Silky Chocolate Mousse with Marshmallows
It’s hard to go wrong with a delicious silky chocolate mousse – it’s one of my favourite desserts to serve when entertaining guests!
Ingredients
- 250 g good quality dark eating chocolate around 60-80% cocoa
- 500 ml cream
- 1 teaspoon vanilla essence
- 2 large free-range eggs or 3 small, whites and yolks seperated
- 2 tablespoons caster sugar
Instructions
- Break chocolate up into pieces and place in a large microwave-proof bowl with 1 cup (half) of the cream. Microwave for 1 ½ – 2 minutes, stirring after every 30 seconds until, the cream is warm and chocolate is starting to melt. Take out of the microwave and keep stirring until the chocolate is completely melted and incorporated into the cream, forming a thick, silky chocolate ganache. Stir in vanilla and egg yolks until smooth and glossy. The warmth of the ganache will lightly cook the egg yolks. Allow to cool on the bench at room temp.
- Meanwhile, place egg whites in a clean, dry mixing bowl and whip up with an electric beater on high speed until foamy. Add caster sugar and continue whipping on high speed until a thick, glossy meringue. Set aside.
- Whip cream in another bowl until soft peaks have formed (I don’t bother washing the egg beater in between beating the egg whites and cream).
- Add about one third of the meringue to the cooled chocolate mixture and fold together using a large metal spoon (keeping in as much air as possible), then fold in about a third of the cream, doing the same, to lighten the mixture. Lightly fold through remaining meringue and whipped cream. Spoon into serving glasses and chill in the fridge for at least 1-2 hours.
- When ready to serve, top with marshmallows, or whatever topping takes your fancy! Raspberries, passionfruit, chopped nuts and coconut are other delicious ideas!
Notes
The trick with chocolate mousse is to combine the egg whites, cream and melted chocolate as delicately as possible, to avoid losing any air. This will give you a light mousse with a rich chocolatey taste that melts in the mouth. Here I’ve used marshmallows as a topping, but you could add any combination of berries, fruit, nuts or coconut shavings. I reckon this mousse is the perfect end to a fun homemade pizza party with this buttery garlic and herb bread to start and everyone’s favourite pizza supreme as the main.