This mousse is everybody's favorite. It's so light and fluffy and creamy and velvety and melting in your mouth and so deliciously chocolaty, it will make you go 'wow' and squint your eyes until the last bite.
This is one of the desserts they love to call “death by chocolate.” If your life is dear to you, I recommend serving this mousse in small martini glasses, filling them only about 2/3 up.
The mousse is a quick fix, but will need at least an hour in the fridge to set. And it's very versatile. It can be made with milk or dark chocolate, be flavored with different liqueurs and topped with a variety of fruits or berries.
You can serve it in individual glasses or ramekins, in a large deep serving dish or even in a pie crust.
You will need:
- 7 oz (200 g) bittersweet chocolate, roughly chopped
- 4 oz (120 ml) whipping cream
- 3 Large eggs, whites and yolks separated
- About 1.5-2 Tbsp granulated white sugar
- 2 Tbsp Baileys, Kahlua, brandy or rum
- A small package of fresh raspberries
- Powdered sugar to taste
- Optional: chocolate figures for decoration (or grated white chocolate)
Put cream and chocolate into a metal or other heat-proof bowl and nest on top of a saucepan or a pot filled with water. Make sure that the bottom of the bowl is at least 1.5 inch above the level of water in the pot. On a low simmer, heat the mixture stirring from time to time until chocolate melted. Remove from the heat and add Baileys or Kahlua.
Alternatively, you can melt chocolate in a microwave oven. That is what I prefer – quick and no hassle. Put in a microwave on medium high and check every 20-25 seconds. Give it a good stir each time you check and continue until the chocolate is completely melted.
Let the mixture cool down and stir in the yolks*, one at a time. Whip the egg whites until soft peaks** start forming. While keeping whisking, add sugar in a slow steady flow. Whip until soft peaks just start turning into stiff peaks.
Now is the most important step: combining egg whites with chocolate. Our task is to preserve the fluffiness of the whipped whites, which will give the mousse its beautiful porous texture and light consistency. To achieve it, follow these rules:
- Chocolate mixture should be at room temperature when adding egg whites.
- Fold in egg whites in several batches, not all of them at once.
- Use wide silicone spatula or a big metal or wooden spoon.
- Stir vertically rather than horizontally; go from bottom to top and top to bottom in circular motion, rotating the bowl.
- Stir gently, but firmly.
Put the mousse into martini glasses or other individual forms, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for several hours until set.
Before serving, arrange several raspberries on top of each mousse and sprinkle with powdered sugar or grated white chocolate. Stick a chocolate decoration into the mousse, if desired. Serve right away.
* For extra fluffiness, you may want to whip the egg yolks with sugar until they triple in volume and become pale yellow. Make sure to thoroughly wash the bowl and the whisk before whipping the egg whites afterwards. There should be left no traces of fat in the bowl, which may interfere with white whipping.
** Soft peaks vs. stiff peaks: While whipping egg whites, lift the whisk and check the egg whites below. If they stand up and the peak left by the whisk bends over, you have reached a soft peaks stage. If the peak stays pointed straight up, this is a stiff peaks stage.
P.S. For our February lunch at Society, I made a "triple whipped" chocolate mousse. That is, I whipped separately egg yolks and egg whites and also added whipped cream to make the mousse even lighter. If you want to do that, whip 120 ml of cream and when melting chocolate use whole milk or half-n-half (the same amount). When making "triple whipped" mousse, fold in egg whites the last as they are the most fragile.
P.S.2 Occasionally, I turn this mousse into a chocolate mousse tart. All you need is a cooked pie crust (homemade or store bought) and a freshly made chocolate mousse. Simply pour the mousse into a cold/room temperature crust up to the rims and put in the refrigerator. Let it set for several hours, better overnight. Or prep in the morning, eat for dinner.
Decorate with raspberries before serving, slice and dig in. Wows are guaranteed.
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