25-30 Peeps (assorted colors)
mini eggs (Cadbury's milk or dark chocolate)
3 cups macadamia nuts, divided
"Neon" style food coloring: pink, green, blue, purple
4 (12 oz. ea.) bags white chocolate chips
2 (10 oz. ea.) bags angel flake coconut (Baker's)
1 cup (2 sticks) butter
1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 tsp. vanilla
2 eggs
2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

Preheat oven to 350°F. Line cookie sheet with parchment or wax paper.

Blend 2 cups of Macadamia nuts in a blender until smooth. Finely chop the remaining Macadamia nuts into very small pieces and set aside.

Cream butter and sugars together. Add vanilla and eggs, blending well. Pour in only 1 cup of Macadamia nut butter, if you have any left over store it in the refrigerator for another day. Add finely chopped Macadamia nuts and stir well.

Sift flour, baking soda and salt in a separate bowl. Add slowly to nut mixture, stirring well. Allow the dough to cool for one hour in the refrigerator.

While you are waiting for the dough to sit, divide the chocolate equally into four microwave safe bowls. Melt chocolate in the microwave, 1-2 minutes per bowl. Add food coloring to each bowl as soon as chocolate is melted, one color per bowl (pink, green, blue, purple). Stir 1/4 of the coconut flakes into each bowl. Set aside.

Remove dough from the refrigerator and form 1 1/2 inch balls. Place balls on cookie sheet. Flatten slightly with fork in criss-cross pattern.

Bake at 350°F for about 10 minutes. Cool.

Microwave each color of chocolate-coconut mix just before using, to soften.

On a flat surface mold the dyed coconut mix into a nest shape on the top of each cookie. Fill each nest with Peeps or 2-3 mini eggs (or both.)

Note: This makes a very large (44+ cookies) batch so you may want to cut the recipe in half.

Variation: Add sweetened dried mango or pineapple bits to the chocolate-coconut mixture for a tropical twist!

Submitted by: DH