Chocolate Mousse for Beginners (and Experts) | Food Wishes
Hello, this is Chef John from foodwishes.com
with chocolate mousse for beginners.
That's right, I'm gonna show you the easiest
all-time method for making chocolate mousse,
which is perfect for beginners.
But even if you're an expert, you should keep watching
since this technique produces the most delicious,
most perfectly textured chocolate mousse I've ever had.
I mean, it's not even close.
So with that, let's go ahead and get started
with the star of the show,
some high-quality dark chocolate.
And this bar happened to be four ounces,
but we only need three and a half for the recipe.
So I'm gonna set this half ounce aside
and I'll use that to garnish the top later.
And then for the rest of it,
I'm gonna break it up into like half-inch pieces
and you're gonna see why very soon.
And the first tip here for you beginners
is do not eat the chocolate while you're doing that.
Right, this recipe relies on a very precise formula.
And if you're snacking while you're snapping,
you're not gonna have enough
and your texture's gonna be off.
So what I'm trying to say is maybe buy a little extra.
And pretty much any kind of dark chocolate will work,
but my official recommendation is for 62% cacao,
which is exactly what this is.
And then besides three and a half ounces
of broken up chocolate,
we're also gonna need a tablespoon of butter.
And once we have those components set,
we can move on to separating a couple large eggs
since for this recipe, all we need is the yolk,
which I like to do by cracking into my hand.
And then we'll simply give that the old shake-a-shake-a
and wait for the white to drip down between our fingers,
which will leave us with a perfectly separated yolk,
which we will transfer into a metal bowl.
And the reason I like this method
is because it's fast and easy,
but it requires being able to crack an egg with one hand,
which some of you beginners might not be able to do yet.
So if you want, you can just crack an egg into a bowl
and then scoop that yolk out with your fingers
and you will basically accomplish the exact same thing,
but anyway, one way or another, we need two yolks.
And then to those, we will add a little bit of white sugar
as well as, believe it or not, a quarter cup of water
or any other kind of liquid, right?
We could do two tablespoons of water
and two tablespoons of coffee
or three water and a tablespoon of rum.
And I'll cover those options in the written recipe,
but for this pure chocolate version, I'm just doing water.
And that's it, we'll finish up with a pinch of salt
and we will grab a whisk
and we will set that bowl directly over medium low heat
and we will start whisking with one hand
while we use a towel to hold the bowl with the other.
And we're gonna cook this whisking constantly
until the mixture thickens up and gets nice and foamy
and in much more importantly, gets hot and steamy, right?
We wanna get this up to like 145, 150 degrees
and feel free to use a thermometer if you want,
but when it's very hot to the touch
and we can see a bunch of steam coming off the surface,
we are probably close enough
and you're gonna need to pay attention at this point
because this happens relatively quickly, right?
For me, this only took about four minutes.
Oh, and a big tip for you beginners,
don't let the towel catch on fire,
which on medium low is gonna be pretty hard to do,
but just to be safe,
make sure that towel's not under the bowl
anywhere near the flame.
But anyway, like I said,
we'll whisk that until it's very hot and thick and foamy.
And as you might be able to see a little bit steamy
and once it does get to this stage,
we'll pull it off the heat
and we'll toss in our broken up chocolate and our butter
and we'll start whisking
and we will keep whisking until all that chocolate melts,
which is gonna take a minute
and it's not gonna look good when you first start,
but don't judge, just wait.
And in just a few moments,
you'll be looking at something smooth, shiny and gorgeous.
And we're actually doing two things at once here.
Okay, we're obviously melting the chocolate
with that warm egg mixture,
but we're also at the same time
cooling our egg mixture down with the chocolate,
since when we mix this into our whipped cream,
we want it pretty much to be room temp and not still hot.
And at this point we've accomplished both things
and that's it, once that's set,
we will push it aside
and we'll grab some cold heavy cream and another whisk
and we will whisk this for a few minutes
or until we have some medium stiff peaks.
And if your cream is cold,
this is gonna happen really quickly,
like in a couple minutes.
So for this amount,
I don't think we need to dirty our electric mixer,
but anyway, you decide.
I mean, you are after all the Cupid,
of what is or is not stupid,
but either way, we wanna make sure we don't over whip this,
since it will get too stiff
and the fat will separate and it won't work.
So what we're shooting for is a peak
that looks exactly like this.
All right, this is just about perfect.
