In the early stages of our blog, back in non-vegan times, Mac found a recipe on RecipeZaar (now Food.com) for Jelly Bean Nests, which were perfect for Easter. In fact, she made them for our niece and cousins. To this day, our niece still talks about them.
Below is our original post with some notes to veganize
Jelly Beans Nests
Being new to food blogging, I’ve become really interested in challenges. For March, the blog Masterbaker’s Weblog, the challenge surrounded Easter candy. My favorite are gourmet jelly beans (i.e. Jelly Belly). So I embarked on my first challenge.
After looking at various recipes, I actually came across a quick and easy non-bake dessert from Recipezaar that was just too cute. Who would of thought of making a totally edible Easter basket?!?! I just had to make these as little gifts for my niece and younger cousins for Easter.
Here’s the recipe:
INGREDIENTS:
- 2 cups miniature marshmallows Veganize this with Dandies or Sweet & Sara marshmallows
- 1/4 cup butter Veganize by replacing with equal amount of Earth Balance or soy margarine
- 4 cups crunchy chow mein noodles If you can find vegan chow mein noodles, let me know. You may be better off using some toasted rice cereal
- cooking spray I would use some extra margarine or a little canola oil, as this is only needed to grease muffin tins
- jelly beans(or any egg shaped candy) – Make sure they are vegan! Dandies tweets would work!
DIRECTIONS:
- Over medium heat, combine marshmallows and butter in a large saucepan. Dandies and Earth Balance will be just fine. I’ve used them when making rice krispie treats
- Stir until melted.
- Add noodles and stir to completely coat the noodles.
- Spray 12 cup muffin pan with cooking spray. See notes under ingredients
- With buttered (margarine-d) place about 1 tablespoon of mixture into muffin cups and shape with hands to form”nests”. THIS IS A MUST!!! I cut a tbsp of butter and kept greasing my hands after making each nests. The mixture was really sticky. So much fun.
- Refrigerate til set.
- Fill nests with jelly beans.
NOTE: I mixed about 1.5 tbsp of shredded coconut with 1 to 2 drops of green food coloring to make the “grass.”
I just tried one a few minutes ago. They are sooooooo good! The marshmallow with the chow mein noodles came out even better than a Rice Krispies treat. I had a lot fun eating each jelly bean and guessing the flavor. I’m in Easter bunny ecstacy right now.
These may become my annual Easter treat for friends and family.
The Food Duo 