So, I've been going through cookbooks trying to find a use for some excess egg yolks that I've been hanging on to in the fridge. I sa a recipe for an egg-yolk-only white chocolate mousse in an issue of Cook's Country. That put me on to the idea of mousse in general and I figured I'd check the plain chocolate mousse recipe (in a different issue of Cook's Country) as well as seeing what Edmonds had to say on the topic of chocolate mousse.

Well, it turns out that I'd already made the Edmonds chocolate mousse and just forgotten to write it up. (Looked familiar once I was actually reading it, just didn't remember before I got the book out.)

This recipe doesn't help me with my egg yolk dilemma as it uses whole eggs, but it should still be written up. I was happy with how it came out if I recall correctly, and it's a fairly easy dessert to make.

Chocolate Mousse

From Edmonds Cookery Book

Ingredients

• 100g dark chocolate
• 2 Tbsp. water or espresso
• 4 large eggs, separated
• 1 Tbsp. rum or cointreau
• whipped cream, to serve

Directions

1. Chop the chocolate and place it in a heatproof bowl with the water/espresso.
2. Set the bowl over a pot of boiling water and heat for 5 minutes.
3. Remove from heat and stir gently until combined.
4. Beat the egg yolks until fluffy.
5. Gradually stir in the wearm chocolate mixture.
6. Mix in the rum/cointreau.
7. Beat the egg whites to stiff peaks.
8. Add half of the egg whites to the chocolate mixture and stir to combine. (Don't worry about deflating them at this point. The goal is just to loosen the mixture a little bit.)
9. Add the remaining egg white and gently fold into the chocolate mixture until no longer streaky. (NOW you want to be careful not to deflate it too much.)
10. Spoon into 4 small or 1 large dish and chill¹ for 1-2 hours.
11. Served topped with whipped cream.

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¹ Edmonds recommends putting the mousse somewhere cool, but not cold to set. They note that if set in the fridge, the mousse may become too firm. I set mine in the fridge anyway and just checked it fairly frequently to see when it was set enough, but not too firm. Keeping it slightly warmer (probably somewhere in the 6-10°C range) would probably avoid the risk of overly hard mousse, but I'd also worry about food safety at those temperatures. Especially given the raw egg in this recipe. My preference would be to store it colder, get it to set up as quickly as possible, and eat it sooner. Less chance of any nasties having a chance to multiply and cause problems that way. ^Back