Easter Cookies

Easter is a time of chocolate as we gift one another with chocolate eggs & treats. Each year I like to make my own chocolate eggs to give to friends & family, these do usually come in the form of my own Easter fried eggs however (me & chocolate moulds do not get on).  With all of this chocolate (& don’t get me wrong, I love chocolate!) it can get a little tiresome. Similar to eating the exact same meal over & over again, it loses its appeal, it’s gratification.

This year I decided to try & create something new to give to my friends & family… something simple enough to make, small enough to gift & still reminiscent of Easter… biscuits. Easter cookies & biscuits are a traditional British treat which are given to guests over the Easter weekend. Traditionally these would be butter biscuits made using cassia oil (Chinese cinnamon) & currants.

One of my favourite flavours of Easter however is simnel cake, a light fruit cake with a hidden layer of marzipan, topped with even more marzipan (can there ever be too much marzipan?). So in place of a traditional Easter biscuit I wanted to create something more modern containing all of my favourite flavours of Easter.

Being a glutton, I opted for Easter cookies as opposed to biscuits as these are much larger to contain all of the ingredients I wanted to use. In gesture to a classic simnel cake I’ve added some dried fruit in the form of juicy sultanas & chunks of golden chewy marzipan. In reference to Easter I’ve added one of my favourite little Easter treats, Mini Eggs, not only do they add a nice pop of colour but also happiness, because everyone loves a Mini Egg!

These are a super sweet treat, a great alternative to chocolate over Easter. They’re fantastic with a cup of tea (if only for the pleasure of breaking them in half to become dunkable) or simply to gift to anyone with a sweet tooth. The dough itself can also be frozen if you’re not as gluttonous as me & only want to bake a few.