And once we do reach this stage,
we will stop immediately
and we'll give our chocolate mixture another whisk
and once we do,
I like to clean off the whisk in the whipped cream
by giving it a quick stir
and then what we'll do is switch to a spatula
and we will transfer in about a third
of our now room temperature chocolate mixture
into the whipped cream
and we will semi-carefully stir and fold that in
and you know what stir means,
but when we say fold,
what we mean is scraping the edge of the spatula
along the bottom and sides of the bowl,
sliding underneath the product
and bringing it up over the top
and as we do that,
we're usually turning the bowl,
going all the way around
until that first addition of chocolate
is almost but not quite mixed in
and once our mixture looks something like this,
we can go ahead and scrape in the rest
and then continue folding and mixing
until we can't see any large streaks of chocolate
or whipped cream
and if you are a beginner
and you're worried about knocking out too much air
during this stage,
don't be.
Right, there are a lot of professional pastry chefs
that would actually fold this together
a lot more vigorously
so that they intentionally knock out a little more air
which will give their final mousse
a little bit of a denser, richer texture
so the point is as you're doing this,
try to relax.
Okay, all we're doing here
is combining the two components
and even if you do overmix it a little bit,
it's still gonna be amazing
which reminds me,
if you don't have a spatula,
just use your biggest spoon
and I promise you it will still work
and that's it.
Once we have everything folded together,
we can transfer that into whatever
we're gonna serve it in
and as we transfer it in,
please note,
you're probably gonna see streaks of whipped cream
that were at the bottom of the bowl.
Right, this is completely normal
and nothing to worry about
and trust me,
it's all gonna sort of mix together
as you transfer this in
and yes, some people actually leave it streaky on purpose
just for a little more visual interest
but anyway, the point is that's totally fine.
Oh, and the next time I transfer chocolate mousse
into a glass
and don't get some on the sides,
will be the first time
and if that happens,
it's tempting to try to wipe it off
but it is much, much easier
to clean these things off when it's cold.
Of course, having said that,
human nature such as it is,
I couldn't help myself
and I tried to clean that with my fingertips
which ends up smearing it everywhere
and makes it harder to clean when it's cold
but anyway, once portioned,
we'll go ahead and wrap those up
and then pop them in the fridge for a few hours
or until they're thoroughly chilled.
Oh, and a quick production note,
I'm just gonna portion up two in glasses
and I save the rest for a possible mousse cake experiment
but please know this recipe
will make four perfectly sized portions
and that's it, once chilled and firm,
we can pull those out and unwrap them
and if we want, we can serve them plain just like this
but come on, it's Valentine's Day
and we're trying to get lots of compliments
so I think we should jazz these up
with a little bit of whipped cream
plus a few strategically placed raspberries
and then you remember that little bit of chocolate we saved?
We can grate that and sprinkle that over the top
for a final touch
and I think that all makes for a simple
and very, very beautiful presentation
so I made this one for my Valentine Michelle
and then did one more for me
with a little less whipped cream and chocolate
just so I could see which one would look better
for the contractually obligated pictures
and after taking some of those,
I grabbed a spoon and went in for a taste
and that, my friends, for such a dead simple recipe
and super easy basic technique
produces, as I said in the intro,
the best chocolate mousse I've ever had.
Right, these have a huge intense chocolate flavor
without being overly rich or sweet
and as far as the texture goes,
these are wonderfully light but not too light.
Right, some chocolate mousses are just too airy
either because they use too much whipped cream
or they include a whipped meringue
but anyway, if a chocolate mousse is too light,
it will just liquefy on your tongue
as opposed to this one which slowly melts on your tongue
in a very luxurious, possibly voluptuous way.
So to summarize, the texture is perfect
and the flavor could not be any better.
Oh and yes, we did put the raspberries on here
mostly for visual effect
but above and beyond being pretty,
these berries act as a great palate cleanser
which I really do think makes this already awesome
chocolate mousse even more enjoyable
but if you don't happen to use them, that's fine.
This is still gonna be very, very enjoyable
and yes, as I already admitted,
this is the pure chocolate version.
Okay, we didn't add any booze or any coffee or any spice.
I know you thought I was gonna put some cayenne in it
which would be great as would a pinch of black pepper
or a pinch of smoky chipotle
so once you master this method,
you'll be able to play around with different flavor elements
and you'll probably come up
with your own amazing signature version
which I'm sure any current
or future Valentines will appreciate
but anyway, whether you make this
for a special occasion or not,
the ingredient list is very short
and the method is extremely simple and beginner-friendly
and whether you're new to mousse making or you're an expert,
I really do hope you give these a try soon.
So please follow the links below for the ingredient amounts,
a printable written recipe and much more info as usual
♪ It is all we enjoy ♪