When I was a kid, my ideal dinner menu was fettucine alfredo followed by chocolate mousse, which obviously I called chocolate mouse. My mom used to make it for me at home, but it had been years since I made it—or ate it, for that matter—until I was introduced to Bittersweet, an amazing and award-winning chocolate cookbook by Alice Medrich. In it, she tells a story about developing a chocolate mousse recipe for a relative who couldn't tolerate dairy. Follow the jump for the method and pictures of the process.
1 Melting the chocolate and water.
2 Heating the whole eggs and sugar in (not over) a pan of simmering water until they reach 160F (which happened faster than I expected!).
3 Whipping the warm egg mixture until it is the texture of soft whipped cream.
4 Folding the egg and chocolate mixtures together.
5 It pays to hang out in the kitchen!
6 Finished mousses (without matching cups, but who cares?).
Her method, which involves melting chocolate with water (instead of cream or milk) gave me reason enough to try a new recipe, and it was delicious. In addition to omitting dairy, the eggs for the mousse are heated to 160F before being whipped, so this dish is also egg safe. The chocolate flavor was intense, but the finished texture is super light and airy—perfect combination. I had forgotten how much I loved this dessert. The finished mousses held up for to two days in the refrigerator, which makes them a great choice for a fun (and old-school) dinner party dessert. And if dairy isn't an issue at your house, go ahead and top these off with some lightly whipped cream.
From: Melinda | 12/3/10 at 10:38 am
Hooray! My daughter has a dairy allergy, so I'm always looking for sweet treats for her. We'll be making this very, very soon. Thank you!
From: Ora Massil | 4/4/12 at 2:58 am
Can you please list the amts of chocolate, water and eggs
From: Andrea Hayes | 2/12/13 at 2:53 am
Hi I can't get the ingredients or method to display only some pictures. Can you please fix this? Thanks.