Mini Egg cookies are a fun and simple bake to make for Easter. Expect chunky cookies that are crisp on the outside with a soft and chewy centre. This recipe for Cadbury Easter egg cookies is easy, kid-friendly and results in a pretty and seasonal treat.
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Cadbury Mini Egg cookies are an eye-catching sweet and lovely treat for anybody with a soft spot for chocolate Mini Eggs. They will appeal to adults and children alike.
Made with Mini Eggs incorporated within the batter as well as them being used as a garnish, this easy recipe for Easter egg cookies delivers deliciously flavourful crisp, chewy and chunky cookies. They are bites of joy.
Reasons to love this Cadbury Mini Egg cookies recipe
- It’s an easy Easter recipe using just one bowl.
- Kids will love to help make and eat them.
- These Easter Egg cookies have Mini Egg chunks in the dough.
- And they are topped with more Mini Egg pieces after baking.
- They can be baked gooey or cooked for longer to turn them crispy.
- The dough can be frozen and baked straight from the freezer whenever a hankering for a Mini Egg cookie takes hold.
If you enjoy cookie recipes then take a look at my delectable coffee cookies too. But if your heart belongs to Mini Eggs then don’t miss my Easter brownies or my Mini Egg Cheesecake.
Cadbury Mini Eggs in detail
Cadbury Mini Eggs are available for a limited period only each year – typically from 1st January through to Easter. So, stock up well before Easter to avoid missing out.
Chocolate Mini Eggs were first marketed by Cadbury in 1967 and have been a hit with consumers ever since. In the UK they are made in four colours – white, pink, yellow and purple. And they all sport a speckled finish. Elsewhere in the world, the colours may vary and the speckles may not be present.
Regardless of colour, these egg-shaped wonders combine a smooth and creamy milk chocolate centre with a crisp candy shell. Not had them before? Open the bag and I’ll bet that the divine aroma will win you over before you’ve even popped one into your mouth.
Ingredients notes
Cadbury Mini Eggs: the one and only. This Easter egg cookies recipe uses them in abundance.
Butter: for the fullest-flavoured cookies use real butter.
Sugar: I’ve used a mix of white sugar (for crispness) and soft light brown sugar (for chewiness).
Eggs: alongside the whole egg I’ve snook in an additional yolk to enhance the flavour and texture of these Mini Egg cookies.
Flour: a blend of plain flour (all-purpose flour) and strong white bread flour is used here. The bread flour helps create chew in the cookies. Feel free to use just plain flour if you do not have bread flour to hand. Please do not use self-raising flour though, as it contains baking powder which is not required in this Cadbury Mini Egg cookies recipe.
Raising agent: these are relatively thick and chunky cookies, but only a little raising agent is required. Use bicarbonate of soda (baking soda) to help the cookies spread a little as they bake.
Vanilla: use either vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste. Please do not use vanilla essence, this is a totally inferior product.
Instructions
How to break Mini Eggs up safely
If you’ve ever tried to chop Cadbury Mini Eggs with a sharp knife then you’ll know that it can be a little fiddly and there’s a risk of cutting your fingers. Those shells are notoriously hard to cut through.
Instead, try putting the Mini Eggs into a plastic bag (or just make a slit in the bag they come in to expel the air) and sharply hit each one with the end of a rolling pin or a pestle. The eggs should split in half easily.
How to make Mini Egg cookies
Full instructions and measurements are given in the printable recipe card at the end of this post.
- Melt the butter.
- Beat the sugar and salt into the butter with a handheld balloon whisk.
- Add the egg, yolk and vanilla extract & beat in.
- Mix together the plain flour, bread flour and bicarbonate of soda and beat it into the batter.
- Roughly smash 150g of the Mini Eggs using a rolling pin or a pestle and toss them into the bowl.
- Fold through the broken Mini Eggs.
- Cover and chill the dough for at least 6 hours.
