Baileys Mousse Au Chocolate – JC100 Week 2

This recipe is brought to you by the JC100 celebration. It is the 2nd week recipe (we are already on week 4 btw). When I saw this I thought “Yes!” because Mousse au Chocolate is probably one of the most famous French desserts out there, besides croissants I guess. Up until now I lacked a bit of time to actually make the recipe, but I finally set down and did it.

I visited France several times while living in Germany. It is “around the corner” so to speak. I believe the first or second time I was in Paris I actually had Mousse au Chocolate. However, I remember that it was not particularly good. It might have something to do with the fact that I was fairly young and my taste buds were more like “sugar” than “real chocolate”. Now I would appreciate it more.

Excerpted from Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Julia Child. Copyright © 1961 by Alfred A. Knopf. Reprinted with permission from the publisher Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Random House, Inc.

Ingredients:

– 4 eggs, separated
– 3/4 cup icing sugar
– 1/4 cup liqueur – in my case Baileys
– 170g semi-sweet chocolate
– 4 tbsp. strong coffee
– 170g butter
– pinch of salt
– 1 tbsp. granulated sugar

Tools:

– 3 quart stainless steel or porcelain bowl
– wire whip or electric mixer (hand held)
– pan or pot of not quite simmering water
– cold water basin
– small sauce pan
– bowl for egg whites

Making Mousse au Chocolate takes several steps, so pay attentions. 😉

Separate the eggs and set the egg white aside. Mix the egg yolk with the icing sugar until thick. Now you can add the liqueur, Julia is using orange liqueur, I used Baileys. Now place the mixtures over the not quite simmering water and keep beating for about 3 to 4 min until it is foamy and too hot to touch. Remove from the heat and place in the cold water basin, keep beating until the mixtures is cooled down and the consistency of mayonnaise.  Set aside.

Melt the chocolate over a hot water bath, yes you can use the one from before, and mix in the coffee. I was a bit concerned at this point because I know that mixing water and chocolate usually is not good. In this case though it works fine and you just need to stir well. Remove from the heat and add the butter a bit at a time, mixing it into a smooth cream. Then add this to the egg yolk mixtures and beat well.

Use and electric mixer to beat the egg whites until foamy and soft peaks are formed. Sprinkle the sugar over that and beat until stiff peaks are formed. 1/4 of the egg whites are stirred into the chocolate mixture. The rest is folded in. Then transfer the mousse into little ramekins or any other form you wish.

The mousse should cool for at least 2 hours or over night. You may serve it with whipped cream.

Tip 1: My egg yolk mixtures didn’t have the consistency of mayonnaise, at least not the one I know. I believe it should have been heated for longer than 4 minutes. Next time I will try that.

Tip 2: If you don’t like coffee (and I don’t), leave out the coffee. Maybe use some warm cream instead (for the liquid). In this case the coffee is ok because it helps the Baileys (coffee liqueur). However, if you do use orange liqueur I doubt it will be very orange flavour like.

Observation: I taste tested the mousse yesterday, after the required cooling time. While it is delicious is has not really the mousse consistency I was looking for. Maybe it’s due to the fact that my egg yolks were not the consistency of mayonnaise. Or maybe I folded the egg whites in the wrong way, e.g. too much mixing and it lost its fluffiness.

Despite the fact that it’s not quite the mousse consistency I was looking for it is delicious nevertheless. I believe with a bit of practice I would be able to whip out a killer Mousse au Chocolate. Isn’t that the reason behind all this anyway? Try, fail, try again, fail better?!

I know I will have an awesome dessert tonight. How about you?

Happy dessert eating!