As a kid, I remember being giddy with anticipation every Easter morning. Because I knew the “Easter Bunny” (thanks, Mom!) had left me a basket with two of my favorite things: stuffed animals and chocolate. This, of course, made Easter even better than Christmas. I mean, at least one stuffed animal was guaranteed…and I got to eat chocolate before breakfast. (Holy moly!)

(I still love chocolate for breakfast, but I try to make it healthy, like a chocolate zucchini breakfast bake.)

However, there was one candy that showed up in my Easter basket every year that I professed to like, but really didn’t: Cadbury Creme Eggs. I mean, how adorable is it to bite into a chocolate candy egg and see a cute little yellow yolk inside? Unfortunately, the flavor never lived up to the cuteness. In fact, they tasted like watered-down chocolate and cardboard-ish sugar paste to me (sorry, Cadbury).

Turns out, that’s probably because Cadbury Creme Eggs are made out of, well, sugar and sugary milk chocolate. Here are the ingredients:

• Milk chocolate (made with more sugar than chocolate)
• Sugar
• Corn syrup
• High fructose corn syrup
• 2% or less: Artificial color, artificial flavor, calcium chloride, and egg whites

Nothing says yummy like a little bit of chocolate with 3 kinds of sugar and artificial flavor, right? No wonder chocolate-loving little me was underwhelmed. I’ve always liked sweet treats, but licking a sugar bowl?

No thanks.

Healthy Homemade Cadbury Creme Eggs

Yet I love the fresh, fun look of Cadbury Creme Eggs. So grown-up me decided to make a version that was delicious and surprisingly healthy for a candy copycat.

Made with wholesome dates, hazelnuts (for a tasty Nutella vibe, but you can use almonds), and cocoa, these adorable vegan eggs have a dreamy “egg” filling, complete with yolk, for a yummy, better-for-you Easter treat.

Admittedly, they have some “special-occasion” ingredients like tofu cream cheese and powdered sugar, although I offer subs for both. Made with nuts, they’re also higher in fat than most of my recipes. But Easter only comes once a year, and these eggs taste amazing—like an energy bite and a Cadbury Creme Egg had a baby laid an egg together, only better.

So, if you love cute Easter treats that love you back, grab your food processor. Let’s do this!

How to: healthy(ish) homemade Cadbury Creme Eggs

Making homemade Cadbury Creme Eggs is easy and fun. First, a little mixing magic to make the filling:

Process for 2-3 minutes, and you’ll get a super-smooth filling made with a secret ingredient: beans!

Then process your hazelnuts (or almonds) until they look like fine sand and nut butter starts forming. (The little clumps in the pic):

Add the rest of the “eggshell” ingredients and process until the mixture starts to fold over on itself:

Now it’s time to get crafty…

First, roll a handful of cocoa mixture into a ball and place in an egg-top lined with plastic wrap.

Starting in the center, press the chocolate against the plastic shell with your thumb until it’s ¼-inch thick all around and there’s extra chocolate around the top of the shell. Fold back the plastic wrap and trim the excess chocolate. (Don’t cut the plastic wrap, yikes.) Press the cut edge against the cutting board to flatten, then pull the plastic wrap to release:

Press, trim, flatten, release. 🙂

Finally, press down in the center to flatten the bottom, then fill ‘er up. (I used Color Garden food coloring from Whole Foods to color my yolk.) Pipe in your white and yolk using sandwich baggies with the corners snipped off:

Voila! Adorable better-for-you chocolate creme eggs. 🙂

Here’s to a great Easter!

Your turn:

• What was your favorite Easter candy as a kid?
• Was there one you pretended to like, but really didn’t?