The failsafe way to crack open an Easter egg
For chocolate-lovers, Easter is certainly the most wonderful time of the year. Supermarkets stock their shelves with rows upon rows of chocolate eggs and bunnies, and there’s a whole weekend dedicated to eating the good stuff.
Yet, when it comes to actually opening your Easter egg on Easter Sunday, what technique do you use? Do you enthusiastically smash it to bits? Carefully break it apart piece by piece? Or do you neatly halve it so that you can put aside the other half for later?
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“My personal favourite way to get into an Easter egg is just to smash it to smithereens on a clean, hard surface; this leaves you with lots of smaller pieces of chocolate that are the perfect size for snacking on. But, that’s definitely a messy option,” Karen Owen, chief taster and chocolatier at Wickedlywelsh.co.uk, says.
“Although the best way to get into an Easter egg isn’t too far from this; you do still want a clean, hard surface to tap the egg on, but you specifically want to apply pressure to the weakest part of the egg, which is typically the side of the egg, where the two halves are joined together. Obviously, the harder you tap it on the surface, the easier it will break – but unless you want lots of chocolate flying around, don’t go too hard. Start more gently and build up to it.”
However, it’s good to remember that some Easter eggs may be harder to open than others – whether that be due to the thickness of the shell or because it could contain some sort of filling, making its opening a rather messy affair. So make sure you know what kind of egg you’re trying to crack before attempting to open it.
The best way to eat an Easter egg
Once you’ve cracked it open, then comes the best part: eating it. But there can be several different ways to approach this also, ultimately coming down to personal preference.
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“A lot of people will choose to eat one shell at a time, keeping the other half wrapped and away while they eat the first half, whereas others choose to eat from the top down, allowing any stray pieces of chocolate to fall inside the egg to be eaten later,” Owen explains.
The best way to store an Easter egg
The foil that the Easter egg comes wrapped in is key when it comes to keeping your egg fresh for days after you’ve opened it (if you can resist eating it all in one sitting, that is).
“You want to retain the foil that the egg comes in and ensure it’s always wrapped up when you’re not tucking in to keep it fresh,” Owen explains. “Also, keep it at room temperature; some people may be tempted to put it in the fridge but this can affect the taste of your egg the next time you go to grab a chunk.”
Why Easter chocolate tastes better than regular chocolate
If you’ve ever wondered why Easter chocolate tends to taste better than regular chocolate, then we’ve finally go the answer: it all comes down to texture.
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“The texture of a chocolate egg feels different to that of a chocolate bar, in that it feels much smoother,” Owen says. “When chocolate is more round than straight, we generally know that it melts better and is sweeter.”
Watch: Meet the dad who is forced to live on a diet of Easter eggs – and has already eaten more than 200 this year
