Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Chocolate Mousse

My mother makes it better than we do. We're working on it.

Ingredients
  • 8oz (1 and 1/3c) chocolate chips
  • 1 stick butter
  • 8 eggs, separated (do them one at a time and add to separate bowls)
  • 1/4tsp cream of tartar (tartaric acid powder)
  • pinch of salt
  • vanilla extract
  • up to 1tbsp instant espresso
This recipe is influenced heavily by the order and timing of the things you do. In one bowl, beat together the egg yolks with the vanilla extract. In another bowl, add the cream of tartar to the egg whites, along with a pinch of salt. With a CLEAN whisk (if you're feeling really pumped) or an electric egg beater that you registered for but haven't gotten married yet so you still need to use a whisk... um... whip the egg whites into stiff peaks. Now, melt the chocolate chips with the butter in a heavy-bottomed saucepan until JUST melted, stirring constantly, and take off the heat as soon as it's done. Add the instant espresso. Then add to the egg yolks slowly, whisking constantly. The danger is NOT that you'll cook the egg yolks - the danger is that the chocolate seizes. When whisked together, add 1/3 of the egg whites and fold together. Now add the remaining egg whites and fold everything together. Pour into a trifle pan or individual serving glasses (like you might for pots de creme?). Cover with plastic wrap and chill at least 4 hours. *If the chocolate seizes, you need to break it apart. You put it in a cuisinart and blend the hell out of it until it's completely smooth. With luck, you can hide the problem pretty well.

Thoughts:
This turned out GREAT for passover desert. Claire thought the texture was unusual, but she was incorrect. My feeling about it was that the flavor was fantastic, but next time I will try to get the yolks to cook a little bit more to thicken the mousse a little more so the ultimate product is a LITTLE firmer. Another possibility would be to use 1/2 the butter. Anyway, this was great. For a first time, especially, this was fantastic.

Disaster Index: 1/10

No comments: