Easter Egg Cookie Balls Recipes

Steps:

• Mix cream cheese and cookie crumbs until blended. Shape into 12 (1-inch) egg-shaped balls, using a level tablespoon for each. Place on waxed paper-covered baking sheet. Freeze 15 minutes.
• Microwave chocolate in microwaveable bowl on HIGH for 30 seconds; stir. Microwave 30 seconds more; stir. Continue heating and stirring in 10-second increments until completely melted. Pour half the melted chocolate into separate bowl; stir in pink food coloring. Stir purple food coloring into remaining chocolate.
• Dip each of 6 balls in pink-colored chocolate using a fork, letting any excess drip back into the bowl; return to baking sheet. Drizzle evenly with half of the purple-tinted chocolate. Repeat with remaining tinted chocolates.
• Refrigerate 15 minutes or until chocolates are firm. Reserve sprinkles for later use.

Steps:

• Cream powdered sugar and butter for cookies in a bowl with an electric mixer until smooth. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Stir in lemon zest.
• Combine sifted flour with baking powder and salt. Sift again, then add to the butter mixture alternately with the milk, stirring after each addition until just combined. Cover and refrigerate at least 2 hours or overnight.
• Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Grease a cookie sheet.
• Remove cookie dough from the refrigerator. Lightly dust your hands with flour and roll 2 tablespoons dough between your palms into a 3-inch long cylinder with tapering ends. Place 2 inches apart on the prepared cookie sheet.
• Bake in the preheated oven until cookies are a pale straw color, about 12 minutes. Remove from the oven and immediately transfer cookies to wire racks. Allow to cool thoroughly, about 30 minutes.
• While the cookies are cooling, prepare icings. Combine powdered sugar, lemon juice, and warm water for lemon icing in one bowl, and combine powdered sugar, warm water, chocolate, and vanilla for chocolate icing in a second bowl. Stir both icings until smooth and thin enough to pour.
• Put waxed paper under the racks of cookies. Pour about 1 tablespoon lemon icing over a cookie, beginning in the center and continuing around the sides until cookie is evenly coated. Repeat to frost 1/2 of the cookies with lemon icing and the other 1/2 with chocolate icing. Scoop up an icing that drips on the waxed paper and stir into the remaining icing. Use extra icing as needed to coat cookies. Let icing dry until no longer sticky, about 30 minutes.
• Use tubes or pressurized cans of decorating icing to make your own fanciful design of flowers, geometric shapes, or Easter motifs.

Steps:

• For the sugar dough: Whisk together the flour, salt and baking soda in a medium bowl. Beat together the vanilla and egg in a small bowl.
• Beat the butter, granulated sugar and confectioners' sugar together in a large bowl with an electric mixer on low speed. Once incorporated, increase the speed to medium and beat until slightly creamy, about 3 minutes. Stop and scrape down the sides of the bowl using a rubber spatula as needed.
• Reduce the speed to low again, slowly pour in the egg mixture and beat until combined. Add the flour mixture in 3 additions, beating until combined after each and increasing the speed as the dough gets thicker to keep the beaters spinning. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and the beaters as needed. Once all the flour is just incorporated, increase the speed to medium-high and beat until the dough is very smooth, about 5 minutes.
• Turn the dough out of the bowl and bring it together. Divide into 2 even pieces. Shape each piece into a flat square and wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate the dough for at least 3 hours or overnight.
• Position racks in the upper and lower thirds of the oven and preheat to 350 degrees F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment.
• Dust another sheet of parchment with flour and put 1 dough piece on top. Dust with more flour and top with another sheet of parchment. Roll the dough out between the parchment sheets into a square about 1/4 inch thick (and about 11 by 9 inches) and place in the freezer for 5 minutes. Repeat with the remaining piece of dough.
• Working with 1 dough sheet at a time, cut out cookies with a 2 1/2- by 2 2/4-inch Easter egg cookie cutter and arrange on the prepared baking sheets, about 2 inches apart. Refrigerate while you cut the remaining cookies. Reroll any scraps of dough and repeat the freezing, cutting and refrigerating process until all the dough is used. Repeat with the remaining dough sheet.
• Bake, rotating the baking sheets front to back and bottom to top about halfway through, until cookies are golden brown around the edges, about 12 minutes. Let cool completely on the baking sheets set on a wire rack, about 30 minutes.
• For the icing: Meanwhile, sift the confectioners' sugar into a large bowl. Add milk, 1 tablespoon at a time, whisking until the icing is thick enough to show the line of the whisk that disappears within about 8 seconds.
• Place 3 tablespoons white icing in each of 3 separate bowls. Tint each a different color and cover with plastic wrap (see Cook's Note). Place 1/4 cup white icing in another bowl, covering the remaining white icing with plastic wrap so it does not dry out. Drizzle one of the colored icings (about 1 tablespoon) onto the 1/4 cup white icing and swirl with a toothpick.
• Next, dip the surface of a cookie in the swirled icing and remove slowly, allowing any excess to drip off. Shake the cookie over the bowl of icing to remove any excess. Gently smooth the icing with a toothpick to fill in any gaps, if necessary. Place the finished cookies on a wire rack over a baking sheet. Use the tip of the toothpick to pop any bubbles that appear. Drizzle more colored icing as needed. Repeat this process with the next 2 colors and the remaining white icing until all the cookies are decorated. Let set for 30 minutes. Store single layers of cookies, with parchment in between, in a tightly sealed container for up to 1 week.

Steps:

• Heat oven to 190C/170C fan/gas 5. Line two baking sheets with baking parchment. Tip the butter, sugars and vanilla into a bowl. Beat with a hand-held electric whisk until pale and fluffy. Add the egg and beat again. Tip in the flour, bicarb and a pinch of salt, then use a spatula to mix together before adding the chocolate chunks and about half the crushed mini eggs (set aside the larger pieces) and mix again until everything is combined.
• Scoop golf-ball-sized mounds of cookie dough onto the baking sheets, making sure you leave plenty of space between each one. (You should fit 4-6 cookies on each, so you'll have to bake in batches to make the total 20 cookies.) Push the remaining mini egg pieces into the tops. Can be frozen at this point for up to three months. Defrost thoroughly in the fridge before baking. Bake for 15-18 mins, swapping the sheets around halfway through. For soft and chewy cookies, the cookies should be golden around the edges but still pale and soft in the middle. If you prefer a biscuit texture, you will need to bake them a little longer.
• Remove from the oven and leave to cool for 10 mins before transferring to a wire rack, then bake the second batch. Continue until all the cookies are baked. Will keep in an airtight container for up to a week.