Chocolate dreams: Irish Easter eggs

www.grachocolates.com | €40

Here at Irish Country Living Food we’ve had our eye on Gráinne Mullins for quite a while. You know she has hit peak success when you walk through the doors of Brown Thomas to find her Easter eggs proudly on display. Is it any wonder when her chocolate creations are a work of art?

Made with ethically sourced Valrhona chocolate, Luker cocoa butter and Irish cream and butter, Grá Chocolates are a taste sensation. Meticulously crafted and painted by hand, they are made in small batches and each egg takes three days to finish. Flavours include the ‘Egg-STRAW-dinary Luxury Easter Egg’, which looks stunning with its pink and red hues. Inside the egg, the finest Madagascan vanilla is paired with aerated white chocolate.

A similar taste surprise happens when you break open ‘Bee my Honey’. The honeycomb pattern, with its gold and yellow flecks, conceals the bubbly chunks of honeycomb inside with are brought to the perfect stage of caramelisation. As well as the crunchy pieces, Gráinne has also added Sliabh Aughty Honey from Co Galway and a luscious honey ganache.

For lovers of savoury and sweet, the ‘Lil’ bit Salty Luxury Easter Egg’ is a 70% dark chocolate egg filled with chewy caramel pieces and softer caramel fudge pieces. The caramel contains delicate flakes of Achill Island sea salt from Co Mayo. The tiny flakes gently melt on the tongue, cutting through the richness of the milk chocolate and accentuating the caramel notes. Other flavours include ‘Mint to Be’ and ‘Nuts About You’.

www.lilyobriens.ie | From €12.99

Lily O’Brien’s is such a big brand now that many often forget Mary Ann O’Brien is one of the original entrepreneurs in Irish chocolate. Back in 1992, with little more than two saucepans, a wooden spoon and her then-toddler Lily acting as production manager, Mary Ann began to create high-quality chocolate for friends and family. (Yes, her little production manager insisted on the naming rights).

The business that started in her kitchen is still based in Kildare, although they now ship to many corners of the globe. The passion for chocolate that first inspired Mary Ann O’Brien is still present in every aspect of the business and remains at the very core of what Lily O’Brien’s do. This year’s specials include the ‘Flame Wrapped Honeycomb Egg’ (€12.99), the ‘Desserts Collection Egg’ (€15) and the ‘Sticky Toffee Egg’ (€15).

www.lorge.ie | €12.90-€22.60

It’s been over 20 years since French master chocolatier Benoit Lorge set up shop in the southwest of Ireland. Since then he has made Kenmare his home and chocolate lovers everywhere have benefitted. Benoit’s creations come from his own specifications of a blend of cocoa beans sourced from Ghana, the Ivory Coast, Java, Ecuador, Mexico, Tanzania and Venezuela.

However, it’s not just chocolate he offers, he also creates luxury, handmade confectionery using top-quality ingredients. The range includes truffles, bars, boxes, hot chocolate, chocolate spreads, nougat, marshmallows, jams and chutneys.

For Easter, he has a range of eggs made with a delicious blend of dark and white chocolate, interspersed with mint, orange and a crunch of praline. They range from €12.90 to €22.60, which is excellent value given the quality of chocolate.

www.pralinechocolatiers.com | €10-€43

Praline chocolates are a thing of beauty. Colour and creativity means their chocolate boxes have garnered a bit of a cult following and we expect their Easter eggs to follow the same trajectory. The brainchild of Irish chefs Georgia Quely and Daniel Linehan, these Irish artisan chocolatiers lovingly craft their chocolate by hand in Athlone. Their ethically sourced chocolate comes from France and Switzerland and they incorporate local ingredients in their small-batch creations, including Irish cream and butter.

Tempered to perfection, their Easter eggs are so shiny they look like glass. Boasting an emerald green finish, their ‘Cool & Crisp’ mint egg is filled with mint truffles made with O’Hanlon Herbs. Their ‘Sweet and Salty’ egg is layered with crunchy caramel and malt biscuit pieces enhanced with Oriel Irish mineral sea salt. This egg, which is in a striking duck-egg blue, is filled with their signature salted caramel truffles.

For those who wish to sample a variety of flavours, there is a selection of mini half eggs, including chocolate marshmallow, caramel and Nutshed peanut butter as well as raspberry marshmallow, raspberry ganache and a biscuit layer.

www.braw.ie | €30

Anna Coffey is a pandemic success story and she has endless creativity as a chocolate maker. With years of experience, including head chocolatier at Cocoa Atelier in Dublin, this Limerick-based chocolate maker uses Luker, a supplier of ethically and sustainably sourced chocolate.

Each egg is carefully handmade by Anna and her team at Braw and is named after a place Anna finds inspiration. ‘Kildimo’ is a milk chocolate egg named after the Limerick village. Hand painted with a colourful design, you will find freeze-dried raspberries and pineapple inside. The sharpness of the fruit balances out the sweetness of the chocolate and this all-rounder will appeal to everyone.

The dark chocolate egg is called the ‘Adare’ and is handmade with 72% chocolate. A coffee biscuit is dotted inside, giving it a crunch and depth of flavour that will delight lovers of intense chocolate. The coffee biscuits are made with Eleven14’s single-origin Colombian coffee. Eleven14 is a Limerick business recently launched by former rugby player Keith Earls.

www.beanandgoose.ie | €19.50

In 2013, sisters Natalie and Karen Keane put two sheets of marble in Karen’s kitchen at her home in Last Tree Farm in Wexford. Around the kitchen table, before they had even made their first bar of chocolate, the sisters created the Bean and Goose brand and ethos. Their aim was simple; to create an exceptional Irish chocolate product that was created differently and packaged in a more attractive and sustainable way. They wanted to create the perfect product for gifting.

Nearly 10 years later, they have 17 staff working in their large production unit outside Gorey and they are stocked in over 250 shops nationwide.

Like everything that the team in Bean and Goose do, their Easter offerings is just that little bit different. Instead of eggs, they are celebrating Easter with two seasonal characters: the handsome Irish hare and the beautiful and mysterious bean goose.

Handmade in Co Wexford, these elegant characters are brought to life using sustainably sourced single-origin milk or dark chocolate from Ecuador.

Nestled in recyclable and compostable packaging, the two characters are wrapped in lovely artwork created exclusively for the collection by talented Dublin-based illustrator, Anne O’Hara. She has included native wildflowers, such as sea asters and cowslips, both of which are edible, as small details within the illustrations on the chocolate, as well as daffodils, which she considers the happiest flower.

www.hazelmountainchocolate.com | €28

If ever there was a chocolate influenced by its surroundings it’s Hazel Mountain Chocolate in the Burren. Kasha Connolly comes from a long line of Polish bakers but in 2007 she moved to Ireland, met her future husband John and they now live in Galway. In his granny’s former cottage, she set up the Burren Wild Bake Cafe and also launched a boutique bean-to-bar chocolate factory.

It’s a good thing she was here to stay because she has gone on to create the most delicious chocolate that has garnered quite a following. When it comes to Easter she steps things up another notch, challenging traditional chocolate eggs by giving them a creative twist.

‘The Wild Atlantic’ Easter egg is influenced by the landscape and nature of the west of Ireland. It sits on an edible rocky base made with salted, toasted almonds and is decorated with images of the wild Atlantic sea crashing on the side. Every egg is hand painted by chocolatiers Grazyna, Ewa, Irene and Adam using plant-based cacao butter. It’s a long process that takes three days but the result is worth it. The eggs are available in the Hazel Mountain stores in Galway and in the Burren as well as on the website. And while you’re visiting, check out their chocolate factory which is open to visitors.