Homemade Easter Eggs with Salted Caramel Popcorn

Wow your friends and family with your very own homemade Easter eggs. This recipe is for dark chocolate Easter eggs filled with crunchy salted caramel popcorn lusciously coated in more chocolate. But you could always make them with milk chocolate if you prefer.

How did this happen? I woke up this morning and realised that Easter is very nearly upon us. That will teach me to go and have a fun day off in the middle of the week. I quickly gathered pans, bowls and lots of chocolate together and a few hours later, I ended up with these homemade Easter eggs with dark chocolate salted caramel popcorn.

Salted caramel popcorn is a delicious snack all by itself, but when covered in luscious chocolate it’s raised up to a completely different level. I found this out recently when I reviewed Divine’s milk chocolate popcorn egg.

If I was going to make chocolate covered popcorn for my own delectation, I’d use a mixture of dark and milk chocolate, but the Easter eggs I envisaged were destined for my mother and my mother’s favourite chocolate is dark.

The first thing I needed to do was pop some corn. I was a bit worried about this; the only popping corn I have has been sitting in a jar, unloved for more years than I care to remember. Would it pop? Amazingly it did – phew! I then made a dry caramel with a pinch of Cornish sea salt and coated my popcorn with it as best I could. It’s a bit tricky as it hardens quite quickly.

Tempering Chocolate

The most difficult stage in the process was tracking down my Easter egg moulds. Now where on earth did I squirrel them away? After a few unsuccessful attempts at unpacking boxes, I managed to find them. So now all I had to do was temper some chocolate.

My method of tempering chocolate is a bit hit and miss. You might want to do things a little more scientifically and use a thermometer. You’ll find an in-depth guide over at Patisserie Makes Perfect. The temperatures needed for the different chocolates are as follows:

Dark Chocolate

Melt until it reaches 40-45℃ (104-113℉) → cool to 27-28℃ (80-82℉) → reheat to a working temperature of 31-32℃ (88-89℉).

Milk Chocolate

Melt until it reaches 32.5℃ (90℉) → cool to 27-28℃ (80-82℉) → reheat to a working temperature of no more than 30℃ (86℉).

White Chocolate

Melt until it reaches 30.5℃ (87℉) → cool to 27℃ (80℉) → reheat to a working temperature of 28℃ (82℉).

The whole process went well from start to finish and my chocolate turned out to be shiny, snappy and nicely tempered. I reckoned my homemade Easter eggs with dark chocolate salted popcorn were a roaring success.

Easter

There was quite a lot of the dark chocolate popcorn leftover – hooray! I turned it out onto a silicone mat, letting it fall naturally into clusters and left it to set. The popcorn keeps well in an air tight tin, but I can’t promise how long it will last.

Come Easter Day, I’ll be tripping off down my mother’s lane with a basket of eggs and an Easter cake which I’ll be posting about on Sunday. I also have a rather fabulous baking competition to announce, so do visit then to find out more.

If you don’t want to make your own Easter eggs, there’s still time to go and buy some. You may want to visit my Easter Feaster post for some ideas.

Homemade Chocolate Easter Eggs: Top Tips

I generally wipe a little sunflower oil over my moulds before using. This makes unmoulding the eggs a little easier and gives a shinier finish.

If you’d prefer to fill your homemade Easter eggs with something other than popcorn, try my recipe for Biscoff cheesecake filled Easter eggs. It’s a good one.

Keep in Touch

Thanks for visiting Tin and Thyme. If you make these homemade chocolate Easter eggs, I’d love to hear about it in the comments below. And do please rate the recipe. Have you any top tips? Do share photos on social media too and use the hashtag #tinandthyme, so I can spot them.

For more delicious and nutritious recipes follow me on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Flipboard or Pinterest. And don’t forget to SUBSCRIBE to my weekly newsletter. Or why not join the conversation in our Healthy Vegetarian Whole Food Recipes Facebook Group?

If you’d like more Easter recipes, follow the link and you’ll find I have quite a lot of them. All delicious and nutritious, of course.

Choclette x

Homemade Easter Eggs. PIN IT.

Homemade Easter Eggs – The Recipe

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5 from 3 votes

Homemade Easter Eggs with Dark Chocolate Salted Caramel Popcorn

Chocolate Easter eggs filled with crunchy salted caramel popcorn lusciously coated in more chocolate.

Cook ModeToggle to keep screen awake

Prep Time30 minutes mins

Cook Time10 minutes mins

Setting Time2 hours hrs

Total Time40 minutes mins

Course: Gift, Snack

Cuisine: British

Keyword: dark chocolate, Easter, easter eggs, popcorn, salted caramel, vegan

Servings: 4 Easter eggs

Calories: 691kcal

Author: Choclette @ Tin and Thyme

Ingredients

• 1 tbsp sunflower oil
• 50 g popping corn
• 150 g golden caster sugar
• 1 pinch sea salt flakes (I used Cornish Sea Salt)
• 300 g dark chocolate ( I used Callaubaut 60%)

Instructions

• Heat the oil in a large pan over a moderate to high heat.
  1 tbsp sunflower oil
• Add three corn kernels and when the first one pops, add in the rest. Shake to coat them, then put the lid on. Allow the corn to do it’s thing and when the popping has nearly stopped, take the lid off the pan and the pan off the heat.
  50 g popping corn
• Tip the corn into a bowl and wash the pan. Put it back on a moderately low heat.
• Pour in the sugar and add the salt. Leave the sugar to melt, then allow it to bubble for a couple of minutes until it’s become a darkish red colour. Be careful not to let it burn.
  150 g golden caster sugar, 1 pinch sea salt flakes
• Place the popcorn back in the pan and stir to coat as quickly as you can. Scrape it out onto a lined tin and leave to set for a couple of minutes. Break apart when cool.
• Fill a small saucepan with an inch or two of water and bring to a near simmer. Place a bowl over the top, ensuring it doesn’t touch the water. Fill it with ¾ of the chocolate and leave the chocolate to melt. Keep the water hot, but not boiling.
  300 g dark chocolate
• As soon as the chocolate has melted, remove the bowl from the pan and add the remaining chocolate. Stir until melted and smooth.
• Use a teaspoon to coat the Easter egg moulds.
• Add the popcorn to the remaining chocolate and stir to coat. Spoon some of the chocolate popcorn into the moulds and leave to set.
• Spoon any remaining popcorn onto a silicone mat or some baking paper and leave to set. Store in an air tight tin for up to a week.

Notes

Makes 2-4 medium sized eggs.

You can use whatever type of chocolate you like, but the higher the quality, the better the result. Make sure the chocolate is dairy free if destined for vegans.

Please note: calories and other nutritional information are per serving. They’re approximate and will depend on serving size and exact ingredients used.

Nutrition Estimate

Calories: 691kcal | Carbohydrates: 79g | Protein: 7g | Fat: 39g | Saturated Fat: 21g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 2g | Monounsaturated Fat: 14g | Trans Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 2mg | Sodium: 114mg | Potassium: 591mg | Fiber: 9g | Sugar: 55g | Vitamin A: 51IU | Calcium: 58mg | Iron: 9mg

Tried this recipe?Leave a comment below letting us know how you got on and do share a photo on Instagram. Tag @choclette8 or use hashtag #tinandthyme.

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These homemade Easter eggs with dark chocolate salted caramel popcorn are my very chocolatey entry to this month’s #WeShouldCocoa. If you’ve made blogged anything chocolatey this month, why not join in?

I’m sending my homemade Easter eggs off to Elizabeth’s Kitchen Diary for the No Waste Food Challenge. I could have consigned that ancient corn to the bin, but I don’t like being ageist and it deserved a chance.