Hoppy Easter and Bird Nest Cookies

Happy Easter! My little bunnies had a visit from the Easter bunny last night and were all too thrilled to try on their new outfits.

(Ok, maybe I had to bribe them with a treat or two!)

Hoppy Easter from my family to yours!! I hope you all have a wonderful day as we celebrate the resurrection of our Lord!

After Church, we are going over to Jason’s family’s house for Easter Dinner. I was asked to bring a few sides and at the last minute, I decided to throw a dessert in there, too. The dessert was WAY too cute not to share!

Warning: These cookies are not healthy by any means, but they sure are cute…and delicious, too! :0)

Bird's Nest Cookies 
Adapted from: Creations by Kara

Ingredients:
1 cup butter
8oz cream cheese
2 cups sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp coconut extract
3 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
Vanilla Icing
Flaked coconut and green food coloring
Cadbury eggs (or you could use PB eggs, Robin eggs, etc.)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and gather your ingredients.

Let the butter and cream cheese come to room temperature, then beat with a hand mixer until smooth – do not melt them in the microwave. Beat in sugar. Add egg, vanilla, and coconut extract. 
Mix well. (Side note: The coconut extract will make your batter have a really strong coconut taste – no worries, the cookies don’t taste that strong!)

Stir in the baking powder and flour (one cup at a time).

Roll dough in balls (about the size of ping pongs). Place on lightly greased cookie sheets (I used a cooking stone). Make an indentation in each one using the back of a Tablespoon. The dough is very sticky, so you may need to dip the back of the tablespoon into flour to make the indention. 

Bake cookies for 12-15 minutes (I had to bake mine on the stone for 18-20 minutes, 12 minutes was not long enough). Some turned out more dark than others. (I really like crispy cookies and these had the perfect consistency – gooey in the middle and crispy on the outside!)

Remove from oven and while the cookies are still warm, use the spoon to press down the indentation again. Let cookies cool completely. Mix coconut with a couple of drops of green food coloring in a small bowl. Stir until coconut is tinted green.

Fill a small Ziploc bag (or icing tool) with vanilla icing, then cut a small corner off the Ziploc back.

Fill the indention of each cookie with icing (just enough to cover the bottom and sides – you don’t want a ton of icing). Sprinkle green coconut in indention – the purpose of the icing is to help the coconut stick.

On the back of each Cadbury egg, place a small dollop of icing, then arrange on green coconut in whatever shape/way you’d like! I used three eggs on each cookie.

Serve and enjoy!

Ingredients

I let the butter and cream cheese come to room temperature before trying to work with them. Once soft, I beat with a hand mixer until they were smooth – it’s not a good idea to melt the butter/cream cheese in the microwave to make this process faster.  (Trust me, I’ve done it before cause I’m not the most patient person!)

Cookies ready to go on my cooking stone. I made indentations on each cookie using the back of a Tablespoon. The dough was very sticky, so I had to dip the back of the tablespoon into flour to make the indention.

Once out of the oven, I had to re-define the indentions (you can see the ones on the left of the picture aren’t quite as bowl shaped anymore).

Once cookies were cool, it was time to decorate!

I used vanilla icing to help everything stick! I didn’t fill the indentions completely, I mainly scraped icing along the sides of the indentions with my Ziploc baggie.

I also used a small dollop of icing to help the Cadbury eggs stick.

Each cookie held three Cadbury eggs. You could also use any type of candy egg you’d like – Robin Eggs, PB eggs, etc. Anything would work!

These cookies are very tasty and make a cute addition to any Easter dessert bar. Enjoy!!