Some desserts really try to sell themselves on their deliciousness—there's Better Than Sex cake, Slutty Brownies, Knock You Naked Brownies, Death by Chocolate everything and even our own Oreogasm series—but, when it comes to gooey, chocolate treats, Mississippi Mud Pie seems to do the exact opposite. It's like it's trying to deter people, like "sorry, folks, don't save room for me, because I'm just like something your five-year-old made on a rainy day."
And that's what makes it fiendishly brilliant.
Once you take a bite of this mix of rich cocoa, marshmallow and chopped pecans, you won't want to share it with anyone else. You'll be tempted to downplay it, so you can keep it all to yourself—the one ring to your wide-eyed and greed-filled Gollum.
That's what made us decide to turn the classic pie (which is actually named because the dark chocolate mirrors the color of the banks of the Mississippi River, according to The Delta Queen Cookbook) into cupcakes. They're individually portioned and force you to share them with others. Or, at the very least, they encourage others to grab one before you can swat their hands away, shouting to "stay away from the Precioussss!"
Mississippi Mud Pie typically features a cookie or brownie crust, a pudding-like chocolate layer, marshmallows and pecans, all topped with a chocolate drizzle. We paid homage to the treat in three parts.
1. The Cupcake
A little chocolate pudding mix is both a nod to the pudding in most Mississippi mud treats, and an easy hack for making a box cake mix moister (that and adding extra eggs and Greek yogurt in place of oil). The cakelets are lighter and fluffier than your typical cake, which offets the fudging irresistable ganache filling.
2. The Filling
Heavy cream and semisweet chocolate chips are a magical thing. When you heat the cream to a simmer and whisk it with the chocolate, you have a glossy, pourable ganache. If you chill it in the fridge for an hour, like we did, you can beat it with an electric mixer into a thick, truffle-like filling.
Once the cupcakes had cooled, I cut a small hole in each cupcake, about the size of a quarter, coring it halfway and filling it with the thickened ganache. From there, it was time to top it with what truly makes it Mississippi Mud in our minds: Marshmallow, pecans and more chocolate!
3. The Frosting
Marshmallow buttercream may seem like a project, but trust us, it isn't. If you can stir a cake mix and pour it into cupcake tins, you can whip this together.
Pro Tip: Spritz a spoon with cooking spray before sticking it into the Marshmallow Fluff. This will make it easier to get the Fluff out of the can without it sticking all over the spoon.
Any leftover ganache can be used for the chocolate drizzle. Just microwave it for 20 seconds, stir, and make it rain. Don't forget a healthy coating of chopped pecans—they add necessary crunch (unless, of course, you're allergic).
We can't promise you'll be able to share these treats, but we can say people won't hesitate to grab one. Then fistfight you for another.
Get the recipe here.
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