Craving chocolate to unwind after a long work week or just to give yourself something sweet is only natural. Pretty much the entire population knows and agrees that the only thing to do when you’re feeling blue is pop some chocolate into your mouth. But when you’re out of chocolate ice cream and don’t want to run to the store for another tub, you can make yourself an equally decadent treat with chocolate mousse. Sit back and relax after a particularly hard day with this dessert you’ll return to over and over again.
Chocolate Mousse Recipe
What You’ll Need
- 4 egg yolks
- 1/4 cup of sugar
- 2 cups of heavy cream
- 8 oz of chopped semisweet chocolate
- 2 teaspoons of vanilla
Steps
- Fill a saucepan with water and bring to a simmer. Stick the chocolate in a heat-proof bowl and place over the saucepan; make sure the bottom of your bowl isn’t touching the pan. Stir the chocolate until it melts. Be careful to not get any water in the chocolate, as it will solidify and become hard as a rock.
- In a separate bowl, stir the egg yolks, sugar, and vanilla for 2-3 minutes or until the mixture becomes thick and pale.
- Once the chocolate melts remove the bowl from the heat and allow to cool for a bit. Once it’s slightly cooled, add it to the yolk and sugar mixture and stir everything until combined.
- In a separate bowl, whip the cream until it becomes thick.
- Fold the thickened cream into the chocolate, egg yolk, and sugar mixture, careful not to over-stir or else the mousse will lose its thickness.
- Split the mousse into 8 cups and refrigerate for 1-2 hours.
- After 1-2 hours, serve with whipped cream or chocolate chips on top.
Additional Ingredients
If semisweet chocolate isn’t your jam you can use equal amounts of bittersweet or dark. The taste will change depending on the chocolate you use, but that doesn’t mean your end product will suffer because of it. It all really boils down to whichever chocolate you’d like to indulge in more. (There’s also the added bonus of dark chocolate being a bitter food with multiple benefits.) If you don’t have any chocolate lying around the house that you can use, you can also melt one package of chocolate chips as well! If you feel like getting a boozy flavor, added a citrus liqueur to the egg mixture to give your mousse even more dimensions of flavor.
You can switch up the garnish with just about any dessert and this dish is no exception. You can add a scoop of whipped cream or chocolate chips but you’re just as welcome to use fruit, chocolate shavings, or cocoa powder.
The next time you’re craving chocolate but wondering which form you should have it in, look into making yourself some chocolate mousse. The recipe won’t take you very much time and you get an entire cup of chocolate, which is pretty much all we can ask for in life!
