Erstwhile Chocolaty Mousse

Now I know that cooking and writing and photographing ain’t that easy and documenting it often enough is even tougher. The K’s and the latest addition to the K family were invited for dinner over the weekend; this was my first hosted meal post-marriage for family and enough food had to be cooked! (A special request was for keema lasagna, which was duly missed for the last year- however, as much as it ‘supposedly’ turned out great, I will save it for another post). The K’s are good eaters; and I mean ‘good Punjabi eaters’J. Food therefore had to be paramount - well technically- my best at least. Therefore, in order to ease my day on Saturday (which already had a million things planned), I decided to organize the dessert on Friday night itself. Through this process, I also figured, that I would only use one of the items on the menu for a post this time.
       

 I had decided to go easy on the dessert- which in Punjabi terms implies- quick, but rich and of course creamy and sugary, and chocolaty. On the menu- was going to be Chocolate Mousse. In my experience, most of the mousse recipes are focused on the eggs, the actual act of cooking the mousse, the balance to be attained etc. etc. Most recipes claim that the mousse (A big Thanks to the French) is extremely tricky- because the chocolate may overcook if it is too warm or if you stir and not fold- it would not end up fluffy enough, and could even turn out too chocolaty or too sweet or yes- disaster, when it could end up being too liquidy. In fact, I am quite certain from my experience of reading cookbooks that the art of mousse-making, if not more, is at least as challenging as the art of motorcycle maintenance! (For those uninitiated, the book- is a must read). Today’s post is hence, dedicated to the simplest chocolate mousse recipe- each time I have tried it, the feedback has been wonderful, except from those who keep away from the calories. It still takes me a while to convince them- that really, half a shot of this one will only add joy to their meal.

The recipe is a slightly modified version of the Hershey’s chocolate Mousse recipe. Ingredients are:

1 envelope unflavored gelatin, since there is no quantity specified in the original recipe, I use 3 Tbsp

1/4 cup cold water and 1/3 cup boiling water

1 cup sugar (I use half white and half brown- brown works much better for chocolate desserts)

2/3 cup HERSHEY'S SPECIAL DARK Cocoa (Since I don’t have the Hershey’s cocoa, and use Cadbury’s which is much milder/less cocoa-ish, I prefer to add about 75 g of molten dark cooking chocolate)

2 cups (1 pt.)cold whipping cream

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Combine sugar and cocoa in large bowl; add whipping cream and vanilla. Mix rigorously with a big spoon folding the ingredients in. (the original recipe asks for Beating on medium speed with a mixer- somehow, in my experience, that removes the creaminess; cakes and desserts, hand-mixed are so much softer…). Scrape the bottom of the bowl occasionally, until mixture is stiff.

                Sprinkle gelatin over cold water in small bowl; let stand 2 minutes to soften. Add boiling water; stir until gelatin is completely dissolved and mixture is clear. Cool slightly. Pour in gelatin mixture into the remaining mixture and mix further until well blended. Spoon into dessert dishes and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes. Garnish as desired. Store covered in refrigerator. Serve with fruits or ice-cream or even possibly with some whipped cream. This, I think, is possibly, one of the quickest and effortless desserts that I have ever made and the fact that it is egg-less makes it even more trouble-free.

p.s guilty pleasures | equivalent to a shot of baileys added to the last bit of the mousse. 3 fine shots of the ex-chocolaty mousse & the current Baileys mousse for the 3 special women :P