Chocolate Mousse ©
There is nothing like a really chocolatey, light, creamy Chocolate Mousse! Served with cream and raspberry coulis, not to mention if you are eating it in a cozy Austrian Chalet, high up in the Austrian Alps…….
Any way for ‘Thanksgiving’ today I thought it was just the thing, a change from the traditional Pumpkin Pie. So here goes, enjoy and let me know how it turns out.
This was given to me by one of my ‘Cooking Students,’ she is Swiss and an accomplished cook. On trying it, I immediately replaced my old one with the one she had given me and I have been using it ever since! Thank you Claire!
Definition of a Mousse : a sweet or savoury dish made as a smooth, light mass in which the main ingredient is whipped with cream and egg white:
To Mette, your favourite!
Easy : Here I have made a ‘three fruit Coulis,’ raspberry, Strawberry and blackberry.
This can make an alternative dessert on Christmas Day, if you are not a Trifle Fan!
Preparation Time 1/2 hr
6-8 Persons
Ingredients
200 g Good quality 60-70% Swiss Bitter Chocolate
4 Egg Yolks
3-4 tbs Sugar
400 ml Cream
4 Egg Whites
Pinch of Salt
Coulis
20 g Fresh or frozen raspberry, strawberry, or blackberry fruit or a mixture of all three!
Icing sugar to taste (1-2 heaped tsp)
Decoration
125 ml Whipped Cream
50 g Grated Chocolate
Raspberries, strawberries or blackberries.
Method
1. Break up the chocolate roughly into a bowl. Place bowl over a saucepan of simmering water ( Bain Marie) and leave to melt. Stir from time to time to ensure all the chocolate is melted. Remove from heat and reserve to one side.
2. In the mean time, place egg yolks and sugar in large enough bowl to take all the mousse and beat until light in colour and fluffy. 3 minutes minimum with an electric beater.
3. Beat cream until it leaves a trail of the whisk, not completely stiff, as you still have some folding to do.
4.. Beat egg whites with a pinch of salt until “stiff peaks” i.e. when you lift beaters out of egg whites the peaks remain upright, they should not bend over….important.If they do beat some more.
5. By now chocolate should have melted. Remove from heat and leave to cool a little for 2 minutes.
6. Pour chocolate into egg yolks stirring all the time. This should amalgamate into a smooth thick consistency. If by misfortune it goes lumpy, either because chocolate was too hot and cooked yolks or because it was not hot enough and solidified, unfortunately, your only option is to start again.
7.Fold in cream.
8. Using a large spoon or special spatula, lightly and quickly fold in 1 tbs of the whites, ( by doing this it makes the rest of the whites more easy to incorporate, thus not losing volume) and then the rest, until thoroughly mixed. It is important to do this quickly, so as not to lose the volume and fold just enough to get a uniform colour, don’t over mix, you will lose volume. The folding method, is cutting across your mixture, turning spoon to lift up and turn over mixture. Give your bowl a half turn to the left and repeat. At no time press your mixture ‘down’ with your spoon.
9. Pour into serving bowl, lightly smooth over, place in refrigerator for one hour and then decorate. Grate chocolate over the top, using the fine holes of your grater and piping cream stars around the edge. Decorate with fruit.
9. Cover with cling film and reserve in refrigerator. Important: remove from refrigerator ten minutes before serving, so that it is not too stiff.
10. Serve with raspberry or strawberry or mixed berry Coulis.
To Make The Coulis
1. Blend fruit and icing sugar in blender
2. Pass through fine sieve, which gets rid of the seeds. This takes a little time but is worth it.
3. Serve in a jug.
Use good quality chocolate. 65-75% Coco strength.
Break up chocolate in Pyrex, heat resistant bowl, and place over bowl of simmering water. ( Bain Marie.)
Stir with wooden spoon to ensure all the chocolate is melted.
In the mean time separate eggs carefully, especially whites, no egg yolk must fall in, or they will not beat
into stiff meringue. Add sugar to yolks.
Beat egg yolks and sugar until light in colour, light in texture and fluffy. This is very important and should
take at least 3 minutes of beating. This is how you add air and lightness to your Mousse, which is the key
to a good Mousse.
Pour your melted chocolate onto your egg yolks. The Chocolate has slightly cooled, while waiting on the
side so the heat shouldn’t curdle the eggs. If by miss fortune it does, you just have to start over. The chocolate
doesn’t want to have got too cold either, or it will solidify when added to the eggs. Again you will have to begin
from scratch. Should the chocolate have got too cool, just heat it up again on the Bain Marie.
( Never heat chocolate straight in a saucepan, the direct heat, can cause it to separate. )
Mix chocolate and egg yolks thoroughly.
Add lightly whipped cream.
Beat egg whites together with a pinch of salt until “Stiff Peaks.” ( The salt helps them stiffen.) This means
the egg whites stand upright, when you lift beaters out, the peaks should not flop over. If they do beat some
more. A nice large mixing bowl helps get a bigger volume……more air and lightness to your Mousse.
Using a large spoon or special spatula, fold cream into egg yolks, cutting across, lifting
and folding over. Then turn your bowl a half turn to the left and repeat. When just mixed in, add first 1 tbs
of stiffly beaten meringue, fold in and then add the rest. Fold with the same method above, until no more
white is showing. Don’t overfold, you will loose volume. Place in serving bowl and leave in refrigerator 1
hour.
Fold until all the white of the meringue is no longer visible, but do this quickly and lightly, because if you
over fold, you will see you are losing volume.
Pour into suitable serving bowl, smooth out very lightly on top and tidy up edges with kitchen paper. Place
in refrigerator for one hour to chill.
Remove from refrigerator. Using the fine holes of your grater, grate chocolate evenly straight over the top
of your Mousse.
Decorate with stiffly beaten cream using a piping bag with a star nozzle. The above piper is useful when
it is for small quantities.
Decoration is entirely up to you, this I think is missing a few whirls of chocolate placed in the center.
You can have a lot of fun sculpting chocolate, using a knife…. see below.
Here is an example of sculpturing Chocolate…….Black Forest Gateaux, coming up soon!
Instead of chocolate whirls you can also decorate with fruit, bought to make your Coulis.
To make your Coulis,hull your strawberries and place fruit in colander. Rinse briefly under the running tap.
Shake out water and place in blender. Blend until smooth.
Pour fruit into ‘extra fine’ sieve, which won’t let seeds pass through!
Stir continuously until all the fruit has passed through. This will take five minutes……
Taste for sweetness. Add more icing sugar if necessary. You don’t want to make it too sweet, because the
Mousse is already sweet.
Serve in pretty jug along with your delicious Chocolate Mousse.
Final result!
What's Cooking In Jane's Kitchen 
Jane… tres bonne recette, revue et corrigee a ta maniere… c’est a dire avec finesse et talent. Bravo
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Thank you! And for yesterdays Chocolate Cheese Cake!
Fantastique!!!!!!
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