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4 ingredient dark chocolate mousse [Dairy-free]

by Jeanne Horak on January 22, 2007 12 Comments in Dessert, Eggs, Gluten-free, Sugar High Fridays

Green-Blacks-chocolate-mousse

Phew – the events are coming fast and think this month!  Just as soon as I’d finished my post on twice-cooked oxtail stew for Waiter, there’s something in my… I had to race on to the next post and get my entry done for Sugar High Friday #27.  I must say, I did think for a moment of not participating but then two things changed my mind:

1.  The fact that SHF#27 is being hosted by the ever-fabulous David Lebovitz (and who can say no to him?!); and

2.  The slab of Green & Black’s 70% cocoa chocolate lying on my kitchen counter, just waiting to be turned into something scrumptious.

And so, while my stew was doing its second simmer on Saturday night, I set about deciding what to make.  The theme David has chosen is Chocolate by Brand:  make something using a particular brand of chocolate and then write about why you used it.  Now, as luck would have it, when I returned from my recent trip home to South Africa, I did not return empty-handed.  Somewhere in my straining luggage was a rather large hardcover book, slightly dog-eared and with scraps of paper bulging out here and there.  But despite its appearance it is definitely one of my my most treasured possession:  my mom’s recipe index book.  When I was growing up, this book seemed to be the source of all good things, from chocolate fudge to peanut butter cookies to cheese olives.  I had developed a yearning over the past few months for ginger slices that my mom used to make, and the only place I knew I would find the recipe was in this book – so I laughed in the face of baggage weight restrictions and carried it back over here with me.

As I was paging through it last week, my eye alighted on one of the recipes that my mom had really made her own (together with her cheat’s chicken liver pate and mild chicken curry):  her dark, decadent, boozy and dead easy chocolate mousse.  I remember guests at her dinner parties requesting this in advance, and going into raptures at the table.  I remember people begging her for the recipe while she just laughed and said it was so simple they wouldn’t believe her.  And mostly I rememebr licking the bowl when she was making it 😉

Interestingly enough, her handwritten recipe actually calls for a particular brand of chocolate:  Cadbury’s Bournville.  Don’t laugh.  Remember – this was the southern tip of Africa, 30 years ago.  Fair-trade-gourmet-80%-cocoa-solids chocolate bars hadn’t even been invented!  In fact, at the time, I recall my friends beign slightly in awe of our ever-present slabs of dark chocolate.  In a world where everyone else was eating milk chocolate, my dad insisted on eating only Bourneville (which, I now discover, was one of the first mass-produced dark chocolates, first produced in 1908), or Nestle Albany, both of which were dark chocolate.  We have, however, come a long way since then:  from what I can glean off the ‘net, despite being a lovely, deep, glossy colour, Bournville is made with a paltry 35% cocoa solids and contains a great big whack of sugar!  This is a far cry from today when dark chocolate typically contains 50-85% cocoa solids.  And as you will see, the fact that I haven’t bought Bourneville since I left home and consequently did not use it in the mousse recipe, had a substantial impact on the finished product!

 

Green 7 Blacks dark chocolate

Since coming to England, I have discovered the joys of Green & Black’s chocolate.  Everything of theirs that I have tried has been delicious – even the milk chocolate which is saying something!  The company was founded in 1991 and claims to have manufactured the world’s first organic chocolate (their Mayan Gold was, in 1994, the first UK product certified with the Fairtrade mark), but don’t let all this worthiness put you off.  The stuff tastes fantastic.  A really deep, dark, smoky cocoa taste that makes for a very satisfying sweet snack.  So on the rare occasion when I buy a slab of chocolate, I will usually buy either Green & Black’s or Valrhona (and frankly, Green & Black’s is a lot easier to get hold of!).  Which is how the abovementioned slab got to be waiting for me on my kitchen counter when I wandered in, chocolate mousse recipe in hand.

The wrapper isn’t pictured, but this particular bar is the 70% cocoa version.  Which is a lot different to Bourneville’s 35%.  Make mental note.

Using my brand new Kenwood hand mixer (a little treat to myself after I lost the will to live whipping up egg-whites for my lemon meringue “baked Alaska” petits fours, and an interim measure until I can scrape together the budget for that empire red Kitchenaid…), I made the mousse according to my mom’s recipe.  It was quite surreal, as if she’d just got in touch to give me her treasured recipe, in her own handwriting.  As she had always maintained, the recipe is childishly simple, consisting of nothing other than chocolate and eggs, and some liqueur for citrus flavouring.  I wasn’t entirely sure of how much chocolate to use as her recipe says “12 blocks of Bourneville chocolate” – not much help when you don’t know how big the slab & blocks were, or how they compare to Green & Black’s blocks!

