Chocolate Mousse

I have decided that I need to do more chocolate recipes – any excuse! So my new aim is to do one chocolate recipe every month. This is my most recent fix for my chocolate habit. I was hoping to do Tom Kerridge’s mousse from his Proper Pub Food but it required the use of a sugar thermometer. This is a problem because 1) I do not have one and 2) precision is not my forte. So I flicked through a couple of other books and found one in the Avoca Café Cookbook. It is for Chocolate and Amaretti Mousse but I’m not big fan of amaretti so I went for plain old digestives instead. There are digestives in the glass, I promise you. You can just about see them at the bottom of the glass.

Note to self – take more time with the photography, don’t just snap a few quick pics so you can eat the mousse!!

This recipe contains raw eggs so again, take the usual precautions. Chocolate on its own can taste a bit flat so ingredients like coffee, alcohol, salt and vanilla are used to enhance its flavour. I have used coffee and rum to do this here. You cannot taste the coffee but you would miss it if it wasn’t there, if that makes any sense. If you don’t want to use the alcohol, use a teaspoon of vanilla extract instead. This needs time to set so it’s a good, make ahead dessert and should last a couple of days in the fridge.

 

Look at all those lovely bubbles!

Adapted from Avoca Café Cookbook. Serves 4-6

Ingredients:

• 100g dark chocolate – at least 70%
• 50g unsalted butter
• 25ml strong coffee freshly brewed
• 25ml rum/brandy/Baileys or use 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 4 digestive biscuits
• 1 large egg yolk
• 175ml double cream lightly whipped
• 2 large egg whites
• Salt
• 50g caster sugar

 

Method:

• Break up your chocolate and put that in a heatproof bowl along with the butter, coffee and alcohol/vanilla. Put the bowl over a pan of simmering water making sure the water doesn’t touch the bottom of the bowl.
• While this is melting, crush the digestive biscuits into the base of the glasses or ramekins that you are using.
• Whisk the egg whites in a spotlessly clean bowl with a pinch of salt until you get stiff peaks.
• Then as if you are making pavlova, slowly add in the sugar a little at a time, whisking constantly. When the whites and sugar are satiny smooth, take out a little of the mixture and rub between your fingers. If you can still feel the sugar whisk a little more. It is ready when the mixture is smooth to the touch.
• When the chocolate and butter are fully melted, remove from the heat and stir well together. Whisk in the egg yolk to the chocolate mixture. Allow to cool slightly.
• Fold in the whipped cream and stir until fully combined.
• Take a third of the egg white mixture and gently fold into the chocolate and cream. Take care doing this as you want to keep as much air in the whites as possible so that the mousse is light. Mixing a little bit at first makes it easier to combine the rest after.
• Then fold in the remaining egg white and fold until everything is just combined. Pour the mixture over the crushed biscuits and put in the fridge to set for at least 3 hours, preferably overnight.
• You can serve with some extra biscuits and some fresh cream if you must, but I think it is plenty on its own.