RECIPES | Easter is just around the corner and it’s time to create delicious Easter treats for friends and family. This year, we teamed up with Fairtrade Australia to create something a bit more complex than usual, and it turned out really well. It’s a delicious combination of creamy avocado, tart lemon curd, salty buttery panko and sweet rich chocolate.
For this recipe, we used the Oxfam Rich & Creamy Dark Chocolate which is a socially conscious 49% cocoa chocolate. Oxfam sources its cocoa from a group of cooperatives in West Africa and other regions around the world, including Peru and Ecuador. These are areas where most of the cocoa farmers live far below the level of absolute poverty. This Fairtrade chocolate allows the farmers to receive a fair price for their cocoa which enables them to invest in their communities and future, and access opportunities they wouldn’t be able to on their own.
Even better, the chocolate we used includes a Fairtrade Premium, which is an additional sum of money over and above the fair price they receive for their cocoa through the Fairtrade system. Workers and farmers are able to vote on how this extra money is used in their community. We were inspired by the story of Grace Addai, a cocoa farmer from Ghana, whose co-operative Kuapa Kokoo Union has used such funds to invest in education, healthcare and women’s business development. “The best thing about working here is that I can provide for myself and take care of my children,” says Grace. “All my children have had the chance to go to school. They have done very well: one is a doctor, another a nurse, the third a policeman and the others are still studying.”
Preparation Time: 45 minutes / Refrigeration Time: 60 minutes / Makes 6-8 eggs
Ingredients
- 50g brown sugar
- 2g table salt
- 125g double cream
- 250g Oxfam Fairtrade Rich & Creamy Dark Chocolate
- 125 avocado, pureed
- 20g panko bread crumbs
- 10g unsalted butter
- 30g lemon curd
- chocolate egg mold, preferably silicone
- 25g modelling chocolate (optional)
- food coloring (optional)
- edible glitter (optional)
Method
- Melt 125g of chocolate in a heat resistant bowl in the microwave or in a double boiler.
- Pour one tablespoon of melted chocolate into each of the chocolate molds and thoroughly coat all surfaces. You will not use all the chocolate.
- Remove any excess chocolate that is pooling in the base of the mold and place the mold in the refrigerator to solidify.
- While the chocolate molds are setting, add 125g of chocolate, the brown sugar, a pinch of salt and the cream into a saucepan and place on a low heat.
- Once the chocolate has melted and the sugar has dissolved, remove from the heat.
- Add the avocado puree to the saucepan and mix well.
- Place the avocado/chocolate mixture into the fridge.
- Remove the chocolate mold from the fridge and repeat steps 2 and 3. Making sure you concentrate on making it thicker near the top where you will join the molds together.
- While the chocolate mold is hardening add the butter to a frying pan and heat until the butter has melted.
- Once the butter has melted, add the panko and a pinch of salt and cook of 2-3 minutes until the panko becomes golden brown.
- Remove the panko from the heat and allow it to cool to room temperature.
- Remove the molds and chocolate/avocado mix from the fridge.
- Fill 2/3 of each mold with the chocolate avocado mix, leaving a hole in middle to add the panko and lemon curd.
- Add a pinch of panko into the hole and then fill the remaining space with lemon curd so that the filling is level with the edge of the chocolate/mold.
- Place in the fridge for 5 minutes.
- While the molds are cooling, slightly melt the left over chocolate that was used to create the molds. You need the chocolate to be soft and not completely runny.
- Remove the molds from the fridge and apply some of the soft chocolate to the edge of the chocolate shells.
- Place the two halves of the egg molds together and refrigerate immediately for at least 30 minutes.
- After this time very gently remove the chocolate eggs from their molds.
- At this point it is time to decorate (optional).
- Divide the modelling chocolate into three even balls.
- Add a drop of different colored food coloring to each ball or glitter.
- Roll into little balls and place these on the chocolate egg using a very small amount of melted chocolate in whatever pattern or style you would like.
- Refrigerate once again for another 10 minutes then they are ready to be eaten.
Notes
I have a preference for melting chocolate via the microwave rather than a double boiler as its quick and requires less effort. However, it is much easier to burn the chocolate hence I recommend heating the chocolate for a minute on a moderate heat then placing it back in the microwave at 20 second intervals. Ensure that you stir the chocolate after each 20 second interval so that it doesn’t burn. As a reference it took 1 minute and 40 seconds to melt the 125g of chocolate in my 1,100W microwave.
Sticking the two halves of the molds together can be tricky. If you are struggling there is a way around it. You can melt some of the excess chocolate and pour it on top of the avocado/chocolate/lemon curd. Using a palette knife or ruler make sure the layer of chocolate is flat and does not exceed the top of the mold. You then place the mold back into the fridge for 10 minutes. Once the chocolate has solidified, use some soft/semi-melted chocolate to glue the two halves together and refrigerate once again. Then you are ready to decorate.