At some point in the pandemic I decided to make mousse. I can’t really remember what led to it. Maybe I had the whipping cream, a craving, and the itch to make something? Or was it because I’d recently argued with Mike again that mousse is way better than cake. I don’t know. 🤷🏻‍♀️
I ended up finding this relatively simple recipe by Strictly Delicious – I really like it in that there aren’t a ton of ingredients, and most things I generally have around anyway (I think when I looked for this recipe I was out of eggs, so this one is eggless).
I’ve ended up making some alterations to the recipe, so I’m including it here with my own comments (my comments are in purple). The biggest change I made was using a standing mixer along with a hand mixer the second time around – a hand mixer works, but I found I needed a lot more time and patience than the recipe called for to get the chocolate portion whipped properly.
Ingredients
- 1 cup chocolate chunks or chocolate chips (I used semi-sweet chocolate chips – but milk chocolate whips easier I think)
- 3/4 cup brewed earl grey tea
- 1/4-1/3 cup sugar (I used probably less than 1/4 cup honey instead)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup heavy cream or coconut cream (plus a little extra, just in case it’s difficult to whip the chocolate portion)
- pinch of sea salt
Directions
- Makeshift a double boiler by placing a large bowl over a medium pot with about 2 inches of water in it. The water should not touch the bottom of the bowl. If you have a standing mixer, use your mixer’s bowl for this/melting the chocolate.
- Heat the “double boiler” on medium-low heat and add the chocolate, earl grey tea, sugar, and vanilla to the bowl. I added the salt in here too, since it wasn’t mentioned anywhere else in the directions.
- Begin stirring slowly and evenly when the chocolate starts softening. Stir well until the chocolate is melted and smooth and the sugar has dissolved. Remove the pot from heat and the bowl from the pot.
- Place the chocolate-tea mixture in the refrigerator to cool for 10-15 minutes. Remove the bowl from the fridge. With a hand mixer, beat the chocolate-tea mixture for about 4-5 minutes until it lightens, doubles in size, and becomes a thick, smooth pudding. I found that this step takes a lot longer than 4-5 minutes, even with a standing mixer. I figured out the solution, if you’re having trouble getting the consistency to thicken, is to add a bit of whipping cream to the mixture (pretty sure that the darker the chocolate chips, the more whipping cream you’ll need to add).
I think it might help to chill the bowl after 4 minutes of whipping, and then whipping more again? The second time I made this (using the stand mixer) I iced the bottom of the bowl (literally by rubbing an ice cube on the bottom lol) and that seemed to help. Once the chocolate mixture reaches a thick consistency stop – I think it’s possible to over-whip this and make it runny again. - In a separate large bowl, beat the cream until stiff peaks form. You want these to be really stiff peaks, stiffer than the consistency of regular whipped cream (but not to the point of butter!!!). You should be able to scoop a tower of whipped cream that won’t fall. I did this with a hand mixer since it’s way easier than the chocolate, and so I wouldn’t have to clean out the standing mixer bowl to do it haha.
- With a rubber spatula, fold the whipped cream into the chocolate pudding mixture. Continue folding and mixing the two together until evenly blended and no white streaks remain. If you wanna get fancy, add a bit of orange zest while folding and it gives it an extra brightness.
- Serve garnished with crushed chocolate, fresh berries, and/or mint leaves if desired and enjoy! I find it best after letting it chill in the fridge before eating, but that could just be personal preference.