How fun are these Sugar Cookie Easter Egg Nests? I’m writing this post while Little Boy #3 is taking a rare nap, and the other two are doing some silent reading time. I try not to spend too much time writing for this blog when they are awake because whenever I try to multitask (be a mom and blogger) one role always suffers. Like when I first started sharing recipes here, and wrote out the recipe for Emilee’s Chocolate Chip Cookies with all three boys swirling around me, and left out both the eggs and one whole cup of the flour. Not a great way to show the world you know your way around the kitchen, right? Thanks for sticking with me anyway!
So I’ll steal this peaceful moment to pop in and tell you about these sweet little Sugar Cookie Easter Egg Nests, especially because Easter is only a couple weeks away! I’m working on some other promising recipe ideas to add to your traditional Easter menu, but why not start with dessert first?
These little nests are made from my favorite almond flavored sugar cookie dough which you bake in a muffin baking tin. Before baking, you sprinkle on a little bit of shredded coconut, and it gets nice and toasty while the cookie dough bakes. When they come out of the oven and are still warm and soft, you can use your teaspoon sized measuring spoon to help make a little indentation in the middle for the eggs to rest in. But you may find that as the cookie cools, it naturally falls and forms an indentation in the center, just the right spot for a few chocolate candy eggs!
Once they are completely cooled, you can fill them with your favorite kind of egg shaped candy. I used Mini Cadbury Chocolate Eggs. I love these little eggs. The chocolate is the creamiest. And I’m a creamy milk chocolate kind of girl. None of that healthy dark chocolate for me, thanks! I probably just lost a few of you there, didn’t I?
And yes, you do need to sort the eggs by color when placing them in their respective nests. Have you ever seen a momma bird lay different colored eggs in one nest? Let’s keep it real, okay?
Not only are these a really sweet little dessert, but they make adorable edible place cards for your Easter table setting. Especially for a kid’s table. Just print of the names of all your guests, cut them out, and tape them to a toothpick. Simple but sweet!
Sugar Cookie Easter Egg Nests
These sweet little Sugar Cookie Easter Egg Nests are perfect for dessert or to decorate your Easter table as a place card holder!
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 24 minutes
- Total Time: 39 minutes
- Yield: 24 1x
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Bake
- Cuisine: American
Ingredients
- 2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup butter softened
- 1/2 cup vegetable oil
- 1 1/2 cup sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/4 teaspoon almond extract
- 1 1/2 cups sweetened shredded coconut
- 72 egg shaped candies (I used 2 bags of mini Cadbury chocolate eggs)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt and mix them together and set aside.
- In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream together butter, sugar and oil on medium speed. Add the egg, vanilla extract, and almond extract.
- Gradually add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients, and mix on low speed until a dough is formed.
- Divide the dough into 24 standard sized greased muffin tin cups. Press the dough evenly into the bottom of each muffin tin well, and top with 1 tablespoon of coconut. Spread the coconut to the edges. It will shrink a bit as it bakes.
- Bake the cookie nests for 11-13 minutes. The coconut should be starting to brown.
- Allow the cookie nests to cool almost completely (about 10 minutes) before removing to a cooling rack. I think it helps to give the cookie nests a little “twist” to loosen them before removing.
- When they are completely cooled, place three egg candies in each one.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 Cookie Nest
- Calories: 245
- Sugar: 22g
- Sodium: 151mg
- Fat: 12g
- Saturated Fat: 5.4g
- Unsaturated Fat: 5.4g
- Trans Fat: 0.3g
- Carbohydrates: 33g
- Fiber: 1g
- Protein: 2.3g
- Cholesterol: 19mg
What a pretty cookie, perfect for Easter! Pinned it:)
Thanks for the share Ilona!
I need to ship these to granddaughter with candy on top falling off??/ What is the best way?
Hmm… I wonder if there might be a plastic disposable cupcake container you could use? That is very sweet that you are sending them to her!
These are adorable! I will have to give these a try because I absolutely LOVE mini Cadbury eggs!
Thanks Melanie!
I made them today and tinted the coconut green. Rolled the balls, placed then in the mini muffin tin and pressed the dough down in the tin and then sprinkled the green coconut on. They turned out perfect and my grandkids loved the nests. Very festive for Easter.
How sweet! Thank you!
So cute! I absolutely LOVE how you used them for little place cards. Beautiful pics too, Julie!
Thank you Ashley.
These are adorable, Julie! What a great Easter treat!
Thank you Kristen!
These are so cute! I was wondering what to make for Easter. If I have time, I think I know what I’ll be making.
Thanks, they are so fun to do! And you can do them the day before if you need to.
Oh my gosh I’m laughing so hard at you leaving out the eggs and flour. I mess up my recipes waaaay too often because I’m often writing them out in the middle of the night (when my kids are asleep, of course!)
Using these as place cards is such a cute idea! And I can completely relate to being distracted while in the kitchen (and I don’t even have kids, yet!) Last night, I left out an egg while making lemon cupcakes, and ended up with concave cupcakes. Oy!
