{"id":152,"date":"2011-10-10T12:54:06","date_gmt":"2011-10-10T11:54:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ginnyang.com\/?p=152"},"modified":"2012-12-13T16:44:05","modified_gmt":"2012-12-13T16:44:05","slug":"southern-comfort-chocolate-mousse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ginnyang.com\/?p=152","title":{"rendered":"Southern Comfort Chocolate Mousse"},"content":{"rendered":"

I love dessert, but neither Italian or Chinese cuisine are really big on it.\u00a0 Italian is about big, simple dishes that should fill you.\u00a0 Most Italian meals consist of an antipasti course, then a pasta course and finally a meat course… not much room left for a dessert.\u00a0 The Chinese don’t really do sweet courses, most desserts are savoury.\u00a0 So it’s fairly rare that I get the chance to do a dessert.\u00a0 When you are cooking for two anything you buy in the supermarkets will be more than enough to fill you and it’s hard to find the time to make a dessert through the week – when you are already looking to make a quick dinner.<\/p>\n

That said, when I do get to make a dessert I try to make the most of it.\u00a0 So when I need a good dessert, I usually turn to the French.\u00a0 Apple Torte, Creme Brulee, Choux Pastries, Crepes, Mousse – there’s a lot of choice.\u00a0 I’m going to keep it simple with a Chocolate Mousse!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Ingredients (Serves 4):<\/strong><\/p>\n

220g Dark Chocolate (70-85% Cocoa Solids) + Extra for shaving<\/p>\n

5 Large free range Eggs<\/p>\n

125g Caster Sugar<\/p>\n

300ml Double Cream<\/p>\n

4 Tbsp Southern Comfort<\/p>\n

Sea Salt<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Method:<\/strong><\/p>\n

1.\u00a0 First, heat a small saucepan with water and bring it to the boil.<\/p>\n

2.\u00a0 Break the Dark Chocolate into equal chunks and place in a glass (or other heatproof) bowl with a pinch of sea salt and suspend over the boiling water – ensuring that it does not touch the water.\u00a0 Allow the chocolate to melt, stirring occasionally.<\/p>\n

3.\u00a0 Separate the egg yolks and whites into two bowls (bigger one for the whites).\u00a0 Try to make sure the bowls are dry and that no egg yolk gets in the bowl of whites.<\/p>\n

4.\u00a0 Lightly beat the egg yolks with 75g of the Caster Sugar and the Southern Comfort, until it has all combined.<\/p>\n

5.\u00a0 Beat the egg whites until the soft peak stage.\u00a0 Add a little salt at the start to help and try to whip in as much air as possible.\u00a0 Stop once the whites form peaks when you pull out the whisk but they fall over.<\/p>\n

6.\u00a0 Once the chocolate has all melted and allowed to cool for a minute or two, add up to 200ml of lightly whipped cream.\u00a0 Then stir in the egg yolk mixture. You want a fairly creamy yet slightly heavy mixture.<\/p>\n

7.\u00a0 Next add the chocolate mixture into the egg whites and fold until it has completely mixed.\u00a0 Don’t stir this mixture as it will “squash” the air bubbles out of the egg whites and make for a very heavy mousse.<\/p>\n

8.\u00a0 Divide the mixture into 4 ramekins and allow to set in the fridge for at least two hours.<\/p>\n

9.\u00a0 Before serving, whip the remaining 100ml\u00a0of double cream (plus whatever you didn’t mix into the chocolate) with 50g of Caster Sugar.\u00a0 Spread over the mousse and sprinkle with some dark chocolate shavings.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Tips:<\/strong><\/p>\n

You can add a little acid to the egg whites as you are beating them when they start to foam.\u00a0 Cream of Tartar or a few drops of Lemon Juice are all you need, that will help stabilise the egg whites so when you stop beating them they don’t return to a liquid.\u00a0 However if you do it all quickly enough it won’t be required.<\/p>\n

I beat the egg whites by hand – it takes longer but it means I know exactly when to stop and I feel I can get more air in the mix than I can by just using a mixing bowl.\u00a0 If you over beat the egg whites they will start to break down and you will have to start again.<\/p>\n

You can beat the egg whites until stiff enough to hold over your head without them falling out, but you don’t need to go that far as you’re not making a meringue.\u00a0 That is also why I don’t add the Caster Sugar to the egg whites but the egg yolks.\u00a0 However it doesn’t make a big difference if you want to add the sugar to the whites you can, it will make them glossy.<\/p>\n

You can use any liqueur you want… Amaretto and Cointreau are common choices.<\/p>\n

You can switch the 200ml\u00a0of lightly whipped cream for about 100ml\u00a0of water.\u00a0 This won’t be as rich.\u00a0 You can also miss this out altogether but it will make for a very heavy mousse.<\/p>\n

Use a peeler on the dark chocolate to get long curly chocolate shavings.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I love dessert, but neither Italian or Chinese cuisine are really big on it.\u00a0 Italian is about big, simple dishes that should fill you.\u00a0 Most Italian meals consist of an antipasti course, then a pasta course and finally a meat course… not much room left for a dessert.\u00a0 The Chinese don’t really do sweet courses, most desserts are savoury.\u00a0 So it’s fairly rare that I get the chance to do a dessert.\u00a0 When you are[…]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":156,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[23,34,5,19],"tags":[35,45],"class_list":["post-152","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dessert","category-gluten","category-recipes","category-west","tag-chocolate","tag-sweet"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/ginnyang.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/IMAG0315.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1PTCG-2s","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ginnyang.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ginnyang.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ginnyang.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ginnyang.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ginnyang.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=152"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/ginnyang.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":824,"href":"https:\/\/ginnyang.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152\/revisions\/824"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ginnyang.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/156"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ginnyang.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=152"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ginnyang.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=152"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ginnyang.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=152"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}