(Mis)Fortune Eggs

These chocolate "fortune cookie" eggs are both a treat and a trick. I got the idea while brainstorming funny snacks I could have at my adult easter brunch. They're so easy to do that you can still pop some out time to surprise your Easter guests!

In a way, it's a bit of a party game. You know how when you go to a Chinese restaurant with friends you usually end up going around the table reading the fortunes from your cookies? This is what I'm doing for my Easter brunch guests; each hollow egg will contain a fortune, and one person's egg will have a shocking, decidedly un-sunny fortune that contrasts with everyone else's. Does anyone remember the "Rocko's Modern Life" episode where Filbert got a horrible fortune cookie?

If your friends appreciate a little offbeat/dark humor with their chocolate, this ought to get a good laugh (possibly preceded or followed by a hearty "WTF??").

Egg shaped candy molds --I got mine here and have been really happy with it. The size is comparable to a large chicken egg, which leaves you plenty of space for your chosen filling.

Wilton Candy Melts --these come in a vast rainbow of colors, but I went with classic dark cocoa. As much as I was dying to do lavender, light blue, or yellow eggs, I've found that most of my friends say they don't like "white" chocolate and I actually wanted people to eat these. You could also use chocolate chips in the flavor/ color of your choice.

Spoon

Microwavable Bowl

Cookie Sheet

Festive colored paper (at least one side clear for writing)

Scissors

Fine tip pen

Pour 1/3 of your Wilton Melts into a microwave safe bowl. This should yield 10-12 chicken egg size eggs.

Microwave on High for 30 seconds.

Stir

Microwave on High for another 30 seconds.

Stir.

This should leave you with an ideal texture for mold application. Thick, not totally liquid, and all the lumps should be gone. You want it viscous enough to stick to the sides of your mold without sliding down.

Dollop a spoonful of chocolate into an egg mold.

Use the back of the spoon to push the chocolate around and up the sides of the mold, almost painting with it. Full coverage may take 2-3 spoonfuls.

Don't worry about making the insides totally smooth. The outsides of your egg will be smooth and pretty, and that'll get the WOW factor from your recipients.

Make sure you bring the chocolate all the way up the sides, to the brim of the mold. Going a little outside the mold is fine, as the excess will likely fall off when you de-mold the eggs.

Hold your mold up to the light to check for thin spots. If you can see light shining through the chocolate, the wall may be too thin and at risk of breaking when you de-mold. Apply a spot of chocolate to any thin spots you find.

Refrigerate 15-20 minutes to set the chocolate.

* Save your excess chocolate because we'll use it to seal the eggs later. It's ok to let it solidify. You can always re-microwave it later when you're ready to work.

When de-molding the eggs, I like to work over a cookie sheet. This ensures your eggs will drop out onto a clean, level surface.

Sometimes the mere temperature change will cause eggs to drop out of the mold.

Flip the mold upside down onto the cookie sheet and then lift up. See if any drop out freely.

If not, a gentle press on the back of the mold with your thumb will usually loosen the chocolate.

If the thumb tactic still doesn't do it, give the mold a good slap on the cookie sheet.

I've used all three methods and haven't had a broken egg yet.

Now you have pairs of egg halves and you can see how wonderfully shiny and perfect the outside is. You can line up two halves and get a sense of your whole egg size.

Avoid excessive handling as the warmth of your hands can re-melt the chocolate and leave fingerprints in the surface. If I'm not ready to finish the eggs just yet, I like to store them in the fridge for safe keeping.

If you'd like to go the straight up sweets route, you obviously have a lot of great options for egg fillings: jelly beans, sweet tarts, or a homemade cream like that in this faux Cadbury recipe I tried recently.

For those endeavoring to make these into MisFortune Eggs, it's time to bust out a pen, paper, and your inner poet.

Cut paper into small strips. Make them at least 3/4 inch x 2 inches to give you room to write. I found these origami papers with fun prints that had a blank white back side.

Write out the fortunes, one for each egg. Google "fortune cookies" to get inspired by some classics, or make up your own. Bonus points if you can make them all work with the "in bed" rule! I chose to go with some standards that are rather plain, to help contrast the joke egg.

Fold or roll fortunes so they'll fit comfortably inside the eggs.

Re-heat your leftover chocolate from earlier, 30 seconds in on High in the microwave. If it isn't quite melted after that, give it another 15 seconds.

Put your fortune into one half of an egg.

Hold two opposing halves together to form a whole.

Using a spoon, spread a thin line of melted chocolate down the seam of the egg. You can use the tip of the spoon to smooth as you go. Continue to rotate in your hand, sealing up the mid seam entirely. You'll notice that my seam application isn't as glossy smooth as the rest of the egg. If anyone has tips on sealing hollow candies I'd love to hear them. Ultimately, I find that my guests don't usually sweat perfection as much as I do, so this works well enough for the purpose at hand, even if it's a bit rougher than I'd like.

Place eggs back in the fridge 10 minutes. I find it is best to place them in a bowl or pan with high sides to keep them from rolling everywhere. Rest eggs so that the seam runs parallel to the pan surface. This will reduce the risk of sliding or falling open before cooling.

Your Misfortune Eggs are ready to serve to your (un) lucky guests! Their first bite will reveal their fortune, so just sit back and watch the laughs.

I suggest keeping the eggs refrigerated until you're ready to serve. While the chocolate should be fine at room temp, one sunny window could ruin everything.

If you want to get extra fancy, you can wrap your eggs in foil candy wrappers. The gold wrappers I got were also a Wilton product, and were a bit too small for the eggs. Since using two wrappers to get full coverage yielded a rather unpolished look, I served mine au natural. Wrappers may be a good idea if you plan to transport these, like taking them in to the office for co-workers, etc.

You can find MisFortune Eggs in the Pranks challenge and Eggs challenge. Send over a vote or tell me your funny, foreboding fortune ideas!