Chocolate Chip Cookie Nests

I'm not someone with a complicated palate.  When it really comes down to it, all I really want is chocolate cake and cookies.  So this Easter I gave in to my inner child and went for it ... chocolate chip cookies in the shape of nests!  It combines my love of chocolate chip cookies with my obsession with mini eggs.

I slightly adapted a cookie recipe that I found in Baking Illustrated.  The one big thing that this recipe calls for is melted butter.  Most recipes I have seen call for room temperature butter but this will change your mind.  Not only does it work extremely well but it's also much faster to melt butter than it is to get it to room temperature.

Best Ever Chocolate Chip Cookies: (makes 24 nests)

• 3/4 cup melted butter
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup granulated white sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1/2 tsp kosher salt
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1 1/2 cup dark chocolate chips
• 1 bag (188gm) Cadbury mini eggs

Slightly modified from Baking Illustrated

Directions

Step 1:  

Preheat your oven to 325 degrees.  Take out your mini muffin tin.

Step 2:

Add your melted butter, brown sugar, and white sugar to the bowl of your stand mixer and mix on medium speed with your paddle attachment.  Mix until combined.

Step 3:

In a small bowl, add your eggs, vanilla, and salt.  Pour one of the eggs into your butter/sugar bowl and mix on medium speed until combined. Give it a good mix with a spatula.  Then add the rest of your egg mixture. Mix on medium, and mix with the spatula again.

Step 4:

In a side bowl sift the flour with the baking powder.  Then add this to the rest of the mixture.  Mix on low until combined, you don't need to mix it too long, 10-15 seconds should do.

Step 5:

Pour in your chocolate chips.  You can use your judgement here, if you like lots of chocolate chips then 1 1/2 cups should be good, but you can add more if you like.  You could also add less if you don't like too many.

Step 6:

Grease your mini muffin tin.  I used Pam Baking because it simultaneously greases and flours your pan.  Now put about 1 Tbsp of the cookie dough in each of the mini muffin compartments and push down a little on the centre to make a little well.

Step 7:

Gently press 3 mini eggs into each of the cookies.  Bake for about 15-18 minutes until the tops are slightly browned.

When they're done, you can let them cool in the pan.  Ta-da!