December 10th
2007
When I was little, there was one job I imagined to be the coolest of all and it had to do with my addiction of having to try every new chocolate or ice cream flavor available. I kept wondering about that person who would be in charge of coming up with all those great new flavors? Somebody with nothing else on the agenda but experimenting with chocolate day in and day out!
Today, looking at the shelves in our grocery stores gives me the impression that my former dream job - chocolate flavor creator - is more popular than ever, or how would one explain the incredible amount of new flavors popping up everywhere? And while new brands or flavors would have immediately triggered my pavlov reflex in the past, over time the letdowns accumulated. The Cheese-walnut-raisin-combo was quite a disappointment. Who would have thought? Right. Now I am back to more basic flavors.
Well until... I came about this recipe by pure coincidence. Albeit I tend to be a bit cautious about trying recipes from a source I yet haven't verified "culinary trustworthy", having had all the ingredients at hand, the risk seemed minimal. Clearly more on the skeptical end, I was quite intrigued by the chocolate & olive oil combo. And stepping on uncertain ground once more paid off, I was very positively surprised by the recipe's outcome. Wonderful silky mouth-feel, airy, but definitely not light - mind you, we just added olive oil AND eggs AND sugar AND whipped cream! My olive oil of choice was a delicate and mild one, with low acidity and a nutty note, which was the perfect counterpart, still perceivable in the chocolate mousse, but not overpowering.
Yet not everything about the recipe was gold: Let me quote some of the amazingly poorly written instructions: Brush the inside of four rings with melted chocolate, then chill. [...] Fill the chocolate into the rings and chill for 2 hours. Remove the rings, sprinkle with cocoa and serve on a plate.
First question, what kind of rings? What size? As I only own metal dessert rings I used those, but the "brush the inside with melted chocolate" gave me a headache and brought up question number two: how was I supposed to detach the rings from the chilled chocolate later on? How about lining the rings with stripes of parchment paper before brushing? Considering all the unknowns I only sacrificed one metal ring and filled the rest of the mousse into neat little bowls. Thank god. The miracle I was hoping for - of course - didn't happen, there is no way you can easily separate this mousse from a metal ring, NO WAY. What you get is a mess par excellence, what can I say, I should have known better... anyway, despite the great outcome, badly written recipes suck!
Slowly melt the chopped chocolate in a bain-marie while continuously stirring, then add the olive oil until evenly combined. Put aside and let cool slightly.
Beat the egg yolks and white sugar (50g) until the cream turns pale and thick.
In a separate bowl beat the egg whites and white sugar (50g) until stiff.
In another bowl whip heavy cream until stiff.
Take the bowl with the chocolate/olive oil mix and carefully fold in one after another: start with the creamy egg yolks, then the stiff egg whites and lastly the whipped cream. Fill in nice serving bowls, cover with cling film and chill in the fridge for at least 4 hours, better over night.
Chocolate mousse with olive oil
Recipe source: adapted from NZZ Format
Required time: prep. 15 min., chilling at least 4 hours
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Ingredients (serves 4 to 6):
200g dark chocolate
100g olive oil
3 egg yolks (large eggs)
3 egg whites(large eggs)
100g sugar
200ml heavy cream
I've heard of olive oil mousse and the surprisingly wonderful results it gives (your photos certainly indicate that it turned out a charm - other than the ring!), but I'm still not sure if I can dare to make it...maybe on a day when I feel daring enough :)
Brushing the rings with olive oil first before the chocolate might have helped remove the ring leaving the chocolate layer intact.
However I prefer your way with the little containers, thats how I used to always get mouse as a kid and seeing it any other way its just not right hahaha
I don't appreciate badly written recipes either. This mousse looks and sounds like a nice sweet treat.
I always wanted to try this, thanks for sharing! Your bowls are cute and very retro, love them!
Chocolate addict, I have already tested lots of Chocolate Mousse recepts : with or without cream, with or without sugar, with white chocolate, with orange marmelade, with caramel ...but I have never tried this Provence style one with Olive oil. Will be soon in my kitchen
I think i know what the original author intended to do with the rings: if you temper the chocolate couverture, it will shrink when chilled, thus become easily removable from the ring. To achieve this, you'll need a fairly thick layer of chocolate, very well tempered.
Where did you get those cute glass serving dishes?
I agree with Jop, same technique as in making truffle cases in molds. But this shoul have been explained more clearly in the recipe, the original is really badly written. I had nerving experiences with badly written recipes (from very famous chefs) too, it is always very disappointing! What % choc did you use, it still looks very "light" (in color!) for my taste, I know you like it that way, but I would like to try it with more %, I think!
