Oreo Cadbury Mini Egg Easter Squares

Sometimes I'll take two things I love - like Oreos and Cadbury Mini Eggs - and combine them, thinking - since they are so good on their own - together can only be better.  Sometimes it's an epic fail....

But sometimes, it's a major win! This is what happened with this mashup of Oreo cookies, Cream Cheese and Cadbury Mini Eggs...

Cadbury Mini Eggs are one of the best things about Easter!

The inspiration for this recipe came from a lovely blogger - Buttercream Blondi - who's creations are always gorgeous and inspiring. 

I realize that this post is little after the fact (considering Easter was last weekend) but I really think that these would be good any time of the year with any candy covered chocolate (M&M's, Reese’s Pieces etc). 

Oreo Cadbury Mini Egg Easter Squares

Makes about 24 squares (depending on how big you cut them)

Ingredients:

Crust:

1 package of Double Stuffed Oreos, cookies and cream separated

5 tbsp butter, melted to liquid (but not smoking hot)

6 ounces of Cadbury Mini Eggs

Filling:

(Adapted from Buttercream Blondi)

16 ounces cream cheese, room temperature

1/2 cup of sugar

2 eggs

2 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp almond extract
2 tsbp heavy cream

8 ounces Cadbury Mini Eggs

  

Directions:

Crust:

(1) Preheat the oven to 325 degrees

(2) Grease the bottom of a 8" square pan with butter
(3) Take the cookie part of the separated Oreo cookies and crush them

-this can be done with a rolling pin, or food processor (I used a food processor – easy peasy)

(4) Crush the Cadbury Mini Eggs

-I did this with a mortar and pestle.  However I am sure a good couple of whacks with a rolling pin would suffice.

It looks like a massacre of Caburys Mini Eggs was discovered in dirt! 

(5) Using a spatula, combine the Oreo crumbs, Cadbury Mini Eggs and butter

(6) Press into the bottom of your greased square pan

(7) Bake at 325 degrees for 8-10 minutes.

-bake until it sets

(8) Remove from oven, set aside and let cool

Filling: 

(1) Crush Cadbury Mini Eggs

-This can be done with a rolling pin or food processor or mortar and pestle

(2) With an electric mixer on medium speed, combine cream cheese and sugar until smooth

(3) Add eggs, vanilla & almond extract and heavy cream (mmmm...creamy...).  Mix until combined.

(4) Add crushed Cadbury Mini Eggs, mix until combined

(5) Pour the batter on top of the cooled crust

(6) Bake at 325 degrees for 45 minutes

(7) Turn the oven off.  Leave pan in the oven for 5-10 minutes more.

(8) Let the bars cool to room temperature before putting them in the refrigerator.

(9) Refrigerate overnight before cutting them.  A really good sharp knife should do the trick...

Notes:

-I put a pan of water into the oven when baking cheesecakes.  This helps to add some humidity to the oven in an effort to stop some of the cracking that (inevitably) goes on when I bake cheesecakes.  Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.   When it doesn't and there are cracks, I will usually either throw on some icing or fruit or just eat it as it, because in the end, it's still yummy cheesecake, cracks and all....

-Try to open the oven as little as possible - this will let some of the steam (humidity) escape.

Warning: these are addictive...

On that note...

You know when you make something really sugary and yummy and you can't stop eating it...so you give most of it away thinking that you'll be able to exercise some self control and won't binge on the few tiny squares that you've kept, but then you do....This may or may not have happened to me a couple of days ago.... 

I am a believer in the 'everything in moderation' philosophy towards food....so in a effort to curb my seemingly increasing sweet tooth (and after the 60 minutes episode I saw a couple of weeks ago about sugar toxicity), I’ve decided to go sugar free (just refined sugars, not the naturally occurring stuff - like what's in fruit) for the rest of the month.  It's day two (and yes, I cheated once yesterday) I have a headache and it feels a little like I'm being tortured... 

Buckle up.  This is not going to be pretty.... 

Happy Cooking!