I haven’t had white mousse au chocolat for a while. Actually for way too long. Perhaps I’m the only person who prefers white over brown mousse au chocolate, at least no one I know sees it my way. It has probably to do with nostalgic feelings. The first time I tried white mousse au chocolat, it was part of an dessert composition, one, that truly deserved its classification. Growing up on the countryside of Bavaria meant growing up with a plethora of different cakes as dessert (Schwarzwälder Kirsch, apple tarts, and – in lack of a proper translation – Buchteln, Kirchweihkuchen, Kücheln). Way back, if you had visited a restaurant with your parents, you could choose from the usual suspects, namely vanilla ice cream with hot raspberries or mixed ice cream – that was pretty much it. Until we spent an evening at a cozy little Spanish place called “Casa Andalusia”.
Back then, the first thing that struck me was the fact, that the menu contained more than two types of dessert. Secondly, I really had no clue what I was looking at – I haven’t had any of those desserts on the menu before. My choice, however, was quickly made. Some sort of soaked coconut-biscuit (I’m a sucker for anything with coconut) arranged with brown and white mousse au chocolat and a variation of red berries. It was dessert heaven for an exited 12 year-old! Casa Andalusia sparked my love for desserts ever since… And especially for white mousse au chocolat!
I’ve tried different recipes over the past years, but wasn’t completely satisfied with the results. So when I came across Trish Deseine’s recipe (from the book “Verrückt nach Schokolade”/”I want chocolate!)”, I marked it with a post-it (a pink one, for Melissa…), but had forgotten about it. Just recently in search of a quick dessert, I stumbled over it again, this time taking the recipe under closer examination. Just two ingredients? No folding in of something “airy”? Hmm sounds almost too easy, well then…
Heat up the 100 ml cream, pour over the white chocolate (broken into pieces). Let the mixture dissolve over a bain-marie, blend well and chill the result for some hours (the original recipe says at least four hours). The original recipe proceeds with something like: Whip it again and serve. What? How is it supposed to get airy and light? The results was strange, good taste (quite sweet), but gooey. I have no idea, why this recipe is filed under the name “mousse”!?
Always trust your instincts – at least if you are a woman ;) I whipped an additional 100 ml of heavy cream and carefully folded it under the chilled chocolate-cream mixture. Chilled it again for some hours. The result was much better, very light and smooth with a wonderful taste, although it didn’t have the well-known mousse-texture with those tiny little air bubbles inside. I added some passion fruit, which turned out to be a perfect combination.
So I’m still on the search for the perfect white chocolate mousse recipe, though this one was great – taste wise and because of the passion fruit twist.
White Mousse Au Chocolat
Recipe source: Trish Deseine "Verrückt nach Schokolade", p.20, adapted
Required time: prep. 15 min., chilling ~6 hours
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Ingredients (serves 4):
200g white chocolate (high quality)
100g heavy cream
100g heavy cream, whipped
Jun 3rd,
2005
Pink post-it, hooray! I become more and more comfortable with my cookbook habits every day, thanks to you ;)
That mousse with passionfruit looks absolutely beautiful! If you're still looking for recipes to try, there's one in Alice Medrich's Bittersweet, which I haven't made but should be trustworthy. It uses white chocolate (9 oz), water (6 tablespoons - or half water half liquor), and cream (1 1/2 cups), and basically involves gently melting the water and chocolate together, cooling slightly, whipping the cream to very soft peaks, and folding the two together. Not too different, but maybe the water would give it a better texture...?