How to Make Your Own Chocolate Bunnies

First, draw an appropriately-sized bunny on a sheet of white paper, or print one off the internet. A half or a quarter of a regular 8x11 sheet of paper is just right.

If you want to find a drawing and print one, try one of these links. DO NOT do a google image search for "easter bunny" with your kids watching. Even with safe search turned on. I've never reported so many offensive images in one sitting ever before. Even the not-as-offensive ones were potentially scary or distressing to children (vampire bunnies about to bite kids' heads off? check. Dead bunnies? Check.).

Easter Bunny Pattern

Running Bunny Pattern

Detailed Classic Bunny Pattern

Put 1 c chocolate chips (your favorite kind-- milk, dark, semi-sweet, white) in a bowl. Add 1/2 tsp-1 tsp shortening (not butter or margarine!), more for a softer finished product (in fact, if the bunny is for a preschooler, you might want to leave out the shortening all together). Melt the chips 30 seconds in the microwave. Stir, and then cook at 30 second intervals, stirring after, until the chocolate is smooth and completely melted.

Spoon the melted chocolate into a sandwich bag.

Place a sheet of wax paper over your pattern. Snip off a corner (VERY small) of the plastic bag and squeeze the chocolate out, "drawing" around your pattern onto the wax paper. When the bunny is completely outlined, set it aside to harden (the freezer can speed this process).

When the chocolate is set, fill the bunny in with the remaining chocolate (which you might have to reheat in the microwave). You can squirt it out of your bag or spoon it into the outline. If you want, you can stir in raisins, nuts, or other "filling" before you fill the outline. You can also put down a thin later, add a "filling" like peanut butter creme or nougat, and then top that with chocolate to make a filled bunny. Cooler chocolate "mounds" better and makes a thicker bunny than hotter chocolate. Before the bunny sets up, decorate it with mini ribbons, bits of marshmallow, nuts, small candies, coconut, melted white chocolate, etc.

When the bunny looks perfect, stick it in the freezer for a few minutes to harden, and then peel it from the wax paper and enjoy!


Peanut Butter Creme:
1/4 c margarine
1/2 c creamy peanut butter
1/2-1 c powdered sugar.
Stir together the margarine and peanut butter. Then stir and knead in the powdered sugar until you have a nice playdough consistency.

Nougat filling is just divinity, believe it or not. The recipe is here: http://beccajonescooks.blogspot.com/2009/09/divinity.html