50 Recipes 2011, #6: chocolate mousse

[nonelvis]

Apparently I'm on a dessert kick lately! I'm not normally, but as soon as I saw this recipe -- chocolate mousse made out of only two ingredients, chocolate and water -- I had to try it.

I've made traditional chocolate mousse many times, and it's not hard, but there are many steps: separating eggs, making chocolate custard, whipping cream, folding carefully. This mousse, developed by chemist Hervé This, has only two steps: melting the chocolate with a little water (or Earl Grey tea and Cointreau, in my case), then whipping it over ice water until it thickens. This video shows the chemistry magic at work, and believe me, it's every bit as magical when you make it yourself.

One caveat: if you have RSIs like me, do yourself a favor and use a stick blender instead of whisking by hand. The recipe takes significant whisking -- I lasted four minutes with my hand whisk before the pain forced me to give up and go with the stick blender for nearly another four minutes. But damn, science is delicious.

Comments

[brewsternorth]

So noted about the stick blender (I'll have to try and figure out where ours went), but that sounds like a neat recipe. Absence of raw eggs is also a plus: even if you don't have dietary restrictions around them, they can be messy. Earl Grey & Cointreau infusion sounds heavenly.

[nonelvis]

What I really wanted to use was the bergamot liqueur I thought we still had lying around, but I guess we must have drank it all. I wish we had a good source for that stuff -- we've bought it in Canada before, but I've never seen it around here.

[biichan.livejournal.com]

Ooooh. That looks nice.

(Oh, um, have you heard from your friend about the thing?)

[nonelvis]

It's very rich -- strangely, more so than it would be if it were a regular mousse!

I haven't heard from my friend yet, but if she hasn't responded by tomorrow, I'll ask again, since I know you have someone else interested as well.

[elliptic-eye.livejournal.com]

Oh, God bless you and your recipes. I mean, I'm an agnostic, but bless you anyway.

[nonelvis]

I admit, watching the thing thicken up had me squeeing at how cool it was. Science! It works!

[dietcokebreak.livejournal.com]

The stick blender was a HUGE thing for me with my RSI problems. Not that I cook a lot, but it makes me less stressed about cooking when I do.

[nonelvis]

I was worried it would be a problem for me, since I can't use things like weedwhackers without instant pain, but it's been fine.

[peebles.livejournal.com]

OH.

Trying this. Soon.

[nonelvis]

I thought that might be your reaction.