Chocolate Mousse Recipe
An Original Recipe by Lorraine Elliott
Recipe Overview
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
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.
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).
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.
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.
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?