The final result was pretty much exactly as I remembered it:  dark, rich and with a slight citrus kick, but quite light in texture.  I also figured out that what I always though were chunks of undissolved chocolate (my favourite bits) are in fact little chunks created when the chocolate and egg yolks are mixed.  Probably shocking to a mousse texture connoisseur but rather yummy to me 😉 But there was one striking difference:  this mousse was considerably less sweet than the original version, and seeing as the recipe contains no sugar, this has to be down 100% to the chocolate used.  At first I thought that I had messed up the amount of chocolate by guesstimating about 15 blocks of a 100g G&B’s slab – surely too little chocolate would lead to a not-too-sweet mousse as the egg dominated?  But now that I know quite how big the discrepancy in cocoa solids is between Bourneville and G&B’s, it all becomes clear.  Together with the (optional) slug of alcohol, using a less sweet chocolate makes this a very grown-up dessert indeed with a real bitter cocoa taste.  If you wanted something more toned-down and family friendly, you could always substitute another kind of chocolate.  Easy peasy!

Thanks, David, for giving me an excuse to make this little reminder of childhood, and for getting me to think about how the ingredients were affecting the end product 🙂

 

Chocolate mousse


DARK CHOCOLATE MOUSSE (dairy-free) 
(serves 2)

Ingredients

2 large eggs, separated

about 70g dark chocolate, chopped (I have subsequently settled on about 35g of Bourneville and 35g of a high-cocoa chocolate as a good compromise – ed.)

12.5ml Cointreau or Grand Marinier (optional)

1/2 tsp of grated orange zest

Method

Chop or break the chocolate into chunks.  Melt the chocolate over a bowl of boiling water.

Whip the egg whites until stiff peaks form.

When the chocolate is melted, remove from heat and allow to cool slightly.  Whisk together the egg yolks, liqueur and zest and mix into the quickly. (Note – if you don’t work fast, the egg cools the chocolate down so much that it becomes almost solid and hard to mix.)  Fold in the egg whites and mix thoroughly, preferably with a wire whisk.  Pour into glass ramekins and chill until serving.  You can serve these with a dollop of thick cream.  For a choc-mint variation you can substitute the Cointreau with Creme de Menthe, and omit the orange zest.

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  1. anthony says

    January 23, 2007 at 7:13 am

    Dark chocolate makes me sneeze.

    Reply
  2. Pille says

    January 23, 2007 at 7:28 am

    Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. Dark chocolate and Cointreau??? Sounds absolutely delicious, Jeanne! This weekend will be whisky-infused (I’m hosting Burns Supper for former ‘MacEstonians’ who are now back home here in winterland:), but next week all my chocolate desserts will be orange-scented!

    Reply
  3. Ellie says

    January 23, 2007 at 12:42 pm

    Gorgeous chocolate mousse – seeing this reminds me that it’s been quite some time since I’ve experienced the delight that is a good chocolate mousse 🙂

    Reply
  4. santos. says

    January 23, 2007 at 1:28 pm

    green&black’s chocos taste like plastic to me. does some horrible alchemy happen here thisclosetothe equator?

    Reply
  5. Jeanne says

    January 23, 2007 at 2:48 pm

    Hi Anthony,
    Well, at least the fact that you’re sneezing on my blog proves you’re still alive! And I’m sure this would work just beautifully with good milk chocolate 😉
    Hi Pille,
    Oh, there are few better combinations than chocolate and citrus! Even Nick (who is famous for not noticing flavours in food) remarked on the strong orange flavour and how it really adds something to the mousse. Good luck with Burns Night and lok forward to your orange-infused desserts!
    Hi Ellie
    Thanks! And yes, why is it that chocolate mousse is so out of fashion these days? I would never order it in a restaurant – but then I’m not sure if that’s fashion or the absolute certainty that it will be a disappointment compared to my mom’s recipe 😉
    Hi Santos
    Hmm, now there’s an interesting question. Does the same bar of chocolate taste different depending on your latitude?? I’ve never had G&B’s in South Africa so can’t tell – sorry! I do have to say that the best chocolate I’ve tasted has always been from chocolatiers, not mass-produced bars. But as bars, go, I do rather like G&B’s – they do a killer dark bar with ginger.

