What’s better than Chocolate Mousse?
Photo by Bru-no via pixabyohttps://pixabay.com/users/bru-no-1161770/
In the movie “Top Secret” Eddie Tagoe played the character Chocolat Mousse. And he was the toughest guy: Eating lit cigars, drinking gasoline, and wielding a machine gun like a bedazzling tool. if I were in a foxhole, there’s no one I’d rather have by my side. So, today we celebrate one of the best fighters, and arguably, the best dessert. It’s national chocolate mousse day. And, What’s better than Chocolate Mousse?
It has everything you want in a dessert: it’s sweet, fluffy, airy, creamy, and versatile. Plus, it’s pretty easy to make. And, don’t confuse chocolate mousse with pudding. There’s no Bill Cosby here. Pudding is a cooked dessert thickened by heat activating a starchy binder. It actually started as a savory dish: think Yorkshire pudding. So, it can be hot or cold. In contrast: Mousse is generally not cooked, and, usually served cold. Pudding doesn’t have the lift and airiness of mousse either, even though they share some of the same ingredients. So, you can see why the French and food snobs get offended when you say: pass the pudding. Mais, No! C’est chocolat Mousse! Pudding is nice, but lays flat. The name mousse actually translates to foam or froth. And, that’s the major difference. By whipping cream and egg whites you create a foam.
You can make all kinds of mousses. Think lemon, berry, mango, or even savory flavors like corn, mushroom, or Spinach. But, today celebrates the classic: Chocolate.
Table of Contents
What’s better than Chocolate Mousse? 2 Chocolate Mousse…
Once upon a time, if you asked for chocolate, your choice was milk or dark. Thanks to a proliferation of varieties and knowledge over the last couple decades, Your choices are, seemingly, endless. Now we talk of the percentage of cacao, bitterness levels, alkalized, Theobroma Grandiflorum, and dozens of other terms that have been around, but we just never knew. When we were kids, there were chocolate candies, syrups, and baked goods. The biggest difference was Almond joy had nuts, and Mounds don’t. Now you have the world at your fingertips, literally. You can click a button and order some of the world’s finest and most exotic chocolates. And, they will deliver to your door.
I remember the first time I had a “chocolate mousse”. It wasn’t really chocolate mousse. It was a cheater version: Cool whip and Hershey’s syrup. If you like the people you are serving, please, don’t do this. It’s really not that hard to make a mousse. In fact, mousse is often used as one component of many in cakes and tortes. And, What’s better than Chocolate Mousse? 2 Chocolate Mousse. So, today, we are going to make a double mousse. You could use two different varieties of chocolate, like Arriba and bahia. But for visual effect, we are going to do a yin and yang: White and dark chocolate.
What’s the difference?
dark chocolate is the purest representation of the cocoa bean. There are few if any additives. It is naturally bitter, with some sweetness. When you see a percentage, that denotes the amount of solids vs fat (cocoa butter. Milk Chocolate, as the name would imply, incorporates dairy to cut that bitterness for a smoother flavor. And, white chocolate is cocoa butter with dairy and sugar. Because it contains no cocoa solids, it technically, is not considered “chocolate”. But, we keep the name because of the cocoa butter. Whatever you want to call it, it is still delicious. remember, people love fats. And, white chocolate is mostly fat. It’s like adding butter to whatever you’re eating.
Since there are no cocoa solids in white chocolate, it behaves very differently when you work with it. When you temper it, it can’t take the same type of heat as darker chocolates. Otherwise, it will break into fat and whey. And, it doesn’t stand thicken or harden the same. try scooping chocolate ice cream straight from the freezer. You’ll immediately see the difference. You will need to slack the dark chocolate while white chocolate will give, more like vanilla. What this means to your recipes is different ratios and keeping a closer eye on the melting of white chocolate.
Recipe Time
If you do a search for best chocolate mousse recipes, you are likely to find that most turn out to be whipped cream with melted chocolate folded in (not far from the old cool whip and Hershey’s syrup, just with better ingredients). But, the best mousse is actually a hybrid, akin to a souffle, with both whipped cream and a simple meringue. This gives the best consistency and feel. Whipped cream is whipped cream. Adding chocolate makes it chocolate whipped cream. Mousse is lighter and fluffier. Meringue is whipped egg whites with sugar. So, it lightens the mousse and gives more volume.
You can do a French meringue or Italian. The difference is the sugar. In the French Version, it is straight sugar. The Italian uses a heated simple syrup that essentially cooks the egg whites. It creates a silkier glossy meringue. But, it loses some of the lift. So, for ours, we are using the French version. Feel free to make yours Italian. Just boil the sugar in water, and drizzle it into the whites. Also, if you plan to make the mousse and serve it on a different day, you may want to add a stabilizer. Egg whites lose their fluff pretty fast. A bit of cream of tartar allows them to hold their shape.
Vegan variation
If you want to do a vegan version, you can use aquafaba (the juice from cooked chic peas) in place of the egg whites. There are cream substitutes as well. We added egg yolks in the chocolate. You can omit that or use an egg substitute or add in a fat like coconut oil. And, you can get whipping cream substitutes. But, you will probably want to skip the white chocolate since it has dairy in it. And, the chocolate should be a vegan version. You will probably want to add some sugar to the darker chocolate since, without dairy, they tend to be more bitter.
Bon Apetit!
Night and Day Dual Chocolate Mousse
Ingredients
- 8 Oz Dark Chocolate
- 8 Oz White Chocolate
- 8 Each Egg white
- 3 Each Egg Yolks
- 1 Pint Heavy Cream
- 1/4 Cup Sugar
- 1 tsp Vanilla Extract
- 1 Oz Kahlua or other liqueur
- 1/2 tsp Cream of tartar or stabilizer (optional)
Instructions
- Whip the Cream until It holds its shape. Don't over-whip. But, don't under-whip. You want a firm whipped cream that will stand on ts own. It works best if done by hand. But, feel free to use a mixer to save your arm. Refrigerate until needed.
- Whip the egg whites with the sugar until firm peaks. Refrigerate until ready to use. If you are making the mousse a day or two in advance, add in cream of tartar or other stabilizer. This way the whites won't break down.
- Set up 2 double boilers: put about an inch of water in the bottom of 2 sauce pots and break up your chocolate: white in one steel or glass bowl and dark in another. Melt both, separately over the boiling water, stir as needed. When melted, fold vanilla into the white chocolate and the liqueur and egg yolks into the dark chocolate. Mix the egg in quickly to prevent curdling. Keep the mixes smooth. Remove from heat and allow them to cool, but not completely. You want them liquid, so they can fold evenly into the cream.
- Fold half the cream into the chocolate, and half into the white chocolate. Mix until the chocolate is evenly distributed, no streaks. But, be careful not to deflate the cream too much. The folding must be gentle. If you stir, it will take the fluff out of the mix. Next, Gently fold the meringue in.
- Choose your serving vehicle. For drama, a glass is best, so you can really see the different colors. Alternate light and dark mousses. garnish with chocolate shaving. Refrigerate at least an hour to allow them to set up firmly. Serve with sauce, cookies, tuilles, or as is.