So there's not really an easy way to describe this, except to say it is these are the ultimate Easter brookies! What is a brookie, you may ask? Well it's a combination of a cookie and a brownie. What makes this one 'Easter' themed? It is a fudgy mini creme egg brownie baked on top of a soft mini egg cookie!
Ingredients
This Easter brookie recipe can be divided into two halves: the cookie layer and the brownie layer.
Mini Egg Cookie Layer
For the mini egg cookie layer, you'll need:
- Butter - unsalted butter, softened at room temperature.
- Sugar - a combination of light brown sugar (muscovado), firmly packed, and superfine granulated sugar (or caster sugar).
- Egg
- Vanilla extract
- Flour - all purpose flour or plain flour.
- Salt
- Baking soda
- Cadbury's Mini Egg candies - half whole and half lightly crushed to give a good distribution.
Mini Creme Egg Brownie Layer
And for the fudgy Cadbury's mini creme egg brownie on top, you'll need:
- Sugar - superfine granulated sugar (or caster sugar).
- Powder sugar - also known as icing sugar or confectioners sugar. If your powdered sugar is particularly lumpy, you will want to sift this before incorporating into the batter to prevent patches of unmixed powder.
- Flour - either all purpose flour or plain flour.
- Cocoa powder - for richest flavour, use dutch-processed.
- Salt
- Oil - flavorless oils such as canola oil or sunflower oil work best. If you like olive oil, you can use olive oil in this recipe, but it will impact the flavour, so is not recommended.
- Water - just a little tap water.
- Vanilla extract
- Egg
- Cadbury's Mini Creme Eggs - you could also use full size creme eggs in this recipe, but these will need to be cut into smaller pieces to distribute.
How to Make Easter Brookies
This recipe for Easter brookies is comprised of an easy mini egg cookie bar base and a fudgy mini creme egg brownie top. This is a seasonal adaptation of my classic Brookie recipe and follows similar processes.
For the two layers, you'll need a couple of mixing bowls and spatula. It is also useful to have a hand held electric whisk for the cookie bar base, but this is not essential.
Making Mini Egg Cookie Bar Base
To make the base, simply cream together the sugars with the butter until light. Then add the egg and vanilla, beating to incorporate.
Sift the flour, baking soda and salt together into the sugar mixture and stir to form a smooth cookie dough. Then add the mini eggs to this and stir to distribute through the batter.
Pour this batter into a lined square baking dish and spread evenly. Set this aside while you prepare the brownie layer.
Tip on Crushing Mini Eggs
I recommend adding half of the Cadbury Mini Egg candies whole and half crushed. This gives a good diversity of texture to the cookie bar base.
If you would rather add them all whole or all crushed, this is completely fine and totally up to your preferences. It will not impact the recipe, but adding whole mini eggs will mean that they don't distribute as widely in the cookie base. Adding only crushed pieces will mean that they distribute more widely and there won't me any larger bits of mini egg.
To crush the mini eggs, it is best to use a large knife or other heavy flat object and press the mini eggs individually to smash. This allows you more control in crushing them. Do not cut mini eggs or try to slice these as the rounded candy shell will be slippery. This is liable to cause a mess and is potentially dangerous.
Making Mini Creme Egg Brownie Layer
The mini creme egg brownie recipe follows the same basic process as my other brownie recipes and is best done using two bowls.
In one larger bowl, whisk together the wet ingredients: the oil, water, vanilla and egg. Meanwhile in the second bowl stir together the dry ingredients: the sugar, powdered sugar, flour, cocoa powder and salt.
Then add the dry to the wet and stir with a spatula to create a thick but glossy brownie batter. Pour this over top the cookie layer in your square baking pan and smooth out carefully with an offset spatula.
Top the brownie layer with Cadbury's Mini Creme Eggs - I like to add a few whole, pressed into the batter and a few cut in half, placed with the cream inside facing up.
