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

I've had my eye on this recipe for weeks! First I didn't have all the ingredients, then I didn't have the energy, and then I ended up using up half the ingredients I'd gotten in other recipes. But I finally managed to get both the energy and the ingredients yesterday and decided to give it a go (with the Kidlet's help). She says it's the most delicious thing she's ever tasted. I'm not sure I'd go that far, but it is very good and very chocolate-y.

I did have some issues with the baking times for the brownie layer, but I think that could probably be solved by nudging the oven temperature up a bit. And, other than that, everything worked very well.

Since I've been feeling pretty "low battery" the last few weeks, I decided to simplify my life by buying a ready-made chocolate cookie crumb pie crust. I've included the instructions to make it from scratch below, but I just skipped this step and went straight to preparing the brownie layer. I'm sure a homemade crust would've been even better, but it was still plenty good with a store-bought crust and it made for an easy way to shave a bit of time and effort from the recipe, so I went with that.

Mississippi Mud Pie

Slightly adapted from Cook's Country June/July 2016

Ingredients

Crust

• 25 chocolate wafer cookies, broken into coarse pieces
• 4 Tbsp. unsalted butter, melted

Brownie Layer

• 114g dark chocolate, chopped
• 3 Tbsp. unsalted butter
• 3 Tbsp. oil
• 1 1/2 Tbsp. Dutched cocoa
• 2/3 c. brown sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1/8 tsp. coarse sea salt, ground
• 3 Tbsp. all-purpose flour

Topping

• 10 chocolate wafer cookies
• 2 Tbsp. icing (powdered/confectioners') sugar
• 1 Tbsp. Dutched cocoa
• 2 Tbsp. unsalted butter, melted

Mousse

• 170g milk chocolate, chopped
• 1 c. heavy (35%) cream, chilled
• 2 Tbsp. Dutched cocoa
• 2 Tbsp. icing (powdered/confectioners') sugar

Directions

Crust

1. Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F)¹.
2. Process cookie pieces in food processor until finely ground².
3. Add melted butter and pulse until combined.
4. Press the crumbs firmly into the bottom and up the sides of a 23cm (9") pie plate. (The bottom of a dry measuring cup works well for this.)
5. Bake until set (~15 minutes).
6. Transfer to wire rack and set aside.

Brownie Layer

1. If the oven isn't already hot from baking the pie crust, preheat it to 180°C (350°F).
2. Combine chocolate, butter, oil, and cocoa and microwave in short bursts, stirring frequently, until melted and well-combined.
3. In a separate bowl, combine sugar, eggs, vanilla, and salt and mix well with a whisk.
4. Add chocolate mixture and whisk until combined.
5. Stir in flour.
6. Pour brownie mixture into pie crust. (It's okay if the crust is still warm.)
7. Bake until edges are set and toothpick/cake tester comes out with a thin layer of batter when poked into the centre (15-20 minutes).
8. Transfer to wire rack to cool for 1 hour, then transfer to fridge to chill for another hour.

Topping

1. Meanwhile, line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat.
2. Place cookies in a Ziploc bag and crush them with a rolling pin. Aim for most of the pieces to be around 1cm (1/2") across.
3. Add sugar and cocoa to the bag and shake it up to mix.
4. Add the cookie mixture to the melted butter and stir to combine and moisten all the dry ingredients.
5. Spread cookie mixture onto prepared baking sheet and bake at 180°C (350°F) for 5-10 minutes.
6. Set aside to cool.

Mousse

1. Once brownie layer is chilled, melt the chocolate for the mousse. Set aside to cool for ~10 minutes.
2. Microwave 3 Tbsp. of the cream for ~20 seconds.
3. Mix the cocoa into the warm cream until smooth and homogeneous.
4. Stir in sugar and remaining cream.
5. Whip the cream until soft peaks form.
6. Once the chocolate has cooled to ~30°C (90°F), mix in ~1/3 of the whipped cream. This is just to loosen the chocolate, so don't worry too much about whether or not the cream gets deflated.
7. Now that the chocolate has been loosened, you should be able to carefully fold in the remaining cream.
8. Spoon the mousse over the pie and spread right to the edges.
9. Sprinkle with the cooled cookie chunk topping.
10. Cover and chill for at least 3 hours³.
11. Cut into slices and serve.
12. Totally optional but very good: Top each slice with a little sweetened whipped cream before serving.

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¹ The original recipe calls for a 325°F oven, but I found that I had to bake my brownie layer for nearly twice as long as the recipe called for, so I've upped the temperature a bit here in the hopes of coming closer to the recommended baking times. If you find your oven tends to run hot or cold you may need to adjust differently. ^Back
2 It may also be possible to do this in a blender. I don't know, I didn't try it. I think food processor would probably work better though. If in doubt you can always do what I did and bypass the issue with a pre-made crust. ^Back
3 We were feeling impatient so we tossed our pie in the freezer to chill. I found that 20 minutes in the freezer was enough to set the mousse firmly enough to be sliceable. ^Back

I've had my eye on this one for a while. TF loves both dark chocolate and orange and especially so when they're combined. As long as you plan ahead a little to account for the chilling time, this makes for a very quick and easy dessert to throw together. And if you're concerned about eating raw eggs you could always look for pasteurized ones.

Chocolate-Orange Mousse

From Cook's Country February/March 2019

Ingredients

• 225g semi-sweet chocolate, chopped
• 2 large eggs
• 2 egg yolks
• 1/4 c. brown sugar
• 1/2 tsp. grated orange zest
• 1 c. heavy (35%) cream
• 3 Tbsp. orange juice

Directions

1. Gently melt the chocolate and set aside to cool¹.
2. Combine eggs, yolks, sugar, and orange zest in a blender and process until light and frothy (~1 minute).
3. Add cream, orange juice, and chocolate and process until slightly thickened (~1 minute).
4. Pour ~1/2 c. each into six ramekins, cover, and chill until set (~3 hours).
5. Uncover and let sit at room temperature for ~10 minutes before serving.

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¹ The original suggests melting the chocolate in the microwave -- 1-2 minutes at 50% power. Something went wrong with my microwave settings though and the chocolate ended up slightly burnt. I think next time I'd just do it on the stove. ^Back