What’s The Secret To Great Chocolate Mousse? | Kitchen Aide

18 hours ago

I ever bid cocoa mousse successful restaurants, but it ne'er turns retired rather correct erstwhile I make it astatine home. Help!
Daniel, by email
“Chocolate mousse defies physics,” says Nicola Lamb, writer of Sift and nan Kitchen Projects newsletter. “It’s sewage each nan flavour of your favourite chocolate, but pinch an aerated, dissolving texture, which is benignant of extraordinary.” The first point you’ve sewage to inquire yourself, then, is what benignant of mousse are you after: “Some people’s dream is rich | and dense, while for others it’s ray and airy,” Lamb says, which is astir apt why location are truthful galore ways you tin make it.

That said, successful astir cases you’re usually dealing pinch immoderate shape of melted cocoa folded into whipped eggs (whites, yolks aliases both), followed by lightly whipped cream. And, pinch truthful fewer ingredients, you request to make them count, Lamb says: “What you’re doing by making cocoa mousse is extending nan flavour of nan chocolate, truthful first disconnected ever spell pinch a barroom you really like.” And, for her, that intends 70% acheronian chocolate.

One imaginable stumbling block, however, comes erstwhile folding nan melted cocoa into nan colder ingredients (eggs, say): “The cocoa tin prehend and you extremity up overfolding aliases knocking retired each nan air.” Her solution? Whisk a small water, intoxicant aliases java (“a mates of tablespoons for 100g chocolate”) into nan melted chocolate, and “it’ll beryllium easier to activity with”.

Use older eggs, too, adds Matthew Ryle, writer of French Classics: “As an ovum gets older, nan achromatic gets looser, which is not what you want erstwhile it comes to poaching, but for meringues and mousses it’s perfect, because those looser whites person much elasticity, truthful they agelong and incorporated aerial without breaking.” Room-temperature eggs will besides thief pinch this.

As pinch immoderate difficult relationship, it pays to return things slow, too. “The longer and slower you whip nan meringue, nan smaller nan bubbles will be,” Ryle says, “resulting successful a stronger, good meringue and mousse.” To guarantee a ray mousse, Lamb ever adds an other ovum white, while Ollie Templeton pours successful basking honey. The co-founder of Carousel, wherever cocoa mousse has been connected nan paper since nan time it opened, says: “Bring immoderate chromatic to a boil, move that into nan eggs and whisk until they’ve cooled; that creates a ray and airy texture.” He past folds successful nan obligatory whipped cream, seasons pinch brackish and pops successful nan fridge for 4 to 5 hours to set.

If you’ve made a dense, truffle-like mousse (ie, without cream), however, Lamb would return it retired of nan fridge 20 minutes earlier serving: “It’s little of a problem pinch a cream-based mousse,” she says, “although that would still use from 10 minutes retired of nan fridge earlier digging in.”

Templeton would apical his mousse pinch a drizzle of oliva oil, immoderate brackish and a fewer crushed hazelnuts: “You want immoderate crunch [a veil of peanuts aliases breadcrumbs would besides do nan job].” Lamb, however, is not 1 for gilding nan lily, and conscionable adds a pinch of salt: “Chocolate mousse is 1 of those things that’s champion near alone,” she says. Unless whipped pick has been omitted from nan recipe: “In that case, a coupe of cocoa mousse pinch a spoon of hardly whipped pick would beryllium really chic. Chic and delicious.”