I love recipes that have a WOW factor and this one certainly does. It is amazingly tasty, simple to make and the presentation! All credit for this idea goes to Phoodie and the original recipe can be found on her blog.

Phoodie used a recipe from Nigella to make the chocolate mousse that is inside these deliciously gorgeous creations and edited it, swapping out the vanilla essence for peppermint essence. When I made mine I adjusted the whole recipe to suit the size of the blocks of chocolate I bought, originally the recipe called for 250g dark chocolate but I could only find it in 200g blocks, so I bought two. Therefore I’m reblogging the recipe here with the adjusted measures. I also stuffed it up slightly (despite Phoodie’s assurances it was fool proof) so I’m going to explain the instructions in a bit more detail as well.

Choc Mint Pot Plant Dessert

Ingredients

• 400g dark chocolate (I used Lindt 70% cooking chocolate)
• 80g butter
• 240g marshmallows (I used regular size ones, ripped up into small pieces, and only the white ones. If you can only buy mixed pink & white, buy two bags)
• 95ml hot water from a recently boiled kettle
• 455ml double cream (Nigella’s recipe says 1 x 284ml tub but the only tubs I could find were 300ml so I used 1.5 tubs)
• 1.5tsp peppermint essence
• 2 packets dark chocolate (or dark chocolate mint) Tim Tams
• As many sprigs of mint as you are going to make (I made 9)

Method

1. Put marshmallows, butter, water and chocolate in a large saucepan over low heat.
2. Melt contents slowly (you don’t want it to bubble), stirring occasionally.
3. Take off the heat once melted and allow to cool to room temperature.
4. Whip the cream and peppermint essence until thick.
5. Fold the cream into the cool chocolate mixture. This is where I went wrong the first time I made them. Nigella’s recipe says to fold it into the cooling mixture so I put it in too early and all my cream melted. When it had cooled completely I tasted it and it was very strong so I whipped & stuck in the rest of the cream. Wait for the mixture to be cool, not just cooling down, before you fold the cream in.
6. Pop into your glasses/pots.
7. Crush up your Tim Tams in a food processor or with a rolling pin until it looks like dirt. You could use any dark chocolate biscuit but it needs to be dark to look convincingly like dirt. I used my food processor but beware, when you open it the Tim Tams will go everywhere. I used dark chocolate mint Tim Tams but not the ones with little mint pieces in it, that will ruin the “dirt” effect.
8. Sprinkle your dirt on top of the mousse.
9. Trim and wash your mint sprigs then dry them thoroughly.
10. Pop into your dirt and voila!

You can refrigerate these until you are ready to eat them, I did for about 2 hours. For best results put the mint in at most 3-4 hours before you serve these as it will start to wilt. I recommend adding the mint as you remove them from the fridge for serving. Phoodie suggested putting them on your window sill during dinner then picking them up to serve your guests for dessert. I simply love this idea and intend to steal it for my next dinner party.

Enjoy!

For more delicious and innovative ideas, check out Phoodie’s blog here.