Finland's Mignon Chocolate Egg Comes Encased In A Real Egg Shell
Around the world, candy eggs are a part of many Easter celebrations. Cadbury makes the Creme Egg, a chocolate with gooey yolk-like filling inside, and Kinder offers up little toys with their Kinder Joy eggs, which have two layers of flavored cream and pieces of chocolate wafers. In Finland, however, confectioners take this candy treat to the next level by using a real eggshell for each of their Mignon chocolate eggs.
This holiday delight was the brainchild of Karl Fazer, who launched his business in 1891 with the opening of his first store, according to the company. He developed the idea for the Mignon egg a few years later in 1896, and rumor has it that Nicholas II, the tsar of Russia, was one of the people to taste this treat, per the This Is Finland website. Since then, these eggs, called "mignon" after the French word for "cute," have proved to be a big hit. Today his company, known now as Fazer, sells roughly 2 million of these tiny wonders each year. This is especially impressive, considering the country only has about 5.6 million citizens.
Making a Mignon egg
The Mignon egg begins with an eggshell. The yolks and whites are removed by making a small hole in each egg, and then the remaining shell is cleaned. This process is all done by hand. In fact, these eggs are so fragile that even the final packaging of the product is done by hand.
The now sterile eggshell is filled with its special nougat, which the company describes as a mixture of chocolate and equal amounts of almonds and hazelnuts. Once that's done, the hole in the eggshell is patched with a paste made of sugar and pea protein. The exterior of the shells remain blank (except for the small brand sticker, of course) –- just in case someone wants to decorate them for the holiday. The greatest satisfaction, however, may come from simply cracking one of these little cuties open and enjoying its rich filling.