John Myers
The perfect mousse au chocolate is airy, light, and tastes intensely like chocolate. For this, it is important that only high-quality dark chocolate is used. However, the Mousse au Chocolat is usually also successful with whole milk couverture or white chocolate. The ingredients also include eggs, sugar or powdered sugar, whipped cream, and some salt. If you wish, you can refine the chocolate dessert with a little cognac, orange liqueur, rum, amaretto or coffee, and spices such as chili or pepper.
Chop the chocolate into small pieces and place in a bowl. Heat this in a water bath so that the chocolate becomes liquid. The water bath must not be too hot, chocolate melts at temperatures of around 30 to 33 degrees Celsius. Also, make sure that no water splashes into the chocolate pot. Otherwise, the couverture will clog and become crumbly. The chocolate must also not be heated for too long so that it does not solidify again. Leave them in the water bath just long enough to melt them.
Do not whip the cream too stiff, it should have a firm but creamy consistency. Then let them cool in the fridge. Separate the yolks and whites. Whisk the yolks with sugar and salt. Beat it over the warm water bath until creamy. The yolk should not get warmer than 65 degrees Celsius, otherwise, it would thicken and become lumpy.
When the mixture has reached a thick, smooth consistency, remove the bowl from the water bath and stir in the melted chocolate. The couverture must not be warmer than the egg mixture, otherwise, the mousse au chocolate may not set properly later. If you want to flavor the dessert, you can now mix in the spices, alcohol, or coffee. Beat the egg white with a little sugar to form a creamy, firm egg white.
Prepare a large bowl of ice water and place the saucepan with the chocolate mixture in it. Allow the mixture to cool, stirring occasionally. Then stir a third of the cream into the mixture and carefully fold in the rest. Finally, fold in the beaten egg whites, divide the mousse au chocolate into dessert bowls, and place in the fridge for at least four hours, preferably overnight.
