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Chocoholics Beware.
One spoonful of this Chocolate Mousse and you will be hooked forever. It is what
I call a grown up chocolate pudding. A simple yet elegant dessert. While it uses
only a few ingredients, chocolate, eggs, butter, vanilla, and heavy cream, its
chocolate flavor is rich and its silky smooth texture is airy, almost foamy. And
foamy is an apt description as "mousse" is French for 'froth' or
'foam'.
Now, there are chocolate
mousse recipes that simply involve folding whipped cream into melted
chocolate. Good, yes, but to make a sublime chocolate mousse with a lovely
"mouth-feel", you also need egg yolks, whipped egg whites, and whipped
heavy cream. Since there are so few ingredients in a chocolate mousse, the
chocolate you pick is very important. Use a good quality semi sweet or
bittersweet chocolate that you enjoy eating out of hand. My personal
preference is a semi sweet chocolate with at least 61% cocao. When
choosing a chocolate, always look for one that has a lovely shiny finish
(a sign that the chocolate was cooked at the right temperature for the
right amount of time) and one that has that wonderful 'snap' when you
break it into pieces.
A chocolate mousse is
quite easy to make and
involves no cooking. You only need three bowls, one for melting the
chocolate and butter, the second for whipping the egg whites, and the
third for whipping the heavy cream. (Note: We are using raw egg yolks and whites so the eggs
should be very fresh with no cracks in the shell, and if you are worried about salmonella
I would avoid this dessert.) So the first step is to melt the chocolate
and butter and then whisk in the egg yolks. The next step is to beat, in
separate bowls, the egg whites and the heavy cream. Then fold the whites
and cream into the chocolate mixture, gently but thoroughly. And that is
it. Scoop the mousse into pretty bowls or glasses and refrigerate for a
few hours. I like to serve this dessert simply, as it really needs no
adornment. But if you like,
whipped cream,
shaved chocolate, and fresh raspberries are perfect accompaniments.
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