Hope you all had a Happy Easter!!

Hope you all had a lovely easter, had a great break, and got given a fair amount of chocolate! In the spirit of easter my sister and I decided to make some chocolate treats which I thought I would share with you on here..... 

White chocolate and linseed Rice krispy 'chicks' and some dark chocolate cashew nut and apricot 'nests'...... You can guess which ones were my favourite.... YEP the dark chocolate ones, although the white chocolate batch went down a treat with the rest of the crew!

So why is chocolate not ALL that bad?!

Chocolate in it's purest form is actually quite good for you!! Cocoa is full of antioxidants, consequently helping your body to fight cancer; it is said to fight PMS, release endorphines,  and boost your libido,  all in all helping your mind and body function! However, everything in moderation.... everything else that goes into the average chocolate bar such as huge amounts of sugar, additives, and fat make chocolate in general quite calorific as well as spike your sugar levels in huge intervals. Therefore, the darker the chocolate, the higher the percentage of cocoa, the more beneficial your square of chocolate will be and generally speaking.... the less guilt you will feel chowing down a large bunch of the stuff! 

However....

White chocolate, is technically speaking not chocolate. It does not contain any cocoa solids, but only the cocoa butter extracted from the cocoa bean mixed with sugar, milk and soya lethicin. Therefore, one would not gain the same benefits from consuming white chocolate than they would consuming dark chocolate (around 50%-85% cocoa), nor even milk chocolate (30%-50% cocoa solids). However, again, nothing is bad in moderation, and its easter after all!! 

So guys... if you, like me, have a bunch of left-over chocolate sitting around to be played with in the kitchen, go ahead and whip yourself up some of these little treats! They really are very sweet looking, super easy and have I mentioned that they taste great?!

Ingredients:

White chocolate chicks:

2 cups rice krispies

200g white chocolate

1/4 cup linseeds

raisins and apricots to decorate

Dark Chocolate Nests:

150g dark chocolate (70% more)

2 shredded wheat biscuits

8 apricots, chopped up into small pieces

1/4 cup raw/ unsalted cashew nuts, chopped 

1 bag of mini eggs

You will need some cup-cake cases too....

Directions:

On a tray, set out your cup cake cases ready for you to spoon the mixture into....

Each batch will need to be done separately! 

For the White chocolate chicks....

Prepare your apricot beaks by chopping the apricot in half and the twice more into triangular shapes. They dont need to be perfect! Set these aside.

In a glass bowl melt the chocolate either over some hot water on the hob or alternatively in the microwave- however if you decide to go with the latter, it is important not to burn the chocolate as this is VERY easily done. Put the chocolate in the microwave for 40 seconds and no more, take it out and stir, set it on again for another 30 seconds. By this point the chocolate should have started to melt; it may need one more blast but remember that even when it is out of the microwave, the chocolate will continue to melt, so all it may need is a good mix! The above steps refers to a 600W-800W microwave!

Once the chocolate is melted, (note:  you dont want the chocolate piping hot as this will make the rice kispies go soggy.....! Go for warm but melted all the way through) add in the Rice Krispies and your linseeds, and fold in to the chocolate.

Mix until all of the ingredients are incorporated, and begin to spoon the mixture into the ready prepared cases. Try not to take too long doing this step as you will need to 'stick' on your apricot beaks and rasin eyes before everything sets!

Once spooned the mixture into the cases, begin to decorate placing two rasins as the chicks eyes and one apricot triangle for its little beak. Leave these on the tray, wash up your mixing bowl/ or use another one if you have one and begin to pepare your dark chocolate batch.

Dark Chocolate Nests:

Chop your Cashew nuts and Apricots into small chunks.....

Repeat the step to melt your chocolate in your mixing bowl.

Add your chopped Cashew nuts and Chopped Apricots

Grab your shredded wheat and gently break it up into the mixture

Fold the mixture together and spread the chocolate around to ensure it covers all of the ingredients.

Again, once all the ingredients are mixed together well, begin to spoon into the little cake cases.

Arrange a few mini eggs on the top to make your little nests.

Grab your tray of chocolate treats and set in the fridge for AT LEAST an hour until they are hard, not sticky and 'set'.

SERVE!!!