Chocolate Mousse

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Life’s uncertain, post dessert first!

A lot of people won’t try to tackle chocolate mousse because it seems too difficult. Not you, of course, you’ve been champing at the bit to whip up a batch for dessert, and so we’ll provide the easiest recipe we know. It comes from Dorie Greenspan’s Around my French Table.

Just because it’s easy doesn’t mean it doesn’t make a mean mousse, so you should definitely keep it in mind when you want a nice light dessert, but don’t want to spend a lot of time in the kitchen.

Chocolate Mousse

Author: Shawn

Ingredients

  • 3 1/2 ounces bittersweet chocolate coarsely chopped
  • 3 large eggs separated, at room temperature
  • Pinch of salt
  • 1 1/2 tsp sugar

Instructions

  • Add a pinch of salt and whip the egg whites. When they are starting to stiffen and form peaks, add the sugar, and whip until you have stiff but glossy peaks. Set aside.
  • In a microwave, heat chocolate in 1 minute intervals at 50% power until the chocolate melts. Stir briskly.
  • One by one, add the egg yolks and whisk them into the melted chocolate.
  • Fold in egg whites. Start by folding in 1/4 of the egg whites, then fold in the rest.
  • Scoop into fancy serving dishes and refrigerate until serving.

Ingredient discussion:

Eggs: free range. Chocolate: best you can buy; we use Valrhona 71%  cacao. There are basically two ingredients here, they’ll have to stand out.

Procedure in detail:

separating eggs
Separating eggs when the are cold is a bit easier, then let them come to room temperature.

Separate eggs. Do this while the eggs are cold, it’s easier, then let them warm to room temperature. We separate each egg into a small bowl, then pour the whites into our mixing bowl; that way, if one yolk breaks, we don’t get yolks in the entire batch of whites — they wouldn’t whip. We really suggest following this technique (we had a scrambled egg the next morning).

Whipping egg whites
Add the sugar when the egg whites are beginning to whip up.

Whip egg whites. Add a pinch of salt and whip the egg whites. When they are starting to stiffen and form peaks, add the sugar, and whip until you have stiff but glossy peaks. Set aside.

Valrhona chocolate
Use the best chocolate you can find. It makes all the difference.

Melt chocolate. In a microwave, heat chocolate in 1 minute intervals at 50% power until the chocolate melts. Stir briskly.

egg yolk in chocolate
One by one, whisk in each egg yolk. The chocolate will thicken noticeably.

Add egg yolks. One by one, add the egg yolks and whisk them into the melted chocolate. The chocolate will start to thicken up and stiffen a bit.

folding in egg whites
Here, we’re folding in the remaining egg white. Be gentle.

Fold in egg whites. Here’s the tricky part. Since the chocolate is thick, take 1/4 of the egg whites and try to fold the into the chocolate to lighten it. You might just have to whisk the egg whites in. We did. Now carefully fold in the remaining egg whites using a wide rubber spatula. Scoop up the chocolate and cover the whites, push down through the whites, and repeat. Be gentle, you do not want the egg whites to deflate. Fold until you’ve incorporated most of the egg whites. It’s okay if a few flecks of egg white remain visible.

chocolate mousse
Nice looking chocolate mousse. About 15 minutes, start to finish!

Serve. Scoop into fancy serving dishes and refrigerate until serving. We used martini glasses as our fancy dishes. Looks nice, huh? Tastes better! High Five!

Worth the trouble?

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