chocolate Easter egg cookies

What do you get when you mix these gorgeous flower pots, Pioneer Woman's Chocolate Valentines, and Gimme Some Oven's Easter truffles? These cookies!

You see I was simply minding my own business browsing through PW's cookbook when lovely decorated chocolate hearts caught my eye. My first thought was, "Ohhh, why did I not make these at Valentine's?" Then the chocoholic voice inside piped up, "They're chocolate! CHOCOLATE! Forget Valentine's. Make them now!" And so I reasoned with my chocoholic self [because she's kind of pushy] that I would make the cookies, but I'll cut them out with my egg-shaped cookie cutter and decorate them for Easter.

Then I was faced with the dilemma of how to decorate them. I toyed with the idea of royal icing in white and how pretty [but time consuming] they would look. And then I remembered the flowerly design on the Anthropologie flower pots and the simple designs Ali used to decorate her truffles and it all just clicked in that beautiful way. 

First thing's first - make the dough! Click on over to get the recipe for PW's chocolate valentines. Feel free to use your favorite chocolate sugar cookie recipe or even gingerbread. Oh yes.

PW has step-by-step photos and directions on her site, but here's the basic plan:
Let the dough sit pretty in your fridge for two hours. Roll it out on a floured surface until it's about 1/4 inch thick. Use your cookie cutter to cut the dough into eggs. Repeat with remaining dough. Place the cookies on prepared baking sheets and bake at 350 degrees for 12 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool completely before decorating.

While the cookies are cooling, choose your stencils. Raid your craft stash for tiny scrapbook flowers or old stencils. If you're up for the challenge, make your own stencil. Use pretty paper hole punchers or draw a design of your own. Use a sharp x-acto knife to cut out your stencil.

Keep in mind that whatever stencils/shapes you use need to fit on the egg. Oh you might want to clean them too. Nobody wants paint in their cookies. What a sad, sad day that would be.

Once the cookies are cool and the stencils have been chosen, we're ready to decorate. Close any windows you might have open nearby. Powdered sugar has a way of dusting the whole room with just one gust of wind. Not that I'm speaking from experience or anything...

Place the stencil on top of the cookie. Dust the surface with powdered sugar using a fine mesh sieve. 

Place scrap paper over any parts of the egg that you don't want to be dusted.

Use clean tweezers [and a steady hand - hope you didn't have two shots of espresso this afternoon!] to lift the stencil/paper off the cookies. A small clean paintbrush brush can be used to fix any smudges.

Unless you're a professional baker, please don't be overly concerned with the cookies looking perfect. They are meant to be eaten, enjoyed, and look lovely in the process. Besides the moment someone takes a bite out of the egg your little design will go poof, but at least it will look pretty until then!

Mmmm chocolate. Enjoy!