Wednesday, July 05, 2006
Chocolate Mousse
My roomie and I had a last minute dinner guest the other night and when I got home from work I needed to make a dessert to go along with the wonderful salmon dinner she was going to prepare. It was a hot day and I didn't want to turn the oven on so I settled on making a chocolate mousse. The chill time didn't exactly cooperate with the dinner schedule but I thought if I made it as soon as I got home (6ish) and we took a long time to eat dinner and a bit more to digest it, the mousse would have enough time to chill. Turns out I was right. My mousse probably chilled for a total of 3 hours and it came out just right.
Don't be put off by the number of steps in the directions section for this recipe. I found this to be a lot easier than I expected, and would say it's suitable even for a beginner, provided you take your time. There are only a couple steps where you have to be careful but otherwise this recipe is a breeze and the final result is quite delicious. Forgive the inelegant presentation in the photo, I don't have room in my kitchen for fancy parfait glasses.
Chocolate Mousse
From Epicurious.com
First, make life easy on yourself and use the microwave to melt the chocolate. Why bother with the elaborate double-boiler? This would be the first be-careful step, however, since it's very easy to burn chocolate in the microwave. Just go slowly and don't use the microwave at full power. I put this step first since it's unlikely that the chocolate will cool to a solid in the time it takes you to make the custard.
Heating 3/4 cups cream in a sauce pan takes no time at all so don't take your eye off of it.
When cooking the custard (the egg mixture and heated cream combination) the instructions say to do this to 160° and to check with an instant read thermometer. If you're like me and just like to eye it, here's what will happen: this will take under 3 minutes at a moderate temperature (4 - 4.5 on my dial of 6). The key is to heat this mixture to just under a boil. Boiling would be bad since that will curdle the egg so be ready to lift the pot from the burner should any bubbles start to form. You will know instantly when the right temperature has been reached since the custard thickens considerably to a pudding-like weight. When you're there, you're done--just take it off the burner.
You are supposed to strain the custard before mixing it into the melted chocolate. This step is merely to take out any lumps, if there are any, and one that I forgot in my haste. Didn't seem to make much difference to my mousse. When you first start to stir in the custard, the chocolate seizeses up a little but just keep stirring and it will loosen up. The resulting mixture has a greasy sheen and for me, left an oily coating on the wall of the bowl.
Whip the cream and fold it into the cooled chocolate custard and refridgerate for at least 3 hours.
The result: A rich, creamy, smooth, and airy chocolate mousse that will impress any dinner guest who will probably think you spent all day making it. Taking a spoonful reveals the tiny air cells that populate the mousse making it light and fluffy, courtesy of the whipped cream I carefully folded in. While spectacular on its own, don't be afraid to use this mousse as a layer in a mousse cake or in a parfait with sweetened whipped cream and fresh fruit. The possibilities are endless. You could use white chocolate in place of the bitter sweet chocolate to make a white chocolate mousse, or make 1/2 the batch with bitter sweet and 1/2 with white chocolate. I will definitely have to try that.
Don't be put off by the number of steps in the directions section for this recipe. I found this to be a lot easier than I expected, and would say it's suitable even for a beginner, provided you take your time. There are only a couple steps where you have to be careful but otherwise this recipe is a breeze and the final result is quite delicious. Forgive the inelegant presentation in the photo, I don't have room in my kitchen for fancy parfait glasses.
Chocolate Mousse
From Epicurious.com
- 2 cups chilled heavy cream
- 4 large egg yolks
- 3 tablespoons sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 7 oz fine-quality bittersweet chocolate (not unsweetened), chopped
- Melt chocolate in a double boiler or a metal bowl set over a pan of simmering water (or in a glass bowl in a microwave at 50 percent power 3 to 5 minutes), stirring frequently.
- Whisk together yolks, sugar, and a pinch of salt in a metal bowl until well combined.
- Heat 3/4 cup cream in a 1-quart heavy saucepan until hot.
- Add egg mixture to hot cream in a slow stream, whisking until combined.
- Cook mixture over moderately low heat, stirring constantly, until it registers 160°F on thermometer.
- Pour custard through a fine-mesh sieve into a bowl and stir in vanilla.
- Whisk custard into chocolate until smooth, then cool.
- Beat remaining 1 1/4 cups cream in a bowl with an electric mixer until it just holds stiff peaks.
- Whisk one fourth of cream into chocolate custard to lighten, then fold in remaining cream gently but thoroughly.
- Spoon mousse into 8 (6-ounce) stemmed glasses or ramekins and chill, covered, at least 6 hours.
- Let stand at room temperature about 20 minutes before serving.
First, make life easy on yourself and use the microwave to melt the chocolate. Why bother with the elaborate double-boiler? This would be the first be-careful step, however, since it's very easy to burn chocolate in the microwave. Just go slowly and don't use the microwave at full power. I put this step first since it's unlikely that the chocolate will cool to a solid in the time it takes you to make the custard.
Heating 3/4 cups cream in a sauce pan takes no time at all so don't take your eye off of it.
When cooking the custard (the egg mixture and heated cream combination) the instructions say to do this to 160° and to check with an instant read thermometer. If you're like me and just like to eye it, here's what will happen: this will take under 3 minutes at a moderate temperature (4 - 4.5 on my dial of 6). The key is to heat this mixture to just under a boil. Boiling would be bad since that will curdle the egg so be ready to lift the pot from the burner should any bubbles start to form. You will know instantly when the right temperature has been reached since the custard thickens considerably to a pudding-like weight. When you're there, you're done--just take it off the burner.
You are supposed to strain the custard before mixing it into the melted chocolate. This step is merely to take out any lumps, if there are any, and one that I forgot in my haste. Didn't seem to make much difference to my mousse. When you first start to stir in the custard, the chocolate seizeses up a little but just keep stirring and it will loosen up. The resulting mixture has a greasy sheen and for me, left an oily coating on the wall of the bowl.
Whip the cream and fold it into the cooled chocolate custard and refridgerate for at least 3 hours.
The result: A rich, creamy, smooth, and airy chocolate mousse that will impress any dinner guest who will probably think you spent all day making it. Taking a spoonful reveals the tiny air cells that populate the mousse making it light and fluffy, courtesy of the whipped cream I carefully folded in. While spectacular on its own, don't be afraid to use this mousse as a layer in a mousse cake or in a parfait with sweetened whipped cream and fresh fruit. The possibilities are endless. You could use white chocolate in place of the bitter sweet chocolate to make a white chocolate mousse, or make 1/2 the batch with bitter sweet and 1/2 with white chocolate. I will definitely have to try that.
# posted by Baking Fool @ 5:45 PM 
