Choccreate custom chocolate bars are such a fun choice for Easter gifts – you get your choice of dark, milk or white chocolate, toppings and an Easter bunny or two.

The toppings make all the difference in your creation of a unique—and inexpensive—Easter gift.

 
If you don’t have the time or inclination to design chocolate bars, send an e-gift certificate and let the recipients have the fun.

Release your inner chocolatier. We combined
sugar bunnies, eggs and carrots with Jelly
Beans and Sunbeams. Photo by River Soma | THE NIBBLE.

The base price of the 3.5-ounce chocolate bar is $3.95. Toppings start at 45¢ each, with many at 65¢ or 75¢. Each bar comes in a gift box.

If you’re still looking for Easter candy, do something different this year. Click on over to Choccreate.com and start creating!

Want something more elaborate? Here’s our favorite artisan Easter chocolate.

Are you cooking a ham for Easter?

Watch Chef Tyler Florence prepare a smoked ham with a sage rub and tangerine sauce:

After years of requests from readers, THE NIBBLE Gourmet Market is now open.

The almost 100 products—and more added weekly—are our favorites for gift-giving. Most have been NIBBLE Top Picks Of The Week.

Take a closer look at these cute chocolate chicks. Each is filled with a different flavor of creamy chocolate ganache.

If you’re looking for something more sophisticated, Choclatique fills Easter-colored bonbons with a selection of ganache, creams and caramels.

We welcome your feedback on The Nibble Gourmet Market and hope to become a go-to resource for gift-giving.

Instead of chocolate bunnies, delight
with chocolate chicks. Photo courtesy
Choclatique.

Ham spiral-sliced for a buffet. Photo courtesy
Cherry Marketing Institute.

If you typically have a sit-down Easter dinner, think about having a buffet this year.

Setting everything out at once and letting people serve themselves gives you more time to spend with your guests. It also enables you to accommodate more guests than your dining table allows–and it’s better for mingling.

You can place the food on a sideboard and seat guests at the dining table, or set the food on the dining table and let guests gather around the sofa or wherever they want to group and talk.

If you have outdoor space and the weather cooperates, some people may enjoy dining alfresco.

Australian passionfruit is small and purple-
skinned. Photo by Brybs | SXC.

You may have assumed, like many people, that passionfruit was named for the passion it inspires in those who consume it.

But the name actually comes from a religious source, rather than any aphrodisiac properties.

The fruit is named for the plant’s flower, which is said to symbolize parts of the Passion of Christ, including the crown of thorns and the nails of the crucifixion.

So, add passionfruit to your Easter menu.

Like pomegranate, the pulp and seeds are the edible parts of the fruit. Here are some ideas on how to use them:

We’ve found two types of passionfruit in our market: Australia/New Zealand-grown passionfruit, which is purple and the size of a small lemon, and Hawaiian passionfruit, which is yellow and as large as a grapefruit.* The purple variety is less acidic, with a richer aroma and flavor.

*Passionfruit is grown worldwide in subtropical climates, from India and Indonesia to Israel to the Caribbean and South America. And of course, Australia and New Zealand.

When ripe, the flesh of both varieties is very wrinkled. Cut the fruit in half and scoop out the pulp and seeds with a spoon.

According to produce expert Melissas.com, choose fragrant, shriveled, wrinkled fruit that is rich in color. If the skin is smooth, ripen at room temperature and turn occasionally. The fruit may then be refrigerated in a plastic bag for a few days or frozen for longer storage without any loss of quality.

A two-layer Black Forest marshmallow with
a chocolate bottom and a top made with
cherry purée. It’s topped with dried cherries
and chopped chocolate. From Crumbles
Cookie Factory, it’s fabulous. Photo by
River Soma | THE NIBBLE.

To adapt comedian Rodney Dangerfield’s famous line, marshmallows don’t get no respect. At least in the world of fine confections.

That’s because most of us are only familiar with the tough, cottony supermarket variety of marshmallows.

But there’s a world of excitement out there: gourmet marshmallows so airy and flavorful that they’ve replaced chocolate as our favorite after-dinner treat, and as an accompaniment to a cup of tea or coffee.

Today’s gourmet marshmallows are made by confectioners who are the marshmallow equivalent to top chocolatiers.

And you can get marshmallows in just about any flavor—even savory ones, like chicken and beef (we didn’t taste those, but we did try bacon-topped marshmallows).

Consider putting bags of fine marshmallows in your Easter basket this year.

Enhance your Easter table. Photo courtesy
Williams-Sonoma.

If only we weren’t saving up for a new stove, we’d get a few sets of these adorable Bunnyware glasses from Williams-Sonoma.

The vintage-inspired bunny portraits are by Parisian artist Marc Lacaze. Four glasses are $29.00.

While there are complete sets of Bunnyware dishes and serving pieces, you only need one holiday-themed item to dress up your table.

We particularly like the glasses because, filled with water or another beverage, they can stay on the table for the entire meal.

Our favorite carrot juice is from Biotta,
a NIBBLE Top Pick Of The Week.
Photo by Corey Lugg | THE NIBBLE.

What does the Easter bunny drink? Carrot juice cocktails!

Well, not really, but it’s a fun concept for Easter cocktails.

FOR KIDS: Serve a Peter Cottontail Cocktail, carrot juice with a squeeze of lime in festive glasses. Garnish with fruit—a strawberry on the rim, for example.

FOR ADULTS: Serve an Easter Mary. Substitute carrot juice for the tomato juice in your favorite Bloody Mary recipe.

If you like, start with a carrot juice tasting:

Buy several different brands of carrot juice, set them out small paper drinking cups or shot glasses and let guests vote on which tastes best to them. It’s an engaging activity as guests begin to arrive.

Find more Easter and spring cocktail ideas in our Cocktails Section.

A boneless, hickory-smoked ham from
HamIAm.com.

When we were an agrarian society, every farm or homestead had its own smokehouse to smoke the family’s food. In the days before refrigeration, smoked food was a key way to preserve meat and fish.

Over Lent, when no pork was consumed, hams were left to cure. The hams were ready by Easter, and ham became a popular Easter tradition.

Today, many households look forward to their “Easter ham,” but the decision is more complex: There is quite an array of different ham types and styles.

Do you know your ham? If not, you might not be purchasing the type that’s best for you. You need to know why:

Even if you’ve already purchased your Easter ham, there’s lots to learn for your next ham. Read our article on ham types and you won’t be hamstrung.

People will beg for these veggies!
Photo courtesy WoodhouseChocolate.com.

What does a chocolate Easter bunny eat? Chocolate carrots, of course!

Carrots—in dark, milk and white chocolate—and chocolate asparagus are the adorable chocolate vegetables made by Woodhouse Chocolate, a NIBBLE Top Pick Of The Week.

No children—or adults—will refuse to eat these vegetables. (And here’s a trick: Proffer the chocolate veggies as a reward for eating the real veggies—for the rest of the month.)

The solid chocolate veggies are $6 each, with bundles of five milk or dark chocolate asparagus (tied with a ribbon) for $25.00.

Pick your veggies at WoodhouseChocolate.com.