I love chocolate mousse - I'd be curious to see how olive oil changes the consistency!
The mousse looks delicious. Do you really taste the olive oil or is it more for the consistency? What I like about this (your) recipe is that you only need a few ingredients, instead of lots and lots of exotic ones. A couple of recipes that I found online asked for gelatin, I´m glad your version looks perfect without it!
I totally understand. I'm always irked by badly-written recipes too. It's irritating to feel unsure of what to do (and worse when you KNOW it's not going to work, but you don't know how or why, exactly). I love the idea of olive oil mousse! I really hope the olive oil flavour is noticeable.
Those glass bowls are so cute. Who needs a cake ring? I'll definitely try this recipe. Brushing every other column of those glass bowls with white chocolate might add some more fun too. And who can say no to more chocolate, right? Amazing photos as always...
Chocolate mousse with olive oil? now that's exquisite! I'll have to give it a try, as I force olive oil into every recipe that calls for any kind of fat. I'm thinking the olive oil you choose is very important - I have just the perfect one (0,4 acidity) for this recipe.
I'd like to stick my spoon into this mousse! Please comment on the taste of the olive oil - can you really tell it's there or does it just change the texture? I'm very much interested:)
I hate poorly written recipes, too - and unfortunately the classic recipes here in Brazil, the ones that have been around since my grandmother's childhood, are just like that. :(
I like the idea of using olive oil in desserts - my favorite macaron at Pierre Herme was the vanilla/olive oil one!
Mutig, an diese Zotter habe ich mich bisher nicht rangetraut. Schokolade mit Olivenöl klingt ziemlich ungewöhnlich, aber wenn Eiscreme mit Oivenöl schmeckt, warum nicht auch das?
Looks like a bad translation to me. How can it be 'aus Olivenöl'? The original says nothing about rings!
http://www.cuochintesta.it/CHEF/per-curiosi-ricetta.cfm?id_ricetta=52
It's annoying that many recipe writers don't pay attention to details, I especially hate it, when they forget to mention all the ingredients in the steps.
Chocolate and olive oil is new to me, but your description is very tempting!
Like some of the other comments above, I too think it had to do with tempering the chocolate.
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And if it was me, I would have thinly chocolate coated cut-to-size clear acetate sheets wrapped/ stuck inside the metal ring, and then pour the mousse in. - When the chocolate solidifies, and you demold, you'd get a lovely & very thin chocolate exterior that snaps when you cut in to it with your spoon. A great combination with soft mousse.I made a similar dessert when I was working in the hotel kitchen.
@ MM: But this one (same cook, same recipe except for the fruits) does say rings and it is as un-precise as the german version! He is a professional cook and I guess therefore omits such details!
Hi everyone ! I just want to post my two cents about "the bad recipe thing", I'm a foodwriter myself and I always try to write the recipe as such that it's readable, that the outcome (thus the result) looks exactly like the pictured dish and above all that it's doable... that's because I write recipes for foodies just like you, when I need to write a recipe for a professional chef I can write it (the recipe) down in a couple of words and that chef will now exactly what to do with it... Just to say that a great chef isn't always a great writer, most chefs (yes, especially the famous ones) just "over estimate" the cooking capacities of the reader, they usually treat the reader as a sort of equal to themselves... more or less... which is understandable since they spend pretty much their entire life in a kitchen very un-like most of "your" kitchens ;-)... so it's fair to say that a lot of recipes from those professional chefs are not quite doable for the average cook at home, because they're often not intended for household cooking first of all, and second, don't blame them so rapidly, it's not that they don't want "their little secrets" exposed, they do want to share them but like I said, being a great chef doesn't always mean being a great writer...
So... to get to the point... be grateful, (be very grateful) that you have wonderful people like Nicky to just get in there and get it right for you :-)
Oh yes, one more thing ;-) cooking is ALL about feeling and passion so if you find a recipe that's not quite right, but you like the idea, just go with your gut feeling and make it delicious !
Keep up the cooking! Philippe
oh i bet this would be delicious. the texture looks so yummy!
Hmmm... Hört sich extrem interessant an und oft sind es ja die ungewöhnlichen Kombinationen die am Ende am besten schmecken ;) Das Mousse sieht locker-leicht aus, werde mal das Rezept ausprobieren.
They should`ve written to put a an acitate stripe inside of the ring, then it would work! Ahhh, sometimes I think they're writing like that on purpose, they are, I'm telling you..
