed the chocolate M&M cookies the best, but they were REALLY chocolatey. The other non-chocolate M&M cookies were a bit more chewy and they had nuts in them, so they had a different vibe. This recipe was more of a classic M&M cookie for sure.

    As far as baking from frozen, you can def just go straight from freezer to oven. Bake them ~13 minutes instead of ~11 and take them out when they look done.

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    Cara — February 12, 2010 at 5:18 pm

    these were delicious!

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    stephchows — February 12, 2010 at 5:35 pm

    they look so cute all frozen up ๐Ÿ™‚

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    Leanne — February 12, 2010 at 6:11 pm

    I love the pink and red M&Ms. Thanks for the idea of freezing the cookie dough.

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    Memรณria — February 12, 2010 at 8:06 pm

    I was going to ask you the same thing as Carly, well the first question. These cookies are cute. Your freezing method reminded me that I have a bunch of sugar cookies still in the freezer! Do you know how long cookies can stay in the freezer?

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    Jen — February 12, 2010 at 9:32 pm

    I don’t know how long they will last in the freezer. I have a tendency to forget about things in my freezer… I’d guess a couple months? Anyone have ideas?

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    nutmegnanny — February 12, 2010 at 9:43 pm

    What festive little cookies ๐Ÿ™‚ I love them! I also like the fact that you froze them. I bet they were delicious. Make sure to enter the All Through the Year Cheer event for Valentine’s Day ๐Ÿ™‚

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    Julie — February 13, 2010 at 4:49 am

    I think that sounds like a great way to spend valentine’s day. It can be intimidating the way it’s so hyped up. The cookies look very festive, love ’em!

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    Vivian - Let's Try These... — February 13, 2010 at 2:16 pm

    We don’t do “valentine’s day” either since my MIL was born on the 14th and daughter’s birthday is the 15th – besides, its more important to say you love someone everyday, not just one day out of the year. Love the idea about freezing the cookie dough in preshaped form and giving that away. Wonderful idea!

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    Deborah Dowd — February 14, 2010 at 1:03 pm

    I am looking for cookies that travel well for my soldier adopted through Soldier’s Angels and these look like a winner!!

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    14
    Kerstin — February 14, 2010 at 8:00 pm

    Mmm, these were so tasty! Happy Valentine’s Day!

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    Amy (Sing For Your Supper) — February 16, 2010 at 9:54 pm

    These are just too cute!! I love M&M cookies too!!

    http://www.singforyoursupperblog.com

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    bcallegra — February 17, 2010 at 1:13 am

    Just had to add my two cents on the idea of giving cookie dough frozen and ready to be baked – genius! For some reason, I’ve never thought of that, even though I’ve given cookies frozen to people to be defrosted when they’re ready to eat. I love the dough idea!

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    Megan — February 20, 2010 at 2:16 am

    YUM-these look absolutely delicious! I love the pink and red M&Ms!

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