Using Mini Creme Eggs versus Full Size Creme Eggs
The option to use miniature creme eggs versus the full size versions is entirely up to you. If you opt to use full size creme eggs, you should cut these into smaller bits, either halving all of the eggs or chopping some into even smaller portions to dot across the top of the brownie.
Miniature creme eggs are often easier to handle and slice as the centres are less runny and the chocolate shells more dense (proportionate to the whole egg).
FAQs
Brookie keep very well and are a great make ahead treat. These Easter brookie bars are no different and can keep easily at room temperature for about 4 days. For best results store in an airtight container on the counter (but truth be told, I've left them open to the air and they've still stayed fresh for days!).
Yes! If you want to get ahead of holiday baking or in fact preserve leftover slices longer, you can absolutely freeze these bars. Allow these to cool completely before slicing and transferring to a freezer safe container. Slices can last in the freezer for up to three months. Defrost before consuming.
You most certainly can! If you want to make the constituent parts of this dessert bar separately, that is definitely doable.
For the mini creme egg brownie, I would recommend still lining your baking dish with parchment. I would then suggest doubling the recipe to ensure a thicker brownie (though you will not need to double the number of mini creme eggs used). Bake for a similar amount of time, checking for a toothpick to come out mostly clean. Then allow to cool for 2 hours prior to slicing for best gooey Cadbury's mini creme egg brownie.
For the mini egg cookie bar, similarly, I would recommend lining your baking tray with parchment. Unlike the brownie, there is no need to double this recipe if making just as a cookie bar. Bake until the top is going golden and the centre appears set. Allow to cool before slicing - this will allow a soft cookie to set up enough to slice.
If you're looking for more Easter treats, check out:
Easter Brookie Recipe - Mini Egg Cookie Base and Mini Creme Egg Brownie
Equipment
- 8" square baking tray
- large mixing bowl
Ingredients
Ingredients for Mini Egg Cookie Layer
- ¾ cup all purpose flour or plain flour
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 6 tablespoon unsalted butter softened at room temperature
- ⅓ cup light brown sugar (muscovado) firmly packed
- 3 tablespoon superfine granulated sugar or caster sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 4 oz Cadbury's mini eggs half whole and half lightly crushed
Ingredients for Mini Creme Egg Brownie Layer
- ½ cup superfine granulated sugar or caster sugar
- ⅓ cup all purpose flour or plain flour
- ⅓ cup cocoa powder dutch processed
- ¼ cup powdered sugar or icing sugar
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 egg
- ¼ cup flavorless oil such as canola oil or sunflower oil
- 1 tablespoon water
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 9 Cadbury's mini creme eggs half whole and half divided by slicing in half
Instructions
- Begin by lining your square baking pan with parchment paper and pre-heating the oven to 325°F (165C/150C Fan).
Instructions for the Mini Egg Cookie Layer
- Begin by creaming together the sugar, brown sugar and softened butter until light. Then add the egg and vanilla, beating to combine.
- Sift the flour, baking soda and salt into the mixture and mix with a spatula until you have a smooth batter.
- Add the mini eggs (see note) and stir to distribute.
- Pour the batter into the lined baking tray and spread into an even layer with an offset spatula. Set aside while you prepare the brownie layer.
Instructions for Mini Creme Egg Brownie Layer
- In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the egg, oil, water and vanilla to combine.
- Meanwhile in a smaller bowl, stir together the dry ingredients - the sugar, powder sugar, flour, cocoa powder and salt.
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and stir with a spatula to make a thick brownie batter.
- Pour this over the cookie layer in your baking tray and gently spread using a spatula until you have an even layer.
- Press your mini creme eggs (both whole and halved) into the top of the brownie batter as shown in the images in the blog post above.
- Bake in the centre of the pre-heated oven for about 40 minutes, checking for a toothpick inserted in the centre to come out mostly clean.
- Remove from the oven and allow to cool in the tray for 2 hours before slicing.
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