This incredible chocolate mousse recipe was inspired by the chocolate mousse at Amelie restaurant in London. A rich, chocolatey mousse is topped with toasted pistachios and almonds, chocolate shavings, chocolate crumbs, honey, olive oil and salt. It tastes divine with a crunchy topping and a silky, light chocolate mousse. Better still, it's easy to make and is made the night before so it's great to serve at a party. And I share my secret and unique method for making the smoothest chocolate mousse!
About This Chocolate Mousse
Chocolate mousse is a rich, light and creamy French dessert. A basic chocolate mousse is so simple and only has a few ingredients: dark chocolate, cream, eggs, sugar and butter (or oil). But when I saw the giant bowl of chocolate mousse at Amelie in London, I knew that I had to make it for an upcoming birthday party. The flavour combination is a creation by Executive Pastry Chef Elissavet Kermanidouand I could tell how delicious it would be as it is basically the flavours and textures of French mendiant chocolates. These are little chocolate discs topped with nuts and fruit served around Christmas time as part of the 13 dessert tradition in Provence. And since it's Bastille Day today I thought it would be good timing to share this chocolate mousse recipe!
I have a recipe for 2 ingredient chocolate mousse, one using cream and the other using eggs (because some people don't want raw eggs), but this chocolate mousse uses both. I didn't want my chocolate mousse to get little chocolate bits in it from when you mix together the ingredients so I thought long and hard about it before wondering if it would be better if I mixed the chocolate and cream together to form a ganache and then whip that up. And you know what? It was the best chocolate mousse I've ever tried! It will taste like you ordered it at your favourite restaurant.
Ingredients for Chocolate Mousse
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Dark or bittersweet chocolate: I prefer to use this as opposed to milk chocolate so that the mousse isn't too sweet but still has a good intensity that you can only really get with dark or bittersweet chocolate. Aim for around 70% cocoa in your chocolate.
Coconut oil or butter: Use whichever you prefer just to make the chocolate easier to melt.
Cream: use pure, thickened or single cream (double cream is a bit too thick for this)
Eggs: the yolks give the mousse a rich, creamy mouthfeel while the whites whip up into a meringue to aerate the mousse. Make sure to use fresh eggs that are in date.
Egg whites: I added extra egg whites just to give the mousse an even lighter texture!
Caster or superfine sugar: to help the meringue whip up until stiff
Tips For Making Chocolate Mousse
1- This recipe is best done in two parts. First make a chocolate ganache then whip it up into a mousse and then let is sit for an hour or so. Then fold it with the stiffly whipped egg whites and refrigerate.
2 - Make sure that there is no egg yolk in the egg whites when you separate the eggs. Otherwise the whites won't whip up properly into a meringue. To ensure this, make sure that your mixer bowl and whisk are spotlessly clean and there is no oil or fat on them. Fats will prevent the egg whites from whipping up stiffly into a meringue.
3 - I wanted the mousse to be super light so I added more egg whites to the mixture. You can buy egg whites already separated.
4 - Make sure that there are no lumps in the chocolate at all in step 1. Otherwise your chocolate mousse won't be beautifully smooth.
5 - To make chocolate shavings, use a room temperature chocolate bar and shave chocolate using a vegetable peeler.
6 - Refrigerate your chocolate mousse to give it a firmer, more scoopable texture!
Preparation time: 15 minutes plus 1 hour waiting and 6 hours setting
Cooking time: 15 minutes
Serves: 6 to 8 people
This needs to be made at least 6 hours ahead of time
Ingredients Needed For Chocolate Mousse
280g/9.8ozs dark or bittersweet chocolate
30g/1oz coconut oil or butter
160ml/5.6flozs pure, thickened or single cream
4 eggs, separated
4 egg whites, extra (120g/4ozs)
60g/2ozs caster or superfine sugar
For Topping
75g/2.6ozs pistachio, roasted and chopped
75g/2.6ozs slivered almonds, roasted and chopped
5 plain chocolate biscuits (like Choc Ripple)
50g/1.7ozs chocolate shavings
Extra virgin olive oil
Honey
Sea salt
Step-By-Step Instructions
Melting chocolate
Step 1 - First make the ganache. Melt the chocolate in a double boiler or in the microwave on 70% power on 30-45 second bursts until melted. Stir in the coconut oil or butter with the cream and mix until completely smooth. It must be completely smooth at this point and if it has some tiny lumps, then microwave the mixture on 50% power in 30 second intervals stirring in between. Separate the eggs making sure that no yolks go into the whites. Whisk the 4 egg yolks into the chocolate mixture and allow it to set firmer at room temperature to a spreadable consistency. It should take about an hour or so to become firmer, like a Nutella or peanut butter consistency but do not place it in the fridge or it will set too firm.
