Friday, November 9, 2012

French Fridays with Dorie - Top-Secret Chocolate Mousse


Today the recipe for the French Fridays with Dorie group is a Top-Secret Chocolate Mousse. The mousse derives its catchy name from the fact the original recipe comes from the back of a Nestlé Dessert Chocolate bar – as pointed out to Dorie by one of her close French friends.




Mousse au chocolat is truly a classic French bistro dessert. It is quick and easy to make and best served the day that it is made. There are countless recipes for chocolate mousse and the classic version usually calls for melting chocolate and butter together before proceeding with the rest of recipe. Dorie´s recipe, however, does not contain butter and counts all but four ingredients, namely chocolate, eggs, salt and sugar.




Since the mousse contains so few ingredients, you have to choose the best ingredients that you can find. The simple secret behind a fantastic chocolate mousse is to use really good quality chocolate. Look for something 60% or above cocoa solids, anything under just will not do. Since the flavor of the mousse entirely depends on good chocolate, do buy a really good brand, you will not regret it.




Because the recipe is classic French, it uses raw eggs. Whenever I prepare anything that uses uncooked eggs, I use the freshest eggs I can get my hands on either from a farmer´s store or, as today, from my trusted “Organic Food Store”.




Once you have assembled all your high quality ingredients, you can go ahead and prepare the recipe. Gently melt the chocolate, cool slightly, combine with the egg yolks, beat the egg whites with the sugar and gently fold the sweetened egg whites into the chocolate mixture. Chill until set. Voilà! The biggest difficulty when preparing a chocolate mousse, is melting the chocolate properly. When melting chocolate over simmering water, you have to be careful that the water is not too hot or the chocolate will melt too quickly and may go grainy, then you will not get a smooth mousse. You should not stir it too much either, it is better to take it off the heat once softened, then let it melt naturally. If you use a microwave to melt it, take care to use a defrost or low-wattage setting.




In France, they often serve chocolate mousse from a big bowl, scooped onto a plate with some cookies. I decided to spoon the mousse into individual tea cups and serve “Eiserkuchen” alongside. I baked these waffels in my special well-worn waffle maker. For the waffle batter you have to dissolve rock candy in boiling water and only when that has cooled down do you add the remaining ingredients which include my favorite spice of all, cinnamon, but you can also add cardamom or anise. After you bake each waffle separately, you roll them up while still piping hot and thanks to the waffle maker and the rock candy, once they have cooled down, they are delectably crunchy. We usually eat them either on their own or with some whipped cream, so they were the perfect partners to the chocolate mousse with whipped cream! Could not ask for more!




Chocolate mousse is always a crowd pleaser. You can make it for a deliciously rich finale to a dinner party but it is equally wonderful with an afternoon cup of coffee or tea. And while I liked serving the chocolate mousse today with a dollop of whipped cream, in my opinion, it really is also wonderful on its own. A very nice and easy recipe which everyone enjoyed!

To see how the mousse au chocolate turned out for the other members of the French Fridays with Dorie group, please do click here.







34 comments:

  1. Absolutely beautiful series of photos! Fun to read. Thx! Happy weekend.

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    1. Thanks, Amy, preparing chocolate mousse is actually very relaxing and it was fun putting this post together!

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  2. Your mousse looks wonderful, Andrea, and I love how you served it! I hope you have a great weekend.

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    1. Thank you so much Elaine - always greatly enjoy your wonderful comments!

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  3. First of all I absolutely ADORE your tea cups!! I'm a little obsessed with them actually, since I live in England I have been buying antique and vintage ones to fill a (non existent) China cabinet, they are all bone china with the makers stamp on the bottom, so cool. So I have been taking particular notice of neat patterns lately and hunting them down LOL!
    Your mousse looks good in them too and I'm glad it was so well received, its hard to reject a chocolate dessert though!
    Lastly, did you see that we are doing a FFWD christmas card exchange? details are on my chocolate mousse post this week!

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    1. Alice, thank you so much for your comment - these teacups are really my most treasured ones! I love serving dessert in cups, it makes for a wonderful presentation!

      And I did sign up for the Christmas Card Exchange, cannot wait to see how many members of the FFwD group will participate - I will send the cards out at the end of November, as soon as I will get the mailing list! Thanks for organizing all this!


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  4. The mousse looks delicious, et la présentation est impeccable !!

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    1. Merci pour le gentil commentaire mon chèr Nicolas!!! Next time you are visiting, you will certainly get to taste this wonderful French dessert!

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    1. Thanks so much - this is a very nice recipe and enjoyed by all who got to taste it!

