There are so many different types of chocolate mousse but they all have one thing in common: their incredibly light, airy texture that melts in your mouth. Served in individual cups for a quick dessert, or as part of a more elaborate multilayer cake, chocolate mousse is one of those easy, make-ahead desserts.
We learned last week how to make crème anglaise. Today, let’s take it one step further and transform the cream into a mousse. All you need are two additional ingredients -chocolate and heavy cream- and a few extra minutes. So go ahead, take out those nice bowls you rarely use and let’s fill them up with something tasty!
Making Chocolate Mousse
Melting the chocolate
- Place the chopped chocolate in a large bowl and melt in a double-boiler. You can use a microwave if you prefer. Simply heat the chocolate in 30 seconds increments, stirring in-between.
- Place a medium-sized strainer over the chocolate bowl. We will be pouring the crème anglaise through it.
- Prepare the crème anglaise as we saw in this post.
Adding crème anglaise
- Strain the crème anglaise into the chocolate bowl and let it sit for a few minutes. Mix until the chocolate looks completely smooth. You can use an immersion blender if needed to obtain a homogeneous mixture.
Adding whipped cream
- While the chocolate is cooling down, whip the cold heavy cream until soft-medium peaks form. It shouldn’t be too firm so you are able to incorporate it into the cream.
Wait for the chocolate mixture to cool down to about 35°C (95°F) to 41°C (105°F) so the heat doesn’t deflate the whipped cream. If you don’t have a thermometer, it should feel neither warm nor cold to the touch.
- Fold in a third of the whipped cream into the chocolate mixture. Once combined, add the remaining cream in two more additions and gently fold in, being careful not to deflate the whipped cream.
I couldn’t resist putting a close-up shot here… Look at those streaks! Don’t you just love folding something into the chocolate?!
Storing the mousse
- Pour the chocolate mousse into desired cups and cover (without touching the surface).
The mousse will be runny initially and will set up as it cools down. You should pour it immediately into the serving cups before it firms up and becomes harder to portion.
I automatically stuck the parchment paper to the surface of the mousse, as I would do for pastry cream. But then removing the paper just peeled off the top layer of the cold mousse. Well, I did get to eat whatever was on the paper and I managed to take a picture to show you the amazing airy texture of the mousse.
This mousse was a big hit with my kids. When I asked my son if he liked it, he wrote on a piece of paper : 1 000 000 000 000 000 000 … “That’s how much I liked it, mummy!”
This mousse is delicious on its own and you just need to take it out of the fridge when you want to serve it. But if you want to add some height to it, you can top it with some sweetened whipped cream and chocolate shavings. Enjoy!
In case you missed it, head over to the crème Anglaise baking calendar to see what we’ll be learning this month.