Chocolate Mousse : LCB at Home : Lesson 3 : Part 2

Carrying on from the post yesterday, which was taking entirely too long to write so I split that in two - this is the second bit.

This mousse dessert turns out to be quite easy to do - worth trying at home.

Sorry about the shitty picture quality.

A very traditional a recipe - 1960ish. Delicious and simple but... loads of chocolate, too much per serving, heavy when eaten in volume. Therefore, use really small serving dishes and enjoy just a few scrumptious bites rather than stuffing oneself. The recipe really would be enough for 15 people but ... "what I really did" was...

Chocolate Mousse with Hazelnuts and Whiskey : Mousse au Chocolate aux Noisettes et au Whisky

Serves: 7 (or 15)

Ingredients

• 500 gr semi-sweet chocolate [1 #]
• 125 gr sugar [1/2 C]
• 30 gr butter (unsalted, and definitely not margarine) [2 T, 1 oz]
  
• 6 egg yolks
• 90 ml Scotch Whisky [6 T]
  
• 6 egg whites
• 125 gr sugar [1/2 C]

Chantilly Cream

• 250 ml [1 C] whipping cream [real, 35%]
• 2 T icing sugar
• 1/2 t vanilla extract (real)

Procedure

1. Chocolate, sugar and butter into the double boiler (or alternate apparatus), in that sequence, melt it, do not touch/stir/mix (will mess it up)
• It might not look melted but will visually soften and should be done enough in 10 minutes
2. Remove from the heat/boiler
• It ought to be about body temperature (& feel quite warm but not "hot" hot)
3. Clop the egg yolks and add to the chocolate
4. Then add the whiskey and hazelnuts/filberts
5. Beat the egg whites to stiff peaks
6. Add 1/3 of the 125 gr of sugar, beat a bit - repeat, repeat yet again
7. Beat whites to stiff peaks again
8. Stir 1/3 of the whites into the chocolate (stir, not fold)
9. Fold the chocolate gently into the whites (fold, not stir)
10. Pour, scoop into serving dishes
11. Make the chantilly cream to decorate the top (an hour or so [maximum] before serving
1. Beat the cream and vanilla until stiffening
2. add the sugar (all at once would work)
3. Beat until stiff peaks
4. Pipe it with a star tip (or simply spoon it) decoratively in rosettes onto the top of the mousse
• The extra cream goes in a bowl for the table for those who want extra

Done

Notes

1. Prepare a day ahead - the flavors mix together better with time
2. These are French recipes. They use lots of butter, eggs, cream, sugar and somehow the French manage to be healthier than North Americans; must be the wine they're drinking.
3. Butter always means unsalted butter unless otherwise noted
4. Melt the chocolate stuff in a double boiler or in a heatproof bowl over an inch of boiling water; the bowl must not touch the water by the way.
5. Hazelnuts are also known as Filberts and, when toasted/roasted go very well with scotch whisky
6. Egg whites are beaten at room temperature
7. Cream is beaten cold, with a chilled bowl and beater
8. The chantilly cream would have used 1/4 cup sugar to get the traditional "Chantilly Cream" proportions of 3,33:1 cream to sugar (by weight)