I was looking for something fun to do with the kids one weekend, when I came up with this idea to make Edible Easter Baskets. We had been melting a lot of chocolate lately making yummy treats like S'Mousse Cups, Fluffernutter Chocolates and Nutella Creme Filled Chocolates. It occurred to me that the melted chocolate might work like glue to hold pretzels together. Sure enough, it not only works perfectly, it also tastes fabulous using Snyder's Gluten Free Pretzel Sticks and white chocolate chips. I'm sure you could use milk or dark chocolate chips too, if you'd prefer. You can easily make these dairy free, vegan, soy and nut free too. Just check the labels on the chocolate chips, candy and pretzels you use.
Child's Play
Making these delicious little baskets and nests were really fun for my elementary school aged kids. It wasn't the messiest thing we've ever done and they looked great, no matter how they built them. Did I mention that they tasted really yummy too??? We just assembled all of our supplies on the dining table, put down some parchment paper so they wouldn't stick to the plates, colored the coconut green and melted the chocolate. The rest was up to them. My son built a towering basket with a tiny nest on the ground and had a whole story around it. My daughter kept her nest low to the ground and covered with grass. So adorable and a fun little project for the weekend afternoon.
Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 bag white chocolate chips - any type of chocolate will work
- 1 bag gluten free pretzel sticks - I use Snyder's of Hanover
- 1 cup shredded sweetened coconut
- 5-10 drops green food coloring
- 1 small bag jelly beans or other egg shaped candies
- parchment paper or wax paper
Instructions
- Place shredded coconut in a ziplock bag, put a few drops of food coloring in the bag and shake it up until the coconut is colored uniformly. Add more food color until it is the shade of green you like. Set aside on your work table with a piece of parchment paper for each person to build their nest/basket on, the pretzels and jellybeans.
- Warm white chocolate chips in a microwaveable bowl in no more than 30 second intervals, stirring in between heating until almost all of the chips are melted. The rest will melt after you remove it from the microwave. This shouldn’t take more than 90 seconds to melt the whole bag at once in one bowl. If dividing into separate bowls and only heating half the bag of chips at a time (like I did in the pics), it shouldn’t take more than 60 seconds. Place melted chocolate along with other items for building the nests/baskets.
- Dip pretzels into melted chocolate one by one and build your nest/basket any way you’d like. Let cool at air temp or pop into the fridge for about 5 minutes until chocolate is solid. Decorate with green shredded coconut and jellybeans. It can remain at room temp until ready to chomp!
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