Creating Chocolate Mousse

After constantly eating and making cakes with simple chocolate icing, I decided to try to create a cake that had decadent chocolate mousse between the layers and chocolate gnache icing on the outside. As I finished, I realized that I made too much, so I decided to eat it plain. It tasted amazing and my entire family loved it. There were enough pudding qualities in it that it could be eaten plain and it could become hard enough so that it can be used in any cake.

Ingredients:

10 oz. bittersweet chocolate, high quality preferable
6 egg yolks
1 egg white
1/4 cup of water
1/3 cup of sugar
2 cups of heavy cream
Optional:
2 tsp. orange extract or 2 tbsp of Grand Marnier
Or
2 tsp. vanilla extract

Preparation:

First, you need to melt the chocolate in a double boiler set up or in the microwave. Meanwhile, in an electric mixer, beat the egg yolks and the egg whites together until color has faded and the mixture has thickened.

The next step is to create a simple syrup. Simple syrups are used in many desserts and are was to make. To map the syrup, heat the sugar and water on the stovetop in a small saucepan until it is 250˚ F. This will take awhile so try to make it at the same time as everything else. When it is done, it should resemble con syrup in consistency, BUT you cannot replace it with corn syrup because they are different