10:34
- If you're craving a chocolate dessert that is elegant and surprisingly easy, this classic chocolate mousse is the one you need to make. Now, unlike my French style chocolate pot de creme recipe that is rich, dense and decadent, this American style chocolate mousse is soft, light and airy. It's also super simple to make, and you don't even need any eggs. I think this might just become your new favorite after dinner dessert, so let me show you how to make it.
(upbeat music) To get started, finely chop 6 ounces of semi-sweet chocolate. I prefer using semi-sweet chocolate for this recipe as it has the perfect balance of richness and sweetness. You can, of course, use dark chocolate or milk chocolate if that's your preference, though I find that dark chocolate can be a little too intense and bitter once it's chilled since this recipe doesn't have a lot of added sugar. And milk chocolate, while sweeter, doesn't set up quite as nicely. So semi-sweet chocolate gives you that perfect middle ground with rich chocolate flavor and the best texture. To melt the chocolate, I prefer using a double boiler,
though you could melt it in 20-second increments in the microwave as well. Add half a cup of heavy cream to the chocolate and stir it until it's fully melted and super smooth. Then, remove the bowl from the double boiler and let the chocolate cool to room temperature. (upbeat music continues) In a separate bowl, whip one cup of heavy cream with one teaspoon of vanilla extract and a pinch of kosher salt. Start whipping slowly so you don't accidentally splatter everywhere. Then, as the cream starts to thicken,
you can increase the speed on your hand mixer until soft peaks form. Once your melted chocolate is at room temperature, and this is really important, you don't want any residual heat in the chocolate, otherwise you will melt your whipped cream. Give it another stir, then add a third of the whipped cream to the melted chocolate and stir to lighten it. Don't worry too much about deflating the whipped cream at this stage, just make sure that it's well incorporated. Then, add the remaining whipped cream to the bowl and gently fold it in until the mousse mixture is smooth and silky and no longer has any streaks in it.
(upbeat music continues) Now, you can go ahead and chill this big bowl of chocolate mousse in the refrigerator and serve individual portions later, but I prefer to portion out servings into little glasses or ramekins for guests to enjoy. So I'll go ahead and carefully dollop a few generous spoonfuls into each of these small glasses. And if you wanna get fancy, you could also transfer the mousse to a piping bag and then pipe the mousse into the glasses as well.
Once you've got your mousse all portioned out, refrigerate it for at least an hour in the fridge until it's set. Though, I think it's best chilled at least a couple of hours, which makes it a great make-ahead dessert that you can do the night before. Then, right before serving, I'll make some more freshly whipped cream to dollop on top. And just a side note that if you do prefer using a darker chocolate in this recipe, you could always add a little sweetener to the whipped cream that you fold into the melted chocolate to offset some of that bitterness. I think the most important thing is just choosing a high-quality chocolate that you really love the taste of because the chocolate flavor is what this dessert is all about.
For a simple garnish on top of this chocolate mousse dessert, I love adding a dollop of whipped cream and some chocolate shavings, but you could also add fresh berries, some flaky sea salt, or a drizzle of my salted caramel sauce, which is amazing, by the way. This chocolate mousse is just such a classic recipe that I think everyone should know how to make. And if you saw the mint chocolate mousse cake I made for my birthday this year, this is actually the exact same recipe I used for the mousse layer in that cake. Now, that cake obviously takes a bit more work, but the chocolate mousse itself highlights that a few good-quality ingredients can make something truly special and deliciously good all on its own.
This is such an easy dessert and so delicious that I've almost polished off this one here in just a couple of minutes. (upbeat music continues) It's light and airy and so smooth and decadent. It's gotten a little soft because, as you can see, it's quite sunny today, and these have been sitting out for a few minutes, so they have softened up, but so good. (upbeat music continues) Now, I serve these up in small individual glasses. A serving size is about half of a cup, but you could also do the entire chocolate mousse in a large bowl and then just spoon out individual portions as well.
Now, I would tell you that this could last for several days in the fridge, but your willpower has to be much better than mine because if I have these in the fridge, it is really hard to stay away from them, so just keep that in mind. But in all seriousness, this is an easy make-ahead dessert for a dinner party, a date night, having girlfriends over, for family weeknight meals, whatever the celebration or no celebration, this is just such an easy all around great dessert. I hope you guys enjoy today's video for chocolate mousse, and if you did, make sure to give it a thumbs up, share the recipe with your family and friends or who you wanna enjoy this delicious dessert with, and I will see you again in the next video.
(upbeat music continues)
