Chocolate Mousse - my all time favourite dessert - with an interesting story too!

What do you do when your son looks at you sadly and asks if there is anything nice to eat?

That's exactly what happened last weekend. It was about 5 in the evening and both my son and daughter were playing while The Lovely Wife and I were watching a movie. My son suddenly looked up from his Lego's and asked.

"Is there anything nice to eat?"

The Lovely Wife told him that there was some pasta left over from lunch but that didnt seem to interest him. I then asked him if he would like some biscuits and milk but that didnt interest him either. Realising that there was still some cream that I needed to use up I offered to make him some Chocolate Mousse.

His eyes lit up and he nodded a quick "Yes Please!"







So while The Lovely Wife took the kids out to the park, I separated the eggs, melted the chocolate, whisked in the egg yolks, beat up the egg whites, whipped the cream and then folded everything together before putting it in the fridge to chill.

I have to say that I have become pretty adept at making my chocolate mousse nowadays, even though I don't make it that often. I think that has a lot to do with how far I have progressed in the kithcen. Whipping cream and beating egg whites dont frazzle me anymore nor does melting chocolate. I know what to do and what to expect so the Choc Mousse was made rather quickly - impressing The Lovely Wife as well who came back home soon after as the skies had opened and both she and the kids had to quickly come in from the rain!



I made a big tub of mousse and I also put the mousse into 4 shot glasses for the purposes of taking photos for this blog. My son couldn't wait to eat the mousse and he had a large helping immediately after dinner on Saturday night.



The next afternoon, I arranged the mousse shot glasses with some strawberries and got my son to pose for more shots. You can tell how eager he was to start eating the mousse.



We had mousse for dessert that whole weekend as well as for a morning snack, teatime and each time the kids felt like having some - and again on Monday evening!

This is my recipe that may be a little tedious to make but the result is a light, rich chocolate mousse that provides a delectable dessert after any meal! Now that I make my own, I find that the ones in restaurtants are too gelatinous, too rubbery or not chocolatey enough.

Ingredients

250 g Good Quality Dark Chocolate
300 ml Thickened Cream (Unsweetened)
1/3 cup Icing Sugar
4 eggs
1-2 tsp Rum, Brandy or Kahlua (optional)

Method
Melt the chocolate in a double boiler. Take care to ensure that no water gets into the chocolate or it will seize. Meanwhile, separate the eggs. Again, make sure that no water gets into the egg whites. Also make sure that no egg yolk gets into the separated whites.
Once chocolate is melted and smooth, leave on heat and quickly add in lightly beaten egg yolks a little at a time. Stir well to incorporate the eggs into the chocolate. Mixture will become slightly thick and lumpy. Remove from heat and keep stirring or beat till smooth. Let Cool
Whip cream with sugar until stiff and fluffy. If using liqueur, add into the chocolate now. Fold the chocolate mixture into the whipped cream.
Whisk egg whites until stiff. Fold in egg whites to the chocolate cream mixture. Ensure egg whites are well incorporated. Pour into a mould or a large bowl and chill in fridge for at least 4 hours

I have always been a sucker for Chocolate Mousse and would always order it at restaurants that served it. When I was about 8 or 9, my parents took us to the Equatorial Hotel in Kuala Lumpur, which used to serve these great High Teas. The dessert spread was huge and they had Chocolate Mousse served in martini glasses. That was my idea of heaven at that age!

Chocolate Mousse has remained a firm favourite for me and is probably one of my favourite desserts of all time. I played around with many different recipes and improvisations and finally achieved my own version - what I think is the perfect Mousse.


There was once, about 12 years ago (when I was still single), that I was invited for a pot luck dinner by these two gorgeous sisters. I decided to make chocolate mousse for dessert. The chocolate mousse was a great hit and as a matter of fact, both sisters described it as ‘orgasmic’! The Lovely Wife rolls her eyes every time I tell this story...but after a compliment like that, you sort of understand why I rate it as my favourite dessert - and one of my favourite stories too!