Chocolate Mousse Indulgence

A while back, I was watching an evening ‘current affair’ program. My German is not that perfect at the moment, but when it comes to cooking, I can follow it without any problem. My attention was fully engaged with eyes locked onto the TV screen and ears and brain set into listening, translating and understanding when a challenge on who can create the better chocolate mousse came on. The challenge was between a young woman who has probably not much experience in cooking and a professional chef. Of course I already knew the answer, but it was interesting to watch. I love chocolate mousse and have eaten it often, but I never come to the idea of making one myself. I was amused to see how the young woman made one mistake after the other in her attempt to create this dessert. She made scramble eggs instead of whipped egg yolks and her chocolate was clumpy and she added coconut liqueur instead of cognac, which come together into an off putting chocolate mud thingy. At the same time the professional chef showed how it should be done properly to create the smooth and indulgence mousse. My husband, who was also watching, commented that he loves chocolate mousse. He is usually not a dessert kind of guy and dislikes anything too sweet.

As it was approaching Christmas (2010) and since I was hooked on baking and has still plenty of baking ingredients (although I had baked tons of Christmas biscuits), I decided to give the chocolate mousse a go. The recipe that I remembered from the TV show was rather a lot (6 eggs). I know that when I make too much there will be complaint coming from hubby. So I reduced the ingredients to a third and I didn’t use an expensive Lindt dark chocolate, simply the left over chocolate couverture I had in the pantry. I thought that when it turns into a big messy ugly mud, I haven’t wasted much. Turns out, it was so delicious that we couldn’t stop with only one serving.

Here I made it again for a second time and it came out perfect. I have reduced the sugar to only 2 teaspoons as husband like it a bit bitter, without extra sugar it should be sweet enough as there is sugar already in the chocolate. The amount of chocolate mousse resulting from this recipe is still enough for a generous portion for 4 people.

Chocolate Mousse

Recipe: adapted from a TV cooking show

Ingredients:

200gr dark chocolate

200gr whipped cream

2 eggs separated

2 tablespoons sugar

1 cup espresso

4cl cognac

a couple drops of vanilla essence

Steps:

1. Cut or break the chocolate into small pieces. Melt chocolate in a stainless steel bowl over hot water. The bowl must not touch the water surface. Once the chocolate is completely melted, stir to smooth it out and set aside.
2. Separate the egg whites from the egg yolks. Beat egg whites until foamy and stiff. Set aside and keep cool in the fridge.
3. Whipped the cream until set and keep cool in the fridge.
4. Whipped egg yolks with sugar and vanilla essence.
5. Pour the egg yolks mixture into the chocolate mix. Once you start mixing other ingredients into the slightly warm chocolate mix, the chocolate might start to get clumpy but don’t worry too much simply keep mixing to smooth it out again. I use wooden spoon to mix the ingredients through.
6. Add the espresso and cognac and mix until the ingredients come together smoothly.
7. Add the whipped cream, mixing thoroughly and slowly into the chocolate mixture.
8. Lastly fold the whipped egg whites into the chocolate mixture, a little at a time, mix it thoroughly until all egg whites are used.
9. Set aside the chocolate mixture to set in the fridge. It takes 4 or more hours. It is better to make the mousse and serve it the next day.

To serve it in a traditional way, use a spoon that has been wetted with hot water. This helps the mousse to slide off easily into the serving plate. It can also be served in individual glasses. To do this, pour the not yet set chocolate mixture into the glasses and then keep them in the fridge to set.