These No Bake Bird’s Nest Cookies are made with melted chocolate and toasted almonds and coconut. They come out incredibly flavorful and are quick easy to make.
Toast the nuts: Place the almonds in a skillet and toast over medium-high heat for 3-4 minutes. Add the shredded coconut and toast with the almonds until lightly golden brown and fragrant, about 1 minutes.
Melt the chocolate: Break up a chocolate bar (or use melting chocolate chips). Melt it in the microwave or over a water bath. Add the toasted nuts and stir well.
Shape cookies: Using about 1 scant tablespoon of chocolate and nut mix, place small mounds on a sheet pan lined with baking parchment. Make a small well in the middle. Decorate each with three mini eggs in the middle.
Freeze: Freeze the cookies on the sheet pan for 10-15 minutes, or until firm. I prefer to store them in a covered container in the fridge for up to 5 days or in the freezer for up to 1 month.
Notes
Ingredient notes
Almonds/coconut: Feel free to use quick oats in place of either the almonds or coconuts, or in place of both. I still recommend toasting the oats lightly before adding the melted chocolate, the flavor is so much better!
Mini eggs: I used some generic store brand “micro eggs” (the mini ones) and then some generic store brand robin’s eggs. I thought the size difference would look cute, and it totally did ? Feel free to use any combination of mini eggs you like.
Chocolate: Use whatever kind of melting chocolate you like best. I absolutely love these with white chocolate – it goes perfectly with the toasted nuts. My 6 year old likes milk chocolate best, and the “sophisticated” adults usually go for the dark chocolate. I’m definitely not sophisticated when it comes to Easter candy, so I usually do half a batch with white chocolate and half a batch with either milk or semi-sweet chocolate.
Final note: Make sure to use chocolate for melting, not chips that are made to keep their shape during baking. And, you can definitely melt a chocolate bunny if you’ve got one too many ?
Recipe tips
Be sure to watch the nuts closely as you’re toasting them (stir almost constantly!), and only use medium to medium-high heat. It’s easy to get distracted if you’re making the cookies with kids, and especially the coconut burns easily. If you have very young kids or if yours get overly excited when you cook together (mine do for sure!), try toasting the nuts before you call them to help.
Melt the chocolate either in bursts in the microwave in a microwave-safe bowl. Stir often in between bursts. OR use a double boiler, or a heat-proof bowl set over a pan with an inch of simmering water in it. With white chocolate it’s especially important to not overdo the heat, it splits easily.
Make sure the mix for the cookies is thick and holds its shape when spooned and shaped on the lined pan. If your little helpers measured incorrectly and the cookie mixture is too runny, add more coconut or almonds by the tablespoon until it’s thick.
Conversely, if you end up with too many nuts in your mix, the cookies will not hold together. You can tell this is the case if you have a very hard time getting the mix to come together. In this case, you really have no option but to melt more chocolate to gradually stir into the mix.
Don’t forget to line your pan, the frozen cookies peel off easily from the parchment paper, but can be a pain to remove from an unlined pan.
The mini eggs need to be stuck on immediately, as long as the chocolate is still liquid and acts as a food glue. If you wait for too long, the eggs will not stick.
Store your Bird’s Nest Cookies in the fridge or freezer at all times,because they melt easily or at least soften. They keep in the fridge for 4-5 days, or in the freezer for a month.