Egg yolk added, now waiting to firm up to a spreadable consistency
Step 2 - When the ganache is ready, then add all of the egg whites in a clean mixer bowl fitted with a clean whisk. Set to medium speed for a minute and then medium to high speed and when you get soft peaks, add in the sugar and whip until you get stiff peaks. Scoop out and set aside in a bowl. Then add the ganache to the bowl (you can use the same bowl) and then whip until thick and pipeable (I do the egg whites first to avoid washing the bowl twice).
Spreadable consistency
Step 3 - Add one quarter of the meringue mixture into the chocolate mixture and fold it in making sure to scoop all the way down to the bottom of the bowl. Add the remaining quarter portions of meringue until you get a smooth, consistent texture. Scoop into a large, decorative serving bowl or individual bowls and shake gently to smooth over and cover and refrigerate for at least 6 hours or overnight.
Whipped egg white
Step 4 - The next day, roast the pistachios and almonds - 8 minutes in a 180C/350F conventional or 160C/320F fan forced oven is good. Cool roughly chop and separate these in small bowls. Then crumble the cookies in another bowl. Take a block of chocolate (make sure that it's room temperature) and using a vegetable peeler, make chocolate shavings by running the peeler against the edge of the chocolate bar and place these in another bowl. Have honey and olive oil ready too and a small bowl of sea salt flakes.
Light and fluffy mousse, before refrigeration
Step 5 - To serve, take a large scoop of chocolate mouse and sprinkle with pistchios, almonds, chocolate cookie crumble, chocolate shavings and a drizzle of olive oil and honey. Finish with a pinch of sea salt and serve!
Personal Note
This chocolate mousse was made for Mr NQN's birthday. This past weekend we had a joint birthday party for him and his brother Manu. Usually we have a picnic but it's a little cold to do this in winter so we invited Mr NQN's family over but something rather odd happened. We were having dessert around the table when I heard the unmistakable sound of...flatulence. I tried to ignore it and just moved away. It sounded like it came from Tuulikki's end of the table. I wondered to myself if Tuulikki, who is increasingly hard of hearing, simply didn't know or hear what she had done.
Then it happened twice more.
Tuulikki was sitting there calmly, happy as a clam without the slightest bit of embarrassment."How does she not feel it?" I wondered to myself.
Then it happened again.
I looked around suspiciously. Apart from an absence of offending odour, a couple of people were looking at me with smirks playing on their lips. They know that I hate discussing anything to do with bottoms and they take this loathing as a cue to discuss bodily functions in great and vivid detail.
"You've got one of those little things that make noises!" I said honing in on 14 year old Aura and 10 year old Jett who were sitting next to Tuulikki. I remembered my friend bringing in a little cow sound boxes to a uni lecture and making the noise to great effect. Tuulikki was the perfect mark as she is quite hard of hearing so she hadn't even heard the offending noises.
It turned out that it was an app on Aura's phone. And they had played the prank on everyone while I was in another room and it was my turn. Aura's stepdad Ben told us the first time that Araluen and Aura had played the trick on him. He arrived home from work and they had invited him to take a seat under which the phone lay. The noise came out and he grabbed his stomach thinking that it was him. I couldn't stop laughing when he said that and barely managed to spit out, "But you couldn't tell that it wasn't you?".
So tell me Dear Reader, is there a topic that you won't discuss? And do you like chocolate mousse? Have you ever tried one like this?
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