A No-Bake Adorable Easter Treat: Chocolate Birds' Nests

Impress your guests on easter with these treats!

Several of my recipes have been highlighted on food sites like Foodgawker, Tastespotting and Serious Eats, which makes me very happy. Before I even started a recipe blog for my family, Foodgawker was a site I would frequent when looking for fabulous recipes. In fact it's still one of my favorite sites to go to to find great recipes. It has also introduced me to some amazing food blogs. Of course the well established blogs are wonderful but I especially love to read the smaller bogs, the ones that share real life day to day cooking, kinda like mine. One that caught my attention was Chef in Training, it's a great blog about woman refining her cooking skills for her family. The one recipe that I adapted from her blog is a dessert called "No Bake Chocolate Egg Nest Cookies." It's a no-bake recipe so I just had to make it. I'm not a big baker so any dessert that's simple and delicious is on my radar screen. I actually made it the day I made the "Saltine Toffee" recipe. I whipped up both recipes in no time. Chef in Training made her nests using chow mien noodles and butterscotch chips and I made mine with pretzels and coconut. They taste delicious but the best part was really how stink'n cute they look. They are a little messy to eat since they melt in your hands quickly. Not something you want to give young kids wearing white or in a room with white furniture. I used the malted colored eggs that I bought from Dash's but you could add bird peeps, M-n-M's or jelly beans. This recipe is one that will impress based on the presentation alone. Tyler helped me make this recipe so having your little ones help out is fun, especially when they get to add the candy props in the nests. Salute to the most stink'n cute no-bake easter treats!

Mold into nests like this

Aren't they the cutest!

No-Bake Chocolate Nests (Click to print recipe)

Serves 12

Ingredients:

• 16 ounces of semi sweet chocolate chips
• 4 cups pretzel sticks crushed
• 1/2 cup of shredded coconut
• candy eggs, peeps, m-n-m's to place in nests

In a microwave safe bowl melt chocolate chips about 30 seconds or so. Add coconut and crushed pretzel sticks. Stir until chocolate has coated the pretzels well. Using a muffin pan, spray with a non stick spray. Drop spoonfuls of the chocolate pretzels into muffin tin and mold until formed into nests. Let cool for at least 2 hours in freezer or refrigerator. Add eggs.

Food Impressions:

Nate: "Mom, I need a napkin with these, like 5 napkins!" "Delicious!"

Tyler: "Oh my gosh, they turned out so awesome."

Zachary: "Whooooa!" In Zachary's very loud excited voice…he loved them.

Andrea: "A dessert to impress."