Instructions

This recipe is fairly simple, albeit with a couple steps and a few techniques that need to be done well. But with a little bit of concentration, it’s very doable and a total showstopper for dessert. When’s the last time you had homemade chocolate mousse? The trickiest part of this recipe is that water is your enemy - you want to keep water from entering your preparation or you’ll ruin the entire dish.

Melt the Chocolate

1. Place a glass or ceramic bowl over a pot of water to create a double boiler. You want enough water in the pot so that there’s a significant boil and steam created as a result, but you don’t want the water to touch the bottom of the bowl. Aim for around 2 inches of gap between the bowl and the water line.

2. Once the bowl is over the gently boiling water, add the chocolate chips and the butter (make sure the butter is cubed so it melts faster). Stir every 30 seconds or so and once the chocolate is velvety smooth, remove the bowl from the pot. Remove from heat when almost, but not all, the butter is melted. The residual heat will melt the rest.

3. It’s REALLY important that no water enters the bowl during this process. If it does, it will cause the chocolate to “seize” and become grainy and dry. It’s hard to recover from this.

4. If you don’t have the right sized pots and bowls for a double boiler, you can use a microwave. Microwave the butter and chocolate in increments of 20-30 seconds, stirring along the way.

Prepare the Eggs

1. While melting the chocolate, separate the yolks and whites from two eggs. Start with the yolks. Beat or whisk them for a few minutes, until they become nicely incorporated and almost syrupy.

2. Once the chocolate has cooled sufficiently (wait around five minutes, until the bowl is safe enough to place your hand on without having to remove it), add the yolks to the chocolate, stirring to incorporate. Never add the yolks immediately after the chocolate has been on the double boiler - you’ll cook the yolks.

Whip the Egg Whites

1. Using an electric or stand mixer, beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form. It’ll look like foam from a bubble bath! A good litmus test is to pull a spatula out of the egg whites and a peak of egg whites should maintain its peak shape without falling over too easily.

2. If you’re reusing the same mixer as the egg yolks, wipe down the previous bowl and whisk attachments, but don’t use water. It’s okay if the bowl isn’t entirely clean. But any moisture in the bowl might ruin the egg whites.

Whip the Cream

1. Once the egg whites are done, whip the heavy cream also to stiff peaks. If you are using the same stand mixer, it’s okay not to clean the bowl or whisks after the previous step.

Combine and Chill

1. Add all three components to the same bowl (I like to whip the cream or the egg whites in the bowl I plan on using at the end). The key on this step is to fold the components together. Don’t stir, or whisk vigorously. If you do so, you will deflate the egg whites and your mousse will not be fluffy and delicate.

2. Keep folding by making big circles with your spatula, scraping the bottoms and sides as you go. Slow and steady is the key here.

3. Once combined, divide the mousse into serving containers and place in the fridge. The mousse will need to chill for at least 2 hours before serving.

4. If you want to get fancy, thinly slice some strawberries to serve on top, or add some chocolate shavings. Bon appetit!