Hello, and welcome to my first post of 2018! January may be half over, but (as usual) I have some great excuses!First of all, Samuel now has an official deadline to finish his thesis to get his degree (after which he will have to fly all the way back to Berlin to defend it), so he has been working on it like crazy. Since we share a computer, this means no computer for me.
Two: I am in full nesting mode for this baby who is due in LESS THAN A MOOOONTH. I find myself spending 90% of the time writing elaborate and organized lists of things to do and buy before baby is born and the rest of the time cooking and freezing meals, cleaning, scrubbing, organizing, eating pickles,
And number three…..
This child is so mischievous (and hilarious) lately. He woke up from his nap in the middle of this mousse photoshoot and starting eating all the chocolate curls lying around. I tried to give him raspberries to distract him, but he apparently has my chocolate loving genes.
While I was editing these pictures, he sat on my lap watching me and listening to Paganini, which he directs dramatically when the music gets exciting. Is my one-year-old going to be a genius? Naturally I would think so.
Currently, he has dumped an entire package of spaghetti noodles on the floor and is carefully snapping each noodle into several pieces. I am debating whether or not it’s worth it at this point to save the noodles.
But now, we must discuss this mousse.
If you follow on Instagram, you may have seen that I made about 50 servings of this for an event I was catering the dessert for. I thought it was so good, I decide to perfect it and make it my own and then share the recipe here with you, partly so that you can also enjoy it and partly because otherwise I would never be able to find it again (yes, that’s the real reason I started this food blog).
So. I am hoping that you noticed that my chocolate curls turned out perfectly curly this time. I know I promised to give you a tutorial for my chocolate curls almost 3 years ago when I made the Microwave Chocolate Pie. I’ve already spent half of this post giving you excuses, so I’ll spare you that and just say, “HEH HEH…. oops.”
I just need to spend a little more time perfecting my method and then I REALLY will post them!
Anyway, I hope you love this mousse as much as we do. Samuel asked me if it’s “pretty much the same thing as ice cream”, which is the highest compliment from my ice cream loving husband. It is, in fact very similar to making ice cream, but of course you don’t need to churn or freeze it.
It really is the perfect dessert to impress. Somehow it’s light and rich at the same time and so fluffy, creamy, and smooth. Enjoy!
- The Perfect Chocolate Mousse
- Adapted from Betty Crocker
- Makes 5-8 servings (depending on how big your bowls are)
- NOTE: The heavy cream is divided up into three parts in the recipe, so I’ll save you some math and tell you that you need about 1 1/2 pints for this recipe (depending on how much whipped cream you like on top)
- 4 egg yolks
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon instant coffee powder
- 1 cup bittersweet chocolate chips (you could also try milk chocolate, semi-sweet, etc.)
- 1 1/2 cups heavy cream
- For Topping:
- Lightly sweetened whipped cream (I think I used about 1/2 cup cream with a scant tablespoon of sugar and 1/4 teaspoon vanilla)
- Fresh berries
- Chocolate curls or shavings or mini chocolate chips
- Beat egg yolks in small bowl with electric mixer on high speed about 3 minutes or until thick and lemon colored. Gradually beat in sugar. Continue beating for about a minute.
- Heat 1 cup cream with the vanilla, salt, and coffee powder in 2-quart saucepan over medium heat until hot. Slowly stir at least half of the hot cream into egg yolk mixture (this is so you don’t accidentally make scrambled eggs). Now stir the whole egg/milk mixture back into the pot.
- Cook over low heat about 5 minutes, stirring constantly, until mixture thickens slightly, but does not boil (it should reach 170ºF if you have a thermometer you can stick in there).
- Stir in chocolate chips until melted. Cover and refrigerate about 1-2 hours, stirring occasionally, just until chilled. You can also throw it in the freezer if you don’t have time. You just need it cool so that it won’t melt the whipped cream.
- Beat 1 1/2 cups whipping cream in chilled bowl with electric mixer on high speed until stiff. Stir a spoonful or two of the whipped cream into the chocolate mixture to lighten it up, then fold all of the whipped cream in. Pipe or spoon into serving bowls (I used a ziploc bag with the tip cut off to pipe it in).
- Can be eaten immediately, but is better and thicker if you refrigerate for about 4 hours before serving. Top with lightly sweetened whipped cream, fresh berries, and chocolate shavings.