How to make chocolate mousseJanuary 24, 2010: How to make chocolate mousse
The ingredients are fairly simple, dark chocolate, heavy cream, eggs, sugar, a pinch of salt, and a little grand marnier. The process, however, is a little tricky. First, 5 eggs are separated. The yokes and the whites are separated very carefully making sure that the yokes do not break, and if they break, they do not contaimate the egg whites. If any yoke gets into the egg whites, the merguine will break; so this step is fairly important. Once separated the yokes are beat together with 25 grams of sugar until the eggs have a pale color. The yokes are then set aside.
Using a bain marie (a fancy French term for a bowl head over hot/boiling water. This is used to melt the chocolate. A single bar of dark choclate will suffice, about 200 grams. The chocolate is broken up and slowly melted, stirring slowly and constantly to make sure the chocolate does not burn. Once the chocolate is melted, apply a small amount of the melted chocolate to the egg yoke mixture to slowly bring up the temperature of the yokes. If the whole batch of melted chocolate is poured into the cold yoke mixture, the yokes will curdle and you'll get a scrambled egg and melted chocolate mess. Slowly add more melted chocolate to bring up the temperature of the yokes. Once all the chocolate is mixed with the egg yokes, set this aside.
Beat the heavy cream, about 200 grams, until it's ribbony but not with very stiff peaks. The chocolate mixture will have to be mixed well with the whipped cream with the most minimal amount of mixing to ensure a light and airy mousse. When mixing the whipped cream, carefully use a spatula and fold the mixture upon itself to incorporate everything. Do not worry about white streaks or having the mixture completely incorporated. Just get most of the whipped cream incorporated with the chocolate mixture. When this is done, set this aside.
Next up, mix 50 grams of sugar with the remaning egg whites and a pinch of salt, and mix this together until the eggs form a nice merguine.
The merguine is carefully folded into the chocolate mix. Again, fold the mixture in, do not blend/mix to ensure that the mousse stays nice a fluffly. At this time, a splash of grand marnier, bailey's irish cream, or kahlua work to add a nice flavoring touch to the mousse that compliments the chocolate.
Once everything is folded together, carefully spoon the mousse into serving vessels such as a martini glass, wine glass, or ramkin. Then place in the refridgerator, covered with plastic wrap, for four hours to fully set up before serving.
The mousse can be served with varius fruits, or additional whipped cream. Damn tasty!
January 24, 2010: Making chocolate mousse.