Das Rezept in der NZZ ist eine verkürzte Version des Originals von Martin Dalsass. Wenn man flüssige Schokolade auf Plasticstreifen aufstreicht, diese dann in die Ringe stellt, kann man die Mousse einfüllen und nach dem Entfernen der Ringe den Plastic-streifen problemlos wieder abziehen. Siehe hier
We had a dessert with salted olive oil mousse on our menu until recently and it was pretty good. Before anyone says yuck! (or shortly after) we used Fleur de Sel, and you can always experiment with other salts (I have a Hibiscus Forl de Sal in my cabinet) and fruity olive oils. I also agree with you about poor directions. Even now I find recipes that make me think, hey, that isn't going to work.
w., Shortly I thought about fetching my blowtorch, but then I wanted a solid chocolate coating, not a melted one ;)
Jop, Right. But I don't think that all the readers of NZZ are familiar with the method... so why not write it down with all the details to help everybody to achieve a good result?
At one of my favorite shops in Munich, Hornberger
Hande, Of course I cannot fool you ;) I used a mix of Zartbitter by Lindt ( 52%) and Hachez Edel-Bitter 60% (remember this one?). Perfect for me, but probably not dark enough for you ;)
Audrey, Evelin, For me it was more a flavor thing then an enhanced consistency of the mousse, which I found to be a little more "oily", but not in a negative way (I plan on serving it to my parents without telling them about the olive oil, let's see, if they can tell). All in all I was very happy about the outcome, the gelatin wasn't missing at all :)
Hanne, I think is depends on the olive oil used. A mild one (like I used) and the flavor is barely noticeable, you can always go for a stronger one with more acidity the next time. I had guest over to try it and while some couldn't even recognize the olive oil, another person didn't like the new note.
Tamami, I'm positive this would work like a charm, but I usually like to play it safe and additionally line the rings with parchment paper stripes.
Philippe, Thank you very much for your feedback, very much to the point. Just like you said, usually I go with my own gut feel. Sometimes, however, I'm not quite sure, if I'm missing out on a sensational new method twist, because I back off and do it my very own way. Well, this time I had to pay the price ;)
Tea, Maybe you're right, I can almost imagine them sitting in front of their computers, going "hihihi" and "did you see her disappointed face?"
Lamiacucina, Ich nehme dafür üblicherweise Backpapierstreifen mit Briefklammer, aber in diesem Fall hab ich mich einfach wider besseren Wissens an den Wortlaut des Rezepts gehalten - so wie's wohl der Durchschnittsleser macht - und vergeblich auf den Aha-Effekt gewartet. Das ist es auch, was mich ärgert, warum bietet man ein doch eher anspruchsvolles Rezept (zumindest von der handwerklichen Ausführung her) in solch verstümmelter Fassung an? Am Platzmangel kann's ja nicht gelegen haben ;)
Mochene, Adding salt definitely takes it to the next level, have to try it in the future!
[...] Chocolate Mousse with Olive Oil Adapted from delicious:days [...]
Chocolate and olive oil, that's adventurous! One of my favorite restaurants sells a dessert with olive oil ice cream and it's not that bad. Maybe I should giv the mousse a try.
i'll help Jop a bit ;-)
tempering with callets;
http://www.callebaut.com/en/2605
or
Tempering on a cool (marble) work surface
http://www.callebaut.com/en/2603
or
Tempering in the microwave
http://www.callebaut.com/en/2604
combinations are possible, but be sure that you first make the chocolate more hot than needed
[...] when I stumbled upon a recipe for Chocolate M-o-o-usse with Olive Oil over at Delicious Days, I was about to move on… but then thought, “Hmm… if it tastes more like olive oil [...]
When in dought, I always use parchment paper to coat the inside of the ring. Chill, slide it out, and peal the paper off the chocolate coating. I love Chocolate m-o-o-usse. Thanks for sharing.
I've tried making this mousse right now - it's in the fridge, so I wonder what it will be like when it comes out. I added a little Baileys.
ebay has these depression era art deco food saver dishes. i've only seen green, though.
http://search.ebay.com/search/search.dll?from=R40&_trksid=m37&satitle=glass+food+saver
If you were gonna use the ring method, they probably called for melted chocolate to be brushed so it can be used as the "lubricant" - just heat the outsides of the ring (with a blowtorch or something) briefly to re-melt the chocolate and it should slide out.
Though yes, I would have been rather annoyed that they didn't specify the number nor size of rings.