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  6. I enjoyed this post with your lovely photos of the mousse in your beautiful teacups. The mousse reminded me of a rich hot cocoa with a dollop of whipped cream that you see in the cafes in the winter.

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    1. Karen, thank you for your lovely comment - love those teacups and never use them enough so this was a good opportunity to put them to good use and enjoy a nice dessert at the same time.

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  7. Serving the mousse in tea cups is beautiful Andrea! This is a mousse in the real french style and those cigars to accompany them are delectable. I love the whole way you presented it!

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    1. Paula, serving the mousse au chocolat in teacups was a lot of fun and these cups just seemed to be rather photogenic. My grandmother baked a lot of these crunchy waffles and I have always loved to eat them and so does the rest of the family.

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  8. Oh my goodness, what a beautiful presentation! Love the cups. And I was amazed when you wrote about making those cookies yourself! So impressive! Mine didn't turn out exactly as I would have liked, but the mousse was a hit with my guests anyway. Hope you have a terrific weekend!

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    1. Candy, thanks such much for the kind comment - Dorie´s recipe is wonderful and even if the mousse au chocolat is a little "moody", it still tastes wonderful!

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  9. Andrea you are indeed The Kitchen Lioness!! Everything looks so nice and so delicious. Your photos are always interesting and beautiful!

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    1. Thank you so much for the nice comment - taking pictures of the food I prepare is just part of the fun of preparing all these recipes!

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  10. I've seen several posts of chocolate mousse before I came here, but I have to say your post is my favorite because of styling (I never put mousse in a nice cup like that - how gorgeous!), and the simple whip cream on top did it the magic. So pretty and perfect looking mousse!! And I love that you used the best of best ingredients. When we have less ingredients or light flavor, the quality of ingredients do matter the most. Great job on this FFwD task! You nailed it!

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    1. Nami, you are so very kind - thanks for your wonderful comment! And, yes, if possible, it is always important to use the best ingredients that we can get and/or afford, particularly when there are so few ingredients required a recipe, such as is the case with this Mousse au Chocolat!

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  11. Your tea cups are a perfect setting for a dollop of mousse. Beautiful.
    I am very interested in the cookie/ waffles that you served with the mousse. How fun to use rock candy in it!
    I always love stopping in here :-)

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    1. Cher, thanks for the kind comment! I am planning on putting together a separate post for those cookies, recipe and all. In fact with the right recipe they are easy to make and roll. And they are always a big hit, always.

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  12. Hi Andrea!! Love, love, love the presentation and the photographs! I agree about using the best ingredients to make a perfect mousse and it shows in your photos! Félicitations!!!
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    1. Thanks - Merci, Maria! Best ingredients are key to a successful and delicious Mousse au Chocolat!

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  13. Just perfect in those tea cups, and those Eiserhuchen cookies look delicious. We loved this recipe and I will be repeating it again soon.
    Have a great weekend.

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    1. Thanks so much Nana - my grandmother used to make a ton of these rolled-up traditional cookies once a year. We adored them. And to this day, these are probably some of my very favorites, we still adore them but I make them much more frequently than once a year.

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  14. the pictures are gorgeous and the mousse sounds divine. I LOVE a good choc mousse so will happily be trying this :)
    Mary x

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    1. Mary, thanks so much - Chocolate Mousse truly seems to be a crowd pleaser at all times!

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  15. Your mousse au chocolate looks wonderful, Andrea. I like your presentation in teacups. I have a box of old teacups from a great aunt and never know what to use them for. Chocolate mousse! Thanks for the introduction to Eiserkuchen. They look like special cookies. I hope you have a wonderful week!

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    1. Betsy, thanks for the nice comment - try to serve the Chocolat Mousse in those vintage teacups, I am sure that your guests (and youself) will love eating dessert from them.

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  16. Love the tea cups filled with chocolate mouse and cream! Gorgeous!
    Those waffles sound fantastic!

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    1. Sanya, thank you - this was a very nice dessert, chocolat mousee, whipped cream and waffles - who could ask for more?! The crowds were pleased.

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  17. Andrea, I have just now gotten to everyone's mousse Posts. Your entire Post is fabulous, as always, and I especially look forward to your future Post on Eiserkuchen. I intend to refer to your chocolate instructions as I move along in the recipe either today or tomorrow. As always, I enjoy your photographs and all the delicious serving pieces you use with both recipes. A wonderful Post, again, mon amie.

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    1. Mary, thank you so much for all the lovely comments - the post on the "Eiserkuchen" will be coming up New Years, as these are traditionally served at that time of the year.

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