- Divide the dough into 14 balls (approximately 50g each or about the size of a ping-pong ball).
- Place on baking sheets (at least 10cm apart – bake in batches as necessary).
- Bake for 10-12 minutes, turning the baking sheets halfway through.
- From the remaining Mini Eggs, reserve 1 per cookie and break the rest in half.
- Remove the cookies from the oven and firmly tap the baking sheet on a heatproof worktop to help the cookies deflate.
- Optional: reshape the cookies using a large cookie cutter and the hula hoop technique (see tips).
- Press 1 whole Mini Egg into each cookie and 5-6 chunks of Mini Egg around it.
- Let rest for 2 minutes on the baking sheet then transfer to a wire cooling rack.
Expert tips
- Always use gram measurements and a set of digital kitchen scales when baking cookies. The cup system is simply NOT an accurate way to measure ingredients).
- Chilling the dough is essential for this Cadbury Mini Egg cookies recipe. It’s the best way to ensure that the dough does not spread too much as it bakes. This helps create a pleasingly thick cookie that is perfect for snuggling those egg pieces into.
- If you have a raging cookie craving and cannot wait for 6 hours, then try spreading the dough into an 8×8 inch baking tin and freezing it for an hour, then proceed with the recipe.
- If cooking in batches, let your baking sheet cool completely before reloading with more dough. Rinse under cold water and dry the baking sheet if necessary.
- Use the hula hoop cookie technique to shape your cookies into circles once baked. Simply place a cookie cutter that is a little larger than your cookie over each one and firmly shift it around, forcing the cookie to move around and bang into the cookie cutter. It helps push the cookie into a circular shape. This must be done as soon as the cookies are taken out of the oven.
- Once the cookies are out of the oven work quickly to reshape them and press the Mini Eggs onto the top. If you are too slow the eggs will not stick.
Frequently asked questions
It’s likely that the dough was not sufficiently chilled. Next time ensure that it is refrigerated for a minimum of 6 hours. If cooking in batches don’t leave the rolled balls on the side whilst the first batch is baking. Pop them back in the fridge.
If your Cadbury Mini Egg cookies turn out crumbly it could be because you have accidentally used too much flour or overbaked the cookies.
Always use digital scales and the gram system of measuring ingredients for the best results. Next time try reducing the cooking time slightly – remember that all oven temperatures do vary and the cooking time is a guide only.
Yes, you can. I recommend shaping the dough into balls before open freezing then, when frozen, transfer the balls into a freezer-proof bag. They can be baked from frozen but will need an extra 2-3 minutes in the oven because of this.
It is not possible to make this recipe for Mini Egg cookies vegan because the namesake, Mini Eggs, are not a vegan product. Take a look at this recipe though – it might be just what you are looking for.
Cadbury Mini Eggs are, however, gluten-free. So, if you are after gluten-free Mini Egg cookies, try enhancing a basic gluten-free cookie recipe such as this one, with Mini Eggs.
Variations on these Easter Egg cookies
Ring the changes when baking your Easter Egg cookies using one of the following ideas:
- Add chocolate chips to the cookie dough. around 75g of milk or white chocolate should suffice.
- Or stick with the Cadbury theme and chop up a Mini Egg chocolate bar or some Dairy Milk.
- Add nuts – 75g of chopped hazelnuts would add a lovely adult edge to these Easter Egg cookies.
- Drizzle melted chocolate over the cookies before topping them with the Mini Eggs.
- Go for bright and beautiful colours by replacing the Mini Eggs with Smarties Eggs.
- Or give in to a chocolate orange whim by replacing them with Terry’s chocolate orange eggs. Add the zest of an orange into the dough too (stir it in just before adding the flour).
- Get extravagant and sneak a Malteser Mini Bunny on top of each Mini Egg cookie before surrounding it with chunks of those pretty pastel eggs.
