Easter Bunny Treats

Jack's garden operation grows more ambitious every year. The greenhouse, the market sales, the Farm Fund jar that now holds over three hundred dollars. He's 14 and he farms the way some kids play video games — obsessively, joyfully, with the deep understanding that this is not a hobby but a vocation wearing a hobby's clothes.

The recipe this week: lemon chicken with capers. Standing at the stove, Marlene's wooden spoon in my hand (the cracked one, the one that will outlast us all), the recipe either from the card box or from my own expanding collection, both equally real, both equally mine. The kitchen holds all of it — the old recipes and the new ones, the teacher's food and the student's food, the grief and the joy and the cinnamon. All of it. Always.

The garden is waking up. The garlic that overwintered is pushing green shoots through the soil, the annual proof that buried things come back. Jack's seedlings are hardening off in the greenhouse. The Marlene cherry tomato — generation 7 now — ready for transplanting. Every spring the planting is the memorial. Every spring the name goes back in the ground.

Spring in our kitchen has always been about things coming back — the garlic shoots, the seedlings, the names we put back in the ground. When I wanted something to set on the table that matched that feeling, something bright and hopeful and just a little silly with joy, these Easter Bunny Treats felt exactly right. They’re the kind of thing Jack would have grabbed two of without asking, and that’s exactly the energy this season calls for.

Prep Time: 20 min | Cook Time: 5 min | Total Time: 25 min (plus 30 min setting time) | Servings: 12

Ingredients

3 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 package (10 oz) mini marshmallows
6 cups crispy rice cereal
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup white chocolate chips or white candy melts, melted
Pink and white decorating sugar or sprinkles
24 small pink candy-coated chocolates (for noses)
48 mini chocolate chips (for eyes)
White and pink construction candy or fondant, cut into ear shapes (or store-bought bunny ear picks)
Cooking spray

Instructions

Melt the base. In a large saucepan over low heat, melt the butter completely. Add the marshmallows and stir constantly until fully melted and smooth. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla extract.
Combine with cereal. Pour the crispy rice cereal into the marshmallow mixture and stir quickly with a buttered spatula until evenly coated.
Shape the treats. Lightly coat your hands with cooking spray. Scoop about 1/2 cup of the mixture and roll into a smooth ball to form each bunny head. Place on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Work quickly before the mixture sets.
Set and cool. Allow the shaped treats to cool at room temperature for at least 30 minutes until firm.
Decorate the faces. Using the melted white chocolate as “glue,” press two mini chocolate chips onto each ball for eyes and one pink candy-coated chocolate for the nose. Hold gently for a few seconds until set.
Add ears. Insert bunny ear picks into the top of each treat, or attach fondant ears using a dab of melted white chocolate at the base of each ear.
Finish with sparkle. Dust lightly with pink and white decorating sugar for a festive spring look. Allow everything to set fully before arranging on a platter.

Nutrition (per serving)

Easter Bunny Treats — Spring Comes Back Every Time