These chocolate plant pots are sure to impress your friends and family with their amazing looks. But they’re actually far easier to make than they look. Filled with chocolate cottage pudding, contained in snappy chocolate cups, and topped with cookie crumbs and mint leaves, they’re a dreamy dessert and perfect for Mother’s Day. If you want to make them vegan, we recommend replacing the cottage pudding with a vegan chia seed pudding and using vegan cookies and chocolate chips.
On the Ingredients
- Dark Chocolate has all kinds of proven health benefits dark chocolate. For instance, did you know that chocolate is actually very nutritious? A 100-gram bar of dark chocolate with 70–85% cocoa contains something like 11 grams of fiber, 67% of the RDI for iron, 58% of the RDI for magnesium, 89% of the RDI for copper, 98% of the RDI for manganese. It also has plenty of potassium, phosphorus, zinc, and selenium. Chocolate is also a powerful antioxidant, filled with organic compounds like polyphenols, flavanols, and catechins. Some studies show chocolate may help improve blood flow and lower blood pressure. There’s also a possibility that it reduces the risk of heart disease. Heck, dark chocolate might even make you smarter because cocoa contains stimulant substances like caffeine and theobromine, which can improve brain function in the short term.
- Cottage Cheese is a curdled milk product that retains some whey, giving it a soupy texture. It’s generally made from skim milk, making it reasonably low fat and lower calorie. Cottage cheese is mild in flavor and goes especially well with fruits and fresh veggies. Or, you can use it to make various desserts, like cottage pudding. So long as you aren’t lactose intolerant, cottage cheese is pretty healthy. However, you might consider buying low-sodium varieties if that is a concern. Cottage cheese is a popular food with athletes because of its high protein content, accounting for 70% of the calories. It’s also got a lot of nutrients like vitamin B12, selenium, riboflavin, phosphorus, calcium, folate, vitamin B6, choline, zinc, and copper. (Read more about the health.)
Recipe Notes and Substitutions
You can use any kind of chocolate pudding to fill these pots. If you want a vegan version, you can use vegan chocolate chips and vegan chocolate cookie crumbs and replace the cottage cheese with silken tofu. If you use Lily’s Sweet’s no sugar-added chocolate chips and use monk fruit sweetener, these pots become keto-friendly!
Edible Plant Pots with Cottage Pudding
4
servingsThese chocolate plant pots are sure to impress your friends and family with their amazing looks. But they’re actually far easier to make than they look. Filled with chocolate cottage pudding, contained in snappy chocolate cups, and topped with cookie crumbs and mint leaves, they’re a dreamy dessert and perfect for Mother’s Day. If you want to make them vegan, we recommend replacing the cottage pudding with a vegan chia seed pudding and using vegan cookies and chocolate chips.
Ingredients
- Edible Pots
9 oz chocolate chips
2 tbsp cocoa powder
- Cottage Pudding
4 cups cottage cheese
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1/3 cup sugar or monk fruit (more if wanted)
1 tsp vanilla
pinch of salt
- Finishing Ingredients
1 cup chocolate cookie crumbs
4 sprigs of fresh mint
- Equipment
double boiler (or a heatproof bowl that fits on the top of a small saucepan)
6 paper cups (16 oz)
food processor
pastry brush
piping bag with 11/16” round tip (not required, but it makes things easier)
Directions
- Prepare the paper cups by cutting the top half off. The recipe will make 4 complete pots, but there’s enough chocolate to make six chocolate pots because some may break. Set up the double boiler and melt the chocolate chips. Use a spoon to coat the inside of each paper cup, building a layer about 1/8-1/4 inch thick. Be careful not to have thin patches. Put the cups in the freezer for 30 minutes.
- Put the pudding ingredients in a food processor and process until it’s smooth. Adjust the sweetness and cocoa if desired. Chill in the pudding until ready to use.
- When the cups are chilled, very carefully peel the paper cup away from the chocolate, starting at the seam. If the chocolate cracks, set the chocolate pieces aside and reuse if needed (or eat). Hopefully, you’ll have four intact cups. Use the pastry brush to dust the outside of the pots with cocoa powder to give them a natural garden look.
- Fill each pot with the cottage pudding almost to the top. This is easier with a piping bag. Divide the chocolate cookie crumbs between the pots and stick the mint sprigs in the centers so they look like seedlings. Chill for 30 minutes or more before serving. You can make the pots ahead of time and keep them in the fridge, but add the mint leaves before serving so they don’t wilt. Serve on individual plates.
