The Passionate Sisters: Chocolate Mousse for 2 ( Without Cream and Without Raw Eggs!!! )

Chocolatey, Creamy, Rich at the same time light and fluffy Chocolate Mousse!!!

The very first time I had mousse was during a flight trip to Mumbai. They served us Mango Mousse during the lunch. I enjoyed every spoon. It was so light, creamy and full of mango flavour ( At that time I didn't even know that it was called mousse!! ) I enjoyed it totally...
Later back in Coimbatore, I had Butterscotch Mousse once and totally hated it. It was so rich, creamy and light but completely lacked the flavour. It was totally bland. I felt like I was eating a glass full of plain whipped cream without any flavour. All these eventually led me to try my own version.

I have always skipped doing mousse mainly because of 2 reasons. One is the use of raw eggs and the other is the use of whipped cream, which I try to avoid as much as possible. As you have seen in my Panner Butter Masala recipe and Caramel Sauce recipe I try to work with ingredients that I have readily (Ya! I know its a crazy habit ) And I don't want the whipped cream to overpower the chocolate. For me a perfect chocolate mousse should be fluffy, light, creamy, rich at the same time chocolatey!!! I want the chocolate to shine through every spoonful...
Once, while just browsing through I came across Swiss ButterCream recipe in which the egg whites are first cooked with sugar and then whipped. I loved that idea!!! Now problem solved :)
I am very proud to say that I developed this recipe from scratch ( Yay!!! ) In this chocolate mousse, the eggs are cooked. This Chocolate Mousse just has 3 main steps-
1) Prepare the chocolate cream
2) Prepare the meringue
3) Combine Cream and meringue.
I cooked the yolk while preparing chocolate cream and the egg white while preparing meringue. Plus there is no whipped cream to dull the chocolate flavour. So this is a win win recipe!!! There is loads of chocolate flavour with light, fluffy and creamy texture without any extra fat :)

Job Done!!! This Chocolate Mousse is exactly how I wanted it to be. Its so chocolatey!!! All the light and creamy texture doesn't overpower the chocolate. Now, how many times have I said that ??? You get it right? its soooo chocolatey!!!!! You will get chocolate flavour in every spoon. And it is a very quick recipe. You can complete this within 15 minutes. The only bad thing about this chocolate mousse is you need to wait for it to set completely ( though I cheated as usual the first time I did, hey! its my favorite chocolate and I can't help it :) )

Before we get on with the recipe, I want to wish you all a very Happy Valentines Day!!!

INGREDIENTS:

Dark Chocolate - 40 g
Milk - 1/4 cup
Butter - 1/2 tbsp
Egg - 1
Caster Sugar - 1 and 1/4 tbsp

METHOD:
1) Separate the egg yolk and white and place in clean and dry separate bowls. Chop the chocolate and keep it aside. Lightly break the yolk with the fork.

2) Bring the milk to a boil. Pour little ( about 1 to 2 tbsp ) of hot milk into the yolk, while whisking continuously to avoid any scrambling of the yolk (This process is called tempering the eggs ) Now pour the yolk mixture back to the milk pan.

3) Whisk continuously until it gets thickened and coats the back of the spoon as shown in picture below ( just run a finger through the back of the spoon, if it leaves a path it is ready! ) Add the butter and the chopped chocolate.

4) Mix well till it is smooth and glossy. Pour it through a sieve just to make sure you don't have any scrambled egg.

5) Our chocolate cream is now ready. Allow it to cool to room temperature. Add caster sugar to the egg white.

6) Place the egg white bowl over a pan of simmering water. Make sure that the bowl does not touch the water. Now start whisking.

7) Whisk continuously until the sugar dissolves and the mixture turns from transparent to slightly white colour ( refer picture ) Keep watching as it will be over within 1 to 2 minutes. The mixture should also be warm. At this point remove it from over the pan and start whipping with a electric beater. Start from low speed and increase it to its highest speed.

8) Whip until stiff peaks form.

9) Now fold 1/3 rd of the meringue to the chocolate cream to loosen it up first. Mix the next 1/3 rd of the meringue and finally the last 1/3 rd.

10) You will get light and creamy mixture as shown in the picture below. Pour into individual ramekins and cover it with cling film. Refrigerate for overnight ( or a minimum of 4 hours )