More Mini Eggs recipes
Have you made this Cadbury Mini Egg cookies recipe? I hope you enjoyed it. Please leave a comment and/ or recipe rating to let me know how you got along.
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📖 Recipe
Mini Egg Cookies
Ingredients
- 300 g Cadbury Mini Eggs
- 150 g Butter
- 120 g Light brown sugar
- 90 g Caster sugar
- ¼ teaspoon Salt
- 1 Egg large, free-range
- 1 Egg yolk large, free-range
- 2 teaspoons Vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste
- 150 g Plain flour (all-purpose)
- 75 g Strong white bread flour (or replace with plain flour)
- ½ teaspoon Bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)
Instructions
- Melt the butter either in the microwave or over a bain-Marie.
- Beat the sugar and salt into the butter with a handheld balloon whisk.
- Add the egg, yolk and vanilla extract & beat in.
- Mix together the plain flour, bread flour and bicarbonate of soda. Stop beating when no streaks of flour remain – do not overbeat it.
- Put 150g of the Mini Eggs into a bag and smash them roughly using a rolling pin or a pestle and toss them into the bowl. Don't break them up too small, large chunks are better in the dough.
- Fold through the broken Mini Eggs using a large metal spoon.
- Cover and chill the dough for at least 6 hours.
- Preheat the oven to 180C/ 350F/ GM 4 and line several baking sheets with baking parchment.
- Divide the dough into 14 balls (approximately 50g each or about the size of a ping-pong ball). I use digital kitchen scales to ensure my cookies are evenly sized.
- Place on baking sheets (at least 10cm apart – bake in batches as necessary). I bake mine in 2 batches as I only put 4 cookies onto each baking sheet.
- Bake for 10-12 minutes, turning the baking sheets halfway through. (Baking for 10 minutes lets the centre of the cookies remain gooey, while cooking for 12 minutes turns them less gooey and more chewy.)
- From the remaining Mini Eggs, reserve 1 per cookie and break the rest in half.
- Remove the cookies from the oven and firmly tap the baking sheet on a heatproof worktop to help the cookies deflate.
- Optional: reshape the cookies using a large cookie cutter and the hula hoop technique: place a cookie cutter that is a little larger than your cookie over each one and firmly shift it around, forcing the cookie to move around and bang into the cookie cutter. It helps push the cookie into a circular shape. This must be done as soon as the cookies are taken out of the oven.
- While the cookies are still hot, press 1 whole Mini Egg into each cookie and 5-6 chunks of Mini Egg around it.
- Let rest for 2 minutes on the baking sheet then transfer to a wire cooling rack.
- Cook the second batch of cookies from step 11.
Notes
- Always use gram measurements and a set of digital kitchen scales when baking cookies. The cup system is simply NOT an accurate way to measure ingredients).
- Chilling the dough is essential for this Cadbury Mini Egg cookies recipe. It’s the best way to ensure that the dough does not spread too much as it bakes. This helps create a pleasingly thick cookie that is perfect for snuggling those egg pieces into.
- If you have a raging cookie craving and cannot wait for 6 hours, then try spreading the dough into an 8×8 inch baking tin and freezing it for an hour, then proceed with the recipe.
- If cooking in batches, let your baking sheet cool completely before reloading with more dough. Rinse under cold water and dry the baking sheet if necessary.
- Use the hula hoop cookie technique to shape your cookies into circles once baked. Simply place a cookie cutter that is a little larger than your cookie over each one and firmly shift it around, forcing the cookie to move around and bang into the cookie cutter. It helps push the cookie into a circular shape. This must be done as soon as the cookies are taken out of the oven.
- Once the cookies are out of the oven work quickly to reshape them and press the Mini Eggs onto the top. If you are too slow the eggs will not stick.
- To freeze the cookie dough I recommend shaping the dough into balls before open freezing then, when frozen, transfer the balls into a freezer-proof bag. They can be baked from frozen but will need an extra 2-3 minutes in the oven because of this.
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