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15 recipes for Easter dinner and spring

This recipe collection from Stir It Up! has it all, whether you're preparing Easter dinner for a dozen, planning a special meal for two, or just looking for some fresh recipe ideas this season.

Chocolate Easter baskets

The Pastry Chef's Baking
Chocolate covered pretzel sticks formed into baskets and filled with mini Cadbury eggs will delight your Easter guests.

By Carol Ramos, The Pastry Chef's Baking 
From "A Year in Chocolate" by Alice Medrich

3 ounces semisweet or bittersweet chocolate

3 cups or more thin pretzel sticks, salted or unsalted

2-quart bowl or box, lined with plastic wrap, for a large basket or nest

Sheets of wax paper for small nests

Melt the chocolate in the top of a double boiler over barely simmering water. Cool to lukewarm. In a medium bowl, pour most of the chocolate over the pretzels. Use a rubber spatula to turn the pretzels gently in the chocolate until they are lightly coated, adding as much as the rest of the chocolate as necessary. It’s okay if some of the pretzel shows through the chocolate.

For a large basket or nest, scrape the pretzels into the lined bowl or box. Arrange the sticky pretzels against the sides of the container to resemble a basket or a nest. Shape small nests or wreaths on sheets of wax paper.

Refrigerate to set the chocolate. To unmold the large basket, lift the plastic liner from the container and peel it away from the pretzels. Fill with candy.

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Mark Sappenfield
Editor

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