Candied mint leaves & mint chocolate bowls

I love Easter. Probably because I associate it with spring, chocolate, holidays and my birthday.

Flavour wise, I'd represent this season with something chocolaty and fresh. Which translated to mint-chocolate in my mind. Mmmh, mint chocolate. And to make things a little more fancy I had a play with fresh mint leaves and edible glitter.

I'm a big fan of glitter. Except that it does magically manage to get everywhere. You always end up having someone tell you you've got glitter on your cheek three days later. I've come to terms with that though and have decided it's definitely always worth it.

Watch the video on how to make them here: (or keep reading for written instructions)

Ingredients (candied mint leaves):

Fresh mint leaves

1 egg white

granulates white sugar

edible glitter (optional, but it does take these to the next level!)

How to:

1. Choose the mint leaves you want to candy

2. Separate your egg yolk and white into two bowls, you only need the white for this

3. Using a brush or your fingers coat the mint leaves with the egg white, one at a time

4. Sprinkle sugar onto both sides of the mint leaves

5. Let dry in a warm area (not hot) then store in an air tight container

6. If you’re feeling especially adventurous and festive, dip the edges of your dried mint leaves in some egg white again and then roll the edges in some edible glitter for an extra sparkly effect!

7. Admire your work and eat, or use them to decorate something special

Ingredients (mint chocolate bowls):

150g quality white chocolate

150g quality dark chocolate

0.5 - 1 tsp peppermint extract

Gel food colouring (water based colouring will NOT work, chocolate despises water and seizes if comes into contact with it! Powdered colourings should work fine but I haven't ever used them)

Small balloons

Note: you might need 0.5 tsp coconut oil to thin the chocolate

How to:

1. Blow some balloons up to the size you want your chocolate bowls to be

2. Heat the white chocolate until ¾ melted, remove from heat and stir until completely melted and smooth

3. Stir in the flavouring and colouring

4. If you don’t think the chocolate is thin enough to coat a balloon, add ½ tsp coconut oil

5. Dip the balloons into the chocolate and let sit on a tray lined with grease proof paper - make sure there aren’t any holes! Let set at room temperature, or in the fridge if you want to speed up the process (the chocolate will be less shiny if you do this)

6. Melt the dark chocolate the same way as the white then using a spoon or a fork dribble lines of chocolate on the bowls (doing a pendulum motion with your arm). Let the bowls set completely

7. Pop the balloons with a sharp object, remove the air by gently pressing the balloon and peel it out of the bowl

8. Fill the bowls with any yummy stuff (like the chocolate mousse from my next post) and enjoy!

Nutritional values: