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Chocolate Mousse

Chocolate Mousse

Chocolate is one of those ingredients that, every now and then, simply must feature in the life of any respectable person – not including those of you who, physically or medically, can’t ingest or digest it. It really is the height of decadence and as such is one of those entities, for I am loath to call it an ingredient, that will never become cliché, or over used. Simply put, chocolate is astounding and has been for centuries. Quite honestly, if you are not a fan of chocolate I’m a little unsure about what you’re playing at.

The brilliance of chocolate becomes more and more apparent to me every time I use it – perhaps this is why my recipes which include chocolate always seem to be simpler than the last. It really isn’t something that needs a whole lot of excess baggage piled onto it, and should be treated with utter respect. Indeed, I think anyone would struggle to find a simpler chocolate based recipe than this, short of eating plain chocolate.

Chocolate Mousse 1

There is something very pleasing about the consistency of a mousse, be it chocolate or otherwise. It really is rather incredible that something so light and pleasing to one’s innards could be quite so devilishly delicious. This combination of bubble-like consistency coupled with the intense taste of chocolate makes this dessert, in my narrow mind, the perfect dinner party sweet.

In order to achieve this ideal, one must seek out what they consider to be a fairly decent chocolate. Luckily for me, decent chocolate appears to be plentiful in Britain with even the cheapest chocolate being fairly acceptable. However, it has also become apparent that the same cannot be said of other countries. During visits to numerous countries in Europe it has become clear that in some of them it is rather difficult to find reasonably priced chocolate that isn’t composed largely of milk – chocolate which would prove unsuitable for this recipe. This observation appears to be, on the whole, transferable to America also. At any rate, wherever you are, make sure that you’ve tried and tested your chosen chocolate and that it contains cocoa solids of absolutely no less than 55%, though 70% would be preferable.

Chocolate Mousse

Makes 6-10

Ingredients:

• 200g dark chocolate

• 100ml water

• 4 eggs

• 1-2 tbsp caster sugar, depending on strength of chocolate

Method:

1. Melt the chocolate together with the water either in a microwave or in a bowl over a pan of boiling water. Beat the egg yolks into the chocolate one by one.

2. Transfer the egg whites into a large mixing bowl and beat until they form soft peaks. Add the sugar and continue to beat until the point at which they begin to form harder, stiffer peaks – be careful not to over beat. Gently fold the egg whites into the chocolate mixture in three parts. When fully incorporated transfer the mixture into vessels of one’s own choice, bung them in the fridge and serve after an hour or so.

Cost: Since chickens reside in my garden, the only cost I incurred as a result of this mousse was what was paid for the chocolate. In this case dessert enough for perhaps ten set me back a mere 70p. What an absolute bargain even if one must factor in the cost of one’s eggs.

166 replies on “Chocolate Mousse”

I love a good chocolate mousse but am always afraid to make it because of the raw eggs. But the simplicity of this dessert always draws me to it. The last picture of the mousse makes this dessert so inviting!

Absolutely dreamy! I’m not the biggest fan of a heavy chocolate cake…but a lighy choccy mousse….bliss!
I don’t think I’ve ever actually made one before. Time to put it right, I think!

I know you are suspicioius of those of us who are not huge chocolate fans (migraine trigger in my case) but every so often I “need” chocolate and a perfectly simple or simply perfect mousse like this hits the spot! A beautiful recipe and I love the cup you made it in!

I have always liked the idea of ending a meal with a chocolate mousse — something rich luxurious, while light and refreshing at the same time.

And yes, Frugal, you are correct: there is plenty of good DARK chocolate to be had all over the heathen-ish United States of A 😉

Oh Heaven in a bowl 🙂 I’ve never made mousse and I’m not sure if I’ve avoided it subconsciously out of fear I would make myself sick by eating it all before I could share it, or maybe because I had no idea it was quite so simple a process. Either way, YUM. Now I have to give it a shot.

I have a big chocolate project in the wings soon that I think you’ll love, more on that later 🙂

When I was visiting Anywerp years back, I picked up A LOT of delicious chocolates at this little chocolate shop to bring back for all of my friends…it to this day is the best chocolate I’ve ever had. Well, as ashamed as I am to admit this…after a weeks stop in Amsterdam and numerous cases of the munchies, I ended up only making it home with one small box for my mum. :{} Ooops.

Cheers!

Trust me, there’s lots of high cocoa content chocolate to be found in the US. Maybe not in a gas (petrol) station convenience store (though even those sometimes sell Ghirardelli) and possibly not in my house at this moment (insert a guilty look here), but it’s around! Most grocery stores sell it 🙂

It’s impressive that so few ingredients can make such an impressive and crowd-pleasing dessert. I look forward to making it!

