Last week, while cleaning my food pantry, I found in different boxes several pieces of leftover, quality chocolate, mostly Belgian. There were pieces of dark bitter and milk chocolate and a little bit of white chocolate. It turned out I had quite a lot, almost half a pound of chocolate--perfect amount for chocolate-mint cream that I always wanted to try.
I imagined that this dessert would be delicious, but I was even more sure that it would be pretty caloric and rather irresistible. I decided to make it over the weekend when my son had his friends over, so the dessert did not last for too long.
The Italian recipe I had for this dessert calls for bitter sweet chocolate. But since I am a lover of milk chocolate only, this leftover mixture worked better for me. I just cut the amount of sugar used in the recipe. Also, at my son's request, I added a little bit of mint extract to make it more aromatic. It is probably one of the easiest chocolate treats that can make a wonderful last minute weekend desert.
Chocolate-Mint Creams
(Makes 6 portions)
Ingredients:
1/2 pound of dark bitter chocolate chopped into small pieces,
1 cup of half-and-half,
3 tbsp sugar (add only 1 tbsp if you use milk chocolate),
3 egg yolks,
1 tsp peppermint extract,
1/2 whipped cream for decoration
Preparation:
1. Heat the half-and-half in a medium pot until it almost boils. Take it from the heat and add chopped chocolate. Mix well until the chocolate melts completely.
2. In a medium bowl beat yolks and sugar until fluffy. Add mint extract and beat again.
3. Slowly add half of the chocolate to the eggs and mix. Pour the egg mixture to the remaining chocolate in the pot. Return to the heat and simmer gently for about 3 minutes.
4. Pour the chocolate to the small serving bowl and chill for 4 hours. Serve cold with whipped cream.
