chocolate mousse the French way

Chocolate Mousse may well be the ultimate chocolate fix!

Rich and creamy, yet light and fluffy, one pot is satisfying but always leaves a 'I want more' feeling.

This is a classic chocolate mousse made the proper French way, as served in fine dining restaurants. Less cream, more chocolate and a beautiful creamy mouth feel.

Don’t let the French name scare you: chocolate mousse is one of the easiest desserts to make. Seriously, if you have a microwave, a hand mixer, and a rubber spatula, you can make homemade chocolate mousse to rival any French restaurant’s version

Ingredients:

• 6 eggs

• 250gr dark chocolate, bittersweet/70% cocoa

• 20 gr unsalted butter

• 1 cup full fat cream

• 6 tbsp caster sugar

• chocolate shavings for decoration

Instructions:

• Separate eggs and yolks while eggs are cold. Place whites in a large bowl and yolks in a small bowl. Leave whites while you prepare other ingredients

• Yolks: Whisk yolks

• Melt chocolate & butter: Place chocolate and butter in a bowl. Melt in the microwave in 60 second bursts, stirring in between, until smooth. Set aside to cool – proceed with other steps

• Whip cream: Beat cream until stiff peaks form

• Whip whites: Beat whites until firm peaks form. Add sugar and beat more to be incorporated.

Folding:

• Fold egg yolks into cream using a rubber spatula

• Check chocolate temperature: Touch the chocolate. Should still be runny but only lukewarm. If too thick, microwave 2 x 3 seconds until runny

• Pour chocolate into cream yolk mixture. Fold through

• Add 1/4 of beaten egg whites into chocolate mixture. Fold through until incorporated

• Pour chocolate mixture into egg whites. Fold through until incorporated and no more white lumps remain

• Divide mixture between 8 small glasses/ pots or a medium bowl

• Refrigerate for at least 5 hours, preferably overnight

• To serve, garnish with chocolate shavings

Recipe Notes:
1. Ensure you use cooking chocolate, not eating chocolate. Cooking chocolate is made for cooking, it melts smoothly and is thinner than eating chocolate. 
2. Bittersweet dark chocolate and 70% cocoa dark chocolate is best to get a good chocolatey flavour. 
3. You must use a cream that can be whipped. Pure, thickened or heavy cream all work here.  Cream must be full fat – now is not the time to go low fat!
4. You can keep it in the fridge for up to one week with only a slight reduction in aeration.
5. Raw eggs note: required to make real chocolate mousse. It is not possible to achieve the same result without using eggs, despite what other recipes promise.