Once the basket is stuffed, you can choose to add a few final decorative touches that make it extra special. ' smaller gifts, like plush toys, to hold candy or baked treats,' she says. Instead, she says, look for smaller gifts that can double as a cache. If you incorporate loose candy, like jelly beans or robins eggs into your basket, Reimold advises against simply sprinkling them on top of the basket. This also works well for displaying larger or heavier items that tend to sink into Easter grass.Īfter your larger items are in place, it's time to sprinkle in smaller items like candy, bubbles, or small stuffed animals. You can also use tissue paper, fabric, ribbon, or faux moss to fill the bottom of your basket.Īnother tip comes from the pros at La Maison du Chocolate, a French chocolatier which counts its spring Easter basket as a top seller: Add floral foam to create dimension and 'pedestals' for items you want to highlight. 'I always begin styling an Easter basket with pastel, paper crinkle,' says Reimold, 'It is more environmentally friendly and a bit easier to clean up than the traditional plastic grass.' Plastic Easter grass is the classic choice, but Reimold suggests an upgrade. This allows your items to sit up higher in the basket so they're more visible, and also helps keep everything in place once it's arranged. Before you add in candy and gifts and show off your best Easter egg decorating ideas, create a base layer at the bottom of the basket. Serve filled with chocolate truffles, stemmed strawberries, or other treats.Once you've chosen your Easter basket, it's time to start arranging. Set the basket down on a serving platter and peel the plastic gently away from the pretzels. To unmold, lift the plastic liner out of the bowl. Use your fingers to arrange the pretzels in the bottom and up the sides of the lined mold.Continue to turn the chocolate-coated pretzels in the bowl until the chocolate seems a little thicker and cooler, but not yet starting to set. It’s okay if some of the pretzel shows through the chocolate, but they should be coated and the chocolate should still be sticky. Use a rubber spatula to turn the pretzels gently in the chocolate until they are completely coated add more pretzels if you can, as long as you can get them coated. Pour about 4 cups of the pretzels into the chocolate. Remove the bowl from the water and let the chocolate cool to lukewarm, (about 90° F–this will temper the chocolate relatively well, too, so you don’t have white streaks). Stir the chocolate frequently with a clean, dry spatula until the it’s melted and smooth.For milk chocolate, turn the heat off under the skillet and wait 60 seconds before setting the bowl of chocolate in the water. For dark chocolate, set the bowl directly in the water and adjust the heat so that the water is not quite simmering. Bring about an inch of water to a simmer in a wide skillet. Put the chocolate in another (clean, dry) medium stainless steel bowl.And no, foil is not better for lining the mold! Tip: If you wipe the bowl with a damp sponge or cloth, it will help to adhere the plastic a little better, but be sure that chocolate never comes in contact with a moist surface. If necessary, press another sheet into the bowl crosswise to cover any bare sides of the bowl. To prepare the mold, press a sheet of plastic wrap across the bottom and up the sides of the bowl, as smoothly as possible and with as few air bubbles as possible, letting the ends hang over the bowl.Equipment: Two-quart stainless steel bowl to use as a mold.4 to 6 cups thin salted pretzel sticks (such as Snyder’s of Hanover).4 ounces (115 grams) dark chocolate or 6 ounces (170 grams) milk chocolate, chopped.I used to do a lot of candy making at Easter–caramel and peanut butter eggs, molded chocolates, homemade Peep-type things, but now I really just do this and some breads. This recipe comes from Alice Medrich, who I think is incredible, and I originally saw it on Food52. In fact, I am thinking of having these be my kids’ Easter baskets this year–small, simple, beautiful, and ready to fill with a few candies and eggs. It has probably already circled the internet a few times, but if you haven’t, by chance, seen it, I would say this might be the one Easter idea that is worth doing, especially if you are short on time. I’ve been so in love with this idea since I first saw it two years ago.
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