Easter

Are you ever too old to colour eggs?

I didn’t colour them this year, but my 17 and 14 year old daughters did, with great pleasure.  We spent this Easter weekend at my mom’s place, and we made the two-hour trip to the farm early yesterday morning. 

Eggs aren’t the only tradition they helped with.  The Baker family Easter reunion wouldn’t be complete without green-tinted cornflake nests that cradle half a dozen chocolate eggs.

And of course, the highlight of Easter Sunday is the church service, celebrating the true meaning of the holiday.  Three generations of our family attended my mother’s church this morning. This is the same church, Calvary United in Rodney, Ontario, in which Andrew and I got married nearly twenty-one years ago.

Wishing all of my readers a weekend full of blessings.  And for those of you who celebrated Easter or Passover, I hope you had a holiday filled with joy and love.

Remember last year, when I gave up baking for Lent?  My sacrifice this year was of a more spiritual nature, but my youngest daughter (with a sweet tooth greater than mine) gamely gave up sweets. As a result, I haven't done much baking for the past few weeks.  So today I'm sharing a great recipe that I made just prior to Lent.  Everyone loved these Chocolate Chip Nutella cookies and, now that my daughter is eating sweets again, I've promised to bake more this week.  It's unbelievable how two tablespoons of Nutella can elevate a cookie.  I think it's my new favourite chocolate chip cookie recipe.

Chocolate Chip Cookies with Nutella

(from The Perfect Finish by Bill Yosses and Melissa Clark)

1 cup plus 2 Tbsp flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 stick (1/4 cup) unsalted butter, room temperature

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/4 cup packed brown sugar

2 Tbsp Nutella

1 large egg

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 to 1 1/2 cups chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. 

Sift flour, baking soda and salt into a small bowl and set aside.

Cream the butter, white sugar and brown sugar in a large bowl.  Add Nutella and beat until smooth.  Beat in the egg and vanilla extract.

With a spoon, stir in the flour mixture until completely mixed in.  Stir in the chocolate pieces.

Form into cookies and bake for 9 – 10 minutes.  Cool the cookie sheets before removing the cookies with a spatula.