Thanks Jamie, glad I’m not the only one :0)
Do you have any suggestions on something else to use instead of coconut? I was trying to think of something brown, maybe shreds of chocolate if you put on after its cooled?
I think shreds or curls of chocolate could work too! Have you ever tried using a vegetable peeler on the side of a slightly warm bar of chocolate before? It makes really nice curls… just be sure to use milk chocolate as dark chocolate doesn’t work as well. Hope this helps!
Do you have any high altitude tips? I am addicted to Cadbury Mini Eggs! What a cute idea!
Hi Barb, I don’t have very much experience cooking at high altitude, but I did find this chart with some helpful tips. Good luck!
http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipe/high-altitude-baking.html
Barb, I live at 5800 ft and made these using my standard sugar cookie recipe and they turned out fine, so if you’re worried about trying a new recipe, use whatever you’re used to. The Colorado State University Extension is a great resource for high altitude cooking.
http://www.ext.colostate.edu/pubs/foodnut/p41.html
What a perfect spring cookie! I made some mini ones yesterday using a mini muffin tin, about 1 tablespoon of dough and 1 teaspoon of coconut per cavity, with one candy egg on top. A great little two-bite cookie.
Sounds cute! Glad they turned out!
You are such a great mommy!! Whenever me and my mom would have an argument she would always leave me a card in my room. Just to say she loves me. And she ALWAYS wrote a sweet little note on my paper towel in my lunch box. I have an amazing mom!
I’d like to use cute Easter baking cups. Would that affect the outcome of the cookie?
I think that’s a great idea Liz. I don’t think it will affect the recipe.
did these turn out with the baking cups??
What are “cute Easter baking cups?”
Just paper cupcake liners that have an Easter theme printed on them.
I just finished making these for our easter dinner this coming weekend and they are adorable! Turned out perfectly. Thank you so much for sharing. I wasn’t sure if the coconut would actually stick to the top of the cookie but they held together nicely. I’m sure they will be the centre piece of the dessert table. Thanks again and Happy Easter!
I’m so glad you love them! Happy Easter!
Mary, Terrific idea! We love poppers/mice but hadn't thought about baking them in the oven. (We don't deep fry…too messy)We'd want to leave a few seeds or a hint of the ribs in because we're into the Heat! Thanks for the recipe! Take Care, Big Daddy Dave
Can these be frozen?
I think they definitely could be frozen. Just wait to add the chocolate eggs. Enjoy!
I made these adorable cookies for women at work and used mini muffin tins. They came out great! I got 46 cookies using a medium size cookie scoop (1.5tbsp.). Even though they were smaller, because they were perhaps thicker than they would have been in the larger pan, I found that I had to bake them for 12 minutes in my oven. They came out easily after 10 minutes cooling. The depression was large enough to hold two of the Cadbury eggs or one larger egg of another brand. They were a hit at work! I’m going to make more for Easter and will do a few without coconut for the few people who refuse to eat anything with coconut… but they won’t be as cute!
Thanks Regina! Glad they were a hit!
I just got done making these and I’m so pleased with how they turned out! Thank you Julie for such an awesome recipe and your lovely photos for inspiration!! I’m super excited to bring them to Easter dinner tomorrow. Thanks again!
You are so welcome Kara! Thank you for your kind words, and have a very Happy Easter.
Do they sink on their own in the middle or do you make that dent before baking?
Hi Claire, when they come out of the oven, and are still warm and soft, I used a little teaspoon to make the indentation.
I would like to make these for an Easter bake sale. Any storage tips, or how long they will keep?
I think they will be fine to make a day or two in advance. Just keep them at room temp in an airtight container. Good luck with the bake sale!
Hi Julie!
I love this recipe and I will definitely try these for Easter?
Just one question: the temperature of the oven is in Fahrenheit or in Celsius I assume Fahrenheit, but just to be sure ^-^)
Yes, Fahrenheit is correct. Enjoy!
Made these today with my 5 and 2 year old grandkids. They loved helping to stir the cookies and putting the coconut & eggs on top. The cookies turned out great! They taste good and look fancy, but were actually pretty simple. I didn’t even have to press the middles down to make a spot for the eggs, the cookies just did it on their own as they cooled.
Micah, thanks so much for taking the time to leave me a comment. I’m so happy to be able to share recipes with others, and it makes my day when I hear someone say they had fun in the kitchen with the kiddos making memories together! Happy Easter to you and yours.
I make these every year for Easter and they are always a hit! I use different festive cupcake holders to make it less messy for the little ones to eat. One of my favourite recipes .
Great idea. So glad you like them
We made 24 mini-muffin size and 12 regular-muffin size. I added a dollop of melted white chocolate inside to help hold the eggs in place too. The cookie recipe is so yummy! Super delicious. Thank you for a great recipe!
I like the white chocolate idea! Thanks for your comment.
Also, I meant to give this five stars!
I am not a great baker but I love this recipe. So simple and always turns out cute and delicious. I have made these every year since the original posting and they are always highly anticipated and enjoyed at our Easter gathering every year.