Wow! That looks incredible! Sadly most of our chocolate in Canada tastes like wax, and therefore, not even in the most direst (is that even a word?) of situations (such as starving on the subway) would I even consider ingesting one! But on occasion I am able to find private label brands of Belgian chocolate on sale, which makes up for all the crap!

Thanks! OH NO! That is a real shame. Just the word dire would have done fine, or leave the word ‘most’ out and keep direst. Ahha, well if you stumble across such chocolate give it a go 😀

How beautifully written! And I think I too, shall call chocolate an entity now…you are right, it is too divine to be called a mere ingredient! BTW I love that shot of the chocolate bar 🙂

Wow, so simple really! I usually put espresso powder & cream in mine but I like that yours uses caster sugar and only eggs. Won’t need as many ingredients next time I go to the market 🙂

I love how a few ingredients come together so simply to make a beautiful dessert. This would be especially good after a heavy dinner. I hope I can get the texture just right (yours looks perfect in your photo).

hahaha, your comment about people who aren’t a fan of chocolate made me laugh! I have to admit, I don’t have much of a sweet tooth generally, but this looks so good I’m going to have to try it!

I think mousse is the perfect way to enjoy the true flavor of a great piece of chocolate. I agree that the simpler the recipe the better and the best chocolate must be used in a recipe like this… it looks madly delicious!!

Your chocolate thoughts are much appreciated — I’m in total agreement. I’m also passing this post along to my chocolate loving friends… Really an outstanding dessert, and photos!

Reblogged this on I Like to Cook Gluten Free and commented:
I made this today with a couple of changes, just to experiment. Instead of water I used coffee and I added a pinch of cayenne. It was so easy and really good. I’m sure the original version is wonderful too!

This looks wonderful & I’m definitely going to try it. I had to look up castor sugar though & it looks like I can substitute super fine sugar in this (or it says I can put our regular sugar through the food processor)… do you think it matters much?

Made this tonight! It’s setting in the fridge overnight but I can’t wait to dig in. It was really hard to limit myself to the dirty spoon and bowl.

Mmm, that looks absolutely delicious! It would be interesting to make it with different chocolate flavors…chili chocolate maybe? The photos have made me hungry!

By the way, I was nominated for the Sunshine Blog Award and one of the rules of accepting it is to pass it along and nominate other bloggers. I thought I would nominate you as I love browsing your blog and following your recipes. 🙂 http://culturallife.wordpress.com/2012/03/25/nominated-for-the-sunshine-blog-award/

I absolutely adore chocolate, preferably dark chocolate. I almost didn’t read this recipe because I assumed it would contain milk products, which I cannot eat. I was pleasantly surprised to find that although it contains eggs there is no milk. I do believe I will be trying this delicious recipe!

As for your observation that good dark chocolate is difficult to find in America, I believe it is an outdated observation. Just yesterday I purchased to very delicious bars of Endangered Species brand dark chocolate with cocoa nibs (78% cocoa) for $5. And the store where I purchased them has several other brands and varieties available. It is true that good dark chocolate can seldom be found in the average grocery store in America, but if one knows where to shop it is readily available. Peace, Linda

Please do – the best mousse is ALWAYS made without dairy products, simply because this ensures it’ll be light. I apologise for my observation 😀 – it was more speculation, I suppose. Though, I would say that perhaps in comparison to Britain, where almost every shop little or large stocks decent chocolate, it is perhaps more scarce.

Looks delicious! You can do it without the sugar too, so it’s even (kind of) healthier and doesn’t change the flavor. I added 4 tablespoons of strong brewed coffee (instead of water) and it was sooooo good, the combination of chocolate and coffee is just a match made in heaven!

Made this today, and it tastes delicious!! Yum. I halved the recipe though, and so I used only 1 tbsp sugar, but it was maybe not sweet enough for me. Probably because I used 85% chocolate.

[…] Chocolate Mousse – You lot really like chocolate based mousse don’t you? I’ll remember to post another mousse recipe next time my page views are flagging! To be honest, there isn’t much to say about this post that hasn’t been said above – it is spectacular and delicious. Please give it a whirl – these only set us back 70 pence! […]

Is there a way to make this without raw egg? I was taught from a young age not to eat anything with raw egg for you may get salmonella.

I was really shocked to see you mixing chocolate with water! It’s always been my experience that you never mix the two because the water ruins the chocolate. Can you explain why or how it works for this recipe? I thought at first it might be an error but there are so many positive responses! Looking forward to hearing from you! Cheers!

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