Chocolate Mousse

Desserts have not been my forte in the past - but now that I'm almost done my first ever baking course, my confidence with confectioneries is going up!  Here's a quick and easy dessert I made for New Years Eve  - BEFORE I started learning to bake on a professional level, so it's totally beginner level.

CHOCOLATE MOUSSE

Ingredients:

  • 2 cups chilled heavy cream
  • 4 egg yolks
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 3 tablespoons fine white sugar
  • 1 teaspoon Vanilla OR 3 tablespoons of baileys liquor (I made mine with Baileys)
  • 7 oz. Dark Chocolate
  • Whipped cream for garnish*

Prep/cooking time breakdown:

  • 5 minutes Prep
  • 20 minutes cooking
  • 1 hour chilling time (minimum)

Method:

  • Heat 3/4 cups of heavy cream in a sauce pan - DO NOT let it boil, or it WILL boil over
  • In a separate bowl; whisk together egg yolks, sugar and salt
  • In a steady stream, add hot cream to the egg yolks/sugar/salt mixture and WHISK like mad - you don't want the eggs to cook and turn into a scramble...gross
  • Transfer mixture back to the saucepan and let it cook to 160C - use a digital thermometer, like a meat thermometer to check the temp
  • Pour custard (yes, you have just made a custard! cool, eh?) through a fine sieve into a bowl to remove any possible lumps/bits of scrambled eggs - 'cause no one is perfect
  • Add your Vanilla/Baileys/Other liquor of choice
  • Melt chocolate over a double boiler - using a large metal/glass bowl that will be able to hold all the mousse ingredients as this will be your mixing vessel for the rest of the recipe
  • Once the chocolate is completely melted, whisk the custard into the chocolate
  • Put this mixture in the fridge to cool while you prepare the heavy cream
  • Whisk the remaining cream (1 and 1/4 cups) until it holds "stiff peaks"  i.e. if you can hold it up on the whisk and it doesn't fall or bend - that's stiff peaks - any more and it will turn Styrofoamy and then, into butter.
  • Now, whisk in 1/4 of the whipped cream into the custard to lighten it, then fold in the remaining cream in
  • Spoon into serving receptacles (makes about 8 individual servings) and chill in the fridge until you are ready to serve.
  • When you are ready to serve, prepare your whipped cream* and  spoon or pipe ontop.
  • Garnish with additional chocolate/mini candy bars/chopped nuts..whatever

Notes:

You can keep the mousse in the fridge for about 24 hours before serving.

I made the mousse about 3 hours before eating it and it was completely chilled by the time I served it, so in the fridge for about 2.5 hours.

*Easy whipped cream: take one cup of heavy cream and mix in 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla and 1 tablespoon of fine white sugar, whip to stiff peaks.