Egg-cellent Easter I

All around there are signs of Spring in full flow, from the leapy lambs to the buds on the trees. And here we are at Eastertide again.

I can’t be unique in not really understanding Easter at all.

Whenever someone tries to explain it to me I just glaze over and smile sweetly, like when someone’s explaining tax codes, quadratic equations or how to play chess.

It seems to glide about between months with ease, and we all have to go along with it. All very odd.

Being non-observant, I’m afraid that for me, Easter just means an extra day or so off work and the arrival into the house of the occasional chocolate egg.

Easter eggs, once the standard post-Christmas joke (“I see they’re selling them in February now!” etc), have now become politically charged, with accusations, as far as I can see completely erroneous, that they’re now called ‘chocolate eggs’ so as not to upset other religions.

Every one I’ve seen has said ‘Easter Egg’ on the box, and conversely there are examples of those with ‘Chocolate Egg’ written on the box going back as far as the 1970s. More non-news and pointless aggression, in my opinion.

So, let’s just make some lovely Easter eggs, shall we? I’d seen a photo of these eggs somewhere in a magazine or online, and guessed at how I’d set about making them.

It turns out they are actually quite easy, and definitely worth a go. It’s probably a good recipe for the kids to help with, as it’s all terribly exciting as the eggs come together. No doubt you parents out there will be desperate, as the holiday draws on, for something to do with the offspring, especially on a rainy day.

Well, here’s your recipe, and you’re welcome. Surrounding the home-made marshmallow is a crisp shell of dark chocolate, which can then be decorated with any amount of Easter-y bling, from the elegant stripes of contrasting chocolate as pictured, all the way to edible glitter and such.

It’s great to make marshmallow from scratch, as you get a much tastier, less artificial result. It’s denser and nicely chewy.

If you’re wondering where the odd name comes from – it’s the name of a wetland plant after all – it stems from the 1800s, when the sap from the root of the mallow plant would be whipped into sugary pastes in order to cure minor ailments.

The setting properties of the mallow sap were found to be most appealing and, when gelatine came along, it soon replaced mallow sap as the gelling agent, but the sweet treats persisted.

These days we enjoy marshmallows in many ways, from the luxury of a few melting into a gooey cream on top of one’s midwinter hot chocolate to the simple, unalloyed pleasure of the single plump marshmallow toasted over an open fire until charred and crispy.

We put them in cakes, in chocolate (Rocky Road) and we can even make a terrific bouncy buttercream by melting them and combining with whipped butter and icing sugar.

Here, we’re making a slightly wetter version, and pouring it into flour, with egg-shaped indentations, to set into a loose egg shape, before dipping in melted chocolate and piping some appealing stripes.

If bitter chocolate’s going to be a bit much for the kids, swap it for milk chocolate and use a little of the dark as your piping contrast. It’ll work just as well.