# 3 chocolate mousse recipes



## philso (May 6, 2007)

well, here they are.

first, my old professional recipe from when i cheffed at sardi's of new york.

chocolate mousse   80 portions

     - 4 lbs. chocolate
     - 22 eggs
     - 1 glass of remi martin
     - 3 qrts. cream

  well, what can i say?  20 years down the road i wish the recipes i collected in my old notebook weren't so cryptic, but that's all i've got written. here's how to make it though.

 first, any kind of chocolate you like will work well, other than milk chocolate.  milk chocolate is so mild that if you use it, the mousse won't be very chocolatey. i prefer a chocolate content of around 80% or so, but i think 70% would please your average palette.

 melt the chocolate over a pan of hot water over very low heat.  if you want to be anal about it, you can twist towel, place it along the rim of the pan, and place the bowl on top so that it makes a good seal and no steam will come out & possibly make the chocolate seize. when the chocolate is nearly melted, you can turn off the heat. let the chocolate cool to rather warmer than body temperature, maybe 110-115 degrees f. or so.

 while the chocolate is melting, separate the eggs.  the eggs, by the way, should be at room temperature, so that the whites will gain more volume and the yolks won't make the melted chocolate cool off too fast.

 give the yolks a quick whisk and then, in 3 or 4 batches or so, add the chocolate, combining well after each addition.  whisk in the brandy. perfectionists may want to sample the brandy before adding, to make sure it's ok.

 whip the whites to _fairly_ stiff peaks.  gently fold the whites into the chocolate mixture. i do it in about 3 batches of about 1/4, 1/4 & finally the last 1/2 of the meringue.  since this is a restaurant size recipe, i'll mention that this quantity of mousse is best folded using your hands, after scrubbing extremely well be sure that no body hairs will be falling off. using large wooden spoons or some such will leave uncombined streaks and using a whisk will overly reduce the volume.

 finally, whip the cream. the cream should be well chilled, and the mixer bowl should be left in the walk-in to get well chilled also.

second recipe

 it's a scaled down version of the above recipe, although i've adapted the ratio's somewhat to avoid waste by using the full amounts of ingredients as they are commonly purchased here in japan.  also, the amounts are given in grams, as that's what is used here and i'm not about to do the math for you.  do it yourself! (LOL! actually, there's no need to be precise at all.  ratio's in mousse amazingly)

 - chocolate, 210 grams
     - cream, 400 grams (100g +300g)
     - eggs, 5
     - brandy, 2 - 3 tablespoons

     melt the chocolate along with 100 g. cream on top of  hot water. separate the eggs.  give the yolks a brief whisk, then add the slightly cooled chocolate in 3 batches to the yolks, combining well each time. whip the egg whites, and fold them into the chocolate mixture in2 or 3 batched.  whip the cream and also fold it in.

third and last recipe, mocha-chocolate

  if you're a real chocolate lover, this is a nice recipe of my own concoction. my take on some european style mousses, which don't necessarily contain whipped cream.  hence, this can also be considered a lower-calorie mocha-chocolate mousse!

     - 210 g. 86% dark chocolate
     - 1/4 cup coffee
     - 1/4 kahlua
     - 6 eggs

     melt the chocolate with the coffee and the kahlua over hot water.  separate the eggs.  combine the slightly cooled chocolate mixture with the beaten yolks in 3 batches, combining well each time. whip the egg whites and also fold in.

a few more tips:

     - when you fold in the meringue and whipped cream, you don't need to completely fold in each addtion each time.  if you do so, you'll be losing too much volume. the first couple of additions of meringue should be well combined so that the chocolate doesn't become lumpy,  after that, the remaining additions of meringue and whipped cream should be fairly well combined, but save the thoroughly combined bit for the end, after which you don't want any streaks of whipped cream left.

     - a couple of problems that can occur are with the chocolate when it's combined with the yolks.  one problem is that the chocolate can get hard. a small amount of water getting into the chocolate before it's add to the yolks can make it sieze, stiffen into a solid mass in a matter of seconds.  sometimes if the melted chocolate is cooled too much, and you try adding the yolks to the chocolate, instead of the chocolate to the yolks, the chocolate will start to solidify before the the yolks are fully incorporated. on the other hand, if the chocolate were way too hot, you could possibly end up with chocolate coated scrambled eggs.

    another possible problem is that the oil can start separating from the melted chocolate.

    over the years, i've found that the addition of some cream or softened butter will usually fix the above problems, while a little boiling water will help with the latter.


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## redkitty (May 6, 2007)

Funny, I'm making a Chocolate Mousse PIE for my hubbys birthday today and the recipe does not call for eggs.  Here is the recipe I'm making.  I even found Oreo Cookies here (didn't know our local Sainsburys sold them cause I never buy that kinda stuff!)

Chocolate Mousse Pie Recipe at Epicurious.com


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## college_cook (May 6, 2007)

I haven't really had a chance to try a mousse made meringue, though I imagine it would be very airy.  The one we do at work and all the ones I've done call for gelatin to help them stiffen up.


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## SurvivorGirl (May 6, 2007)

I'v never heard of using geletain for mousse, but in the recpie that we make you beat egg whites to stiffen it up.


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