Making Chocolate Mousse (Sugar High Friday)
When I heard that Sugar High Friday was being hosted by David Lebovitz and the theme was “Chocolate by Brand” I just knew I had to join in. But what to make? What delicious confection should I craft and with what chocolate?
Typically, I use Ghiradelli chocolate but I didn’t have enough on hand. I also recently picked up a few single origin bars to test out, but didn’t have enough of either to craft a full recipe . . . and it just seemed oh so wrong to mix them up. After all, they are *single* origin.
Ultimately, I chose to go with what I already had (and had a lot of, at that). See, around Christmas I had purchased a good deal of chocolate – dark, bittersweet, etc – from a variety of makers. I always keep some form of Trader Joe’s Pound Plus bars on hand because it’s an inexpensive and decent quality chocolate for baking and whatnot. It is crafted in Belgium, a country known for its fine chocolate (though let’s face it, though a country is known for something doesn’t mean everything that comes out of there is good – but this one tops some other locally available brands like Nestle). Anyway, this bar was 72% dark chocolate (meaning it has a minimum of 72% cacao solids – that’s high).
Making Chocolate Mousse
I set to work. First I took one egg and mixed it until it was light and frothy. Then I beat in 1/8 cup of sugar.
Meanwhile, on the stove, I heated 1/2 cup of heavy cream over medium heat until it just started to let off little wisps of steam.
Then I poured half of the hot heavy cream into the mixture and mixed it for about 30 seconds. Then I mixed that back into the pan with the rest of the heavy cream and cooked it on low for about 5 minutes. I stirred it the entire time, and knew it was time for the next step when it had thickened slightly – the mixture should never boil.
Next I stirred in 4 oz of the dark chocolate and continued stirring until it was fully melted. The result was somewhat ugly and lumpy. I covered the pan and transferred it to the refrigerator for 2 hours. I pulled it out once and stirred, which made it much smoother.
Finally, I beat 3/4 cup of whipping cream until stiff peaks formed. Then I folded that into the mousse. Then I transferred the mixture to serving cups and topped it with homemade, sweetened whipped cream and chocolate shavings (courtesy of my Microplane Grater).
This is a poor photo of the final product. Sorry! I was really tired when I got to this point.
Anyway, the result was a very dense, chocolate-y mousse that tasted wonderful and would be the perfect center to a chocolate mousse cake. Though this is a recipe I will be repeating, I didn’t feel that it lived up to what I wanted to display for Sugar High Friday. So I decided to try it again, this time altering the recipe a touch and using a chocolate with less cacao solids (so it will be less dense. I also decided to use Irish Cream in it.
Also see Part 2.
