Easter eggs

Today's baking frenzy seems to have killed my KitchenAid Classic mixer, the one that I've used an average of twice a day for grain-grinding, dough-kneading, cookie-making, muffin-dough mixing and various unmentionable warranty-voiding activities for probably 15 times as long as the warranty lasted anyway. But maybe it was worth it. One of the tasks we set it to, before it died, was this one:

Easter Eggs

1 cup butter
1 14-oz. can of sweetened condensed milk
1 Tbsp. vanilla extract
1 - 3 tsp. almond extract, to taste
2 tsp. salt
10 - 12 cups of icing sugar
1 tsp. yellow food colouring
16 oz. semisweet chocolate
4 oz. food-grade paraffin (optional)

Cream butter. Mix in sweetened condensed milk. Add salt and extracts. Gradually mix in 10 of the cups of icing sugar. Mix thoroughly. Your stand mixer, if not broken, will come in very handy with this.

Separate out a third of the nougat and add yellow food colouring to it, kneading it in a little at a time, and adding more icing sugar as needed to keep it from sticking.

Divide yellow nougat into 48 pieces. Roll each into a sphere.



Turn out white nougat and knead for a couple of minutes, adding more icing sugar as necessary to minimize sticking. Divide this nougat into 48 pieces. Press each piece flat and place a "yolk" on top.



Wrap the "yolk" in the "white".



Roll the egg in your hands until it is smooth and roughly egg-shaped. Leave to dry for a few hours, turning occasionally.



Next day:

Melt 1 lb. of semisweet chocolate over simmering water. Add a 4 oz. of paraffin if you can stomach the idea. Or not. If used the paraffin gives a nice glossy firm chocolate finish. We won't bother with it.

Using a fork, dip the eggs in the chocolate. Place on cookie sheet to cool and harden.