    Reply
  6. Cru Master says

    January 23, 2007 at 3:00 pm

    G&B’s has just recently reached South African stores and it tastes absolutely amazing – particularly the Maya Gold – goes beautifully with a glass of vino!!
    You spoke of Death by Chocolate – i’m a sucker for chocolate (and wine of course – but I’ll be happy if they spell the end of me!! hahaha!!
    I still rate the Lindt 70% and 85% Cocoa range the best for me – Waterford wine estate make some really amazing chocolate- with flavours including Cape Malay spice, rock salt, lavender etc!!

    Reply
  7. Brilynn says

    January 23, 2007 at 4:10 pm

    I need a new hand mixer too, mine died while I was trying to make a souffle, I thought my arm was going to fall off as I tried to whip the rest of the egg whites.
    I looove chocolate mousse.

    Reply
  8. Bron says

    January 23, 2007 at 8:27 pm

    Aaahhh Jeanne, I loooove chocolate mousse, who doesn’t?! Yours looks especially good!
    Swap you a slice of my tart for a spoon or two?

    Reply
  9. bea at La tartine gourmande says

    January 23, 2007 at 10:03 pm

    Your mousse looks SO good!

    Reply
  10. Ash says

    January 24, 2007 at 2:35 pm

    I love Bourneville chocolate. Really – I’d take it over the fancy pants 85% bars any day 🙂 Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that it was the only chocolate in the pantry and I used to sneak it out, one square at a time, until it was all finished!

    Reply
  11. johanna says

    January 24, 2007 at 3:37 pm

    what a pleasant surprise for my birthday! a chocolate mousse! I was going to make the same (and ended up just putting my feet up waiting for other people to do all the hard work) – and this is chocolate mousse as i first encountered it in france and which is so difficult to find: one that doesn’t add cream, which in my head is a travesty! eggs and chocolate, maybe some scrumptious fruit syrup for a change, are all you really need!!!! well done, jeanne… and will you make it for me when we (belatedly) celebrate my birthday?

    Reply
  12. Jeanne says

    January 29, 2007 at 1:25 pm

    Hi CruMaster
    Glad to hear G&Bs has reached the sunny shores of SA – I’m getting tired of cartiong kilograms of the stuff back for friends when I go home 😉 The Mayan Gold is particularly divine, but I am also in love with the ginger slab. Mmmm. Wine and chocolate – what a way to go! And I rememebr reading on your blog about the Waterford wine & choc tastings. The last time I went there was pre-chocolates but I rememebr falling in love with the architecture. I really must schedule a visit to the winelands next time I go home!
    Hi Brilynn
    Oh, don’t talk to me about hand-whipping!! I have put up with four years of it and then in December in South Africa I just caved in and bought a small Kenwood handmixer. Yes, I actually wanted the empire red Kitchenaid (who wouldn’t?!), but if 12kg of my 20kg luggage allowanceis taken up by an appliance, I will have to start throwing out shoes and that simply can’t be allowed to happen 😉
    Hi Bron
    Glad you like the look of it – that was just half the story as the taste was heaven! I would loooove to swap a spoon of this for a slice of your choc tart – that’s a blogging by mail I could really get into! 😉
    Hi Bea
    Glad you like it – but you should have *tasted* it! We’ll have to arrange a visit 😉
    Hi Ash
    I secretly like Bourneville too… I prefer it over, say, Lindt that all my South African friends are going crazy over. I also think it has to do with childhood memories – I will always associate the taste with very happy times. I used to put a square of Bourneville on my saucer next to a cup of hot coffee or tea, just so that it would melt slightly and then pop it in my mouth. Mmmm!
    Hi Johanna
    You should have met my mom – she also said that there are only two things needed to make mousse: chocolate and egg! And of course I’ll be more than happy to make it for you when we get together again 🙂

    Reply
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Jeanne Horak is a freelance food and travel writer; recipe developer and photographer. South African by birth and Londoner by choice, Jeanne has been writing about food and travel on Cooksister since 2004. She is a popular speaker on food photography and writing has also contributed articles, recipes and photos to a number of online and print publications. Jeanne has also worked with a number of destination marketers to promote their city or region. Please get in touch to work with her Read More…

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© 2004 - 2021 · Jeanne Horak unless otherwise stated - ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. You may not reproduce any text, excerpts or images without my prior permission. Site by RTW Labs

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Privacy & Cookies Policy

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled

Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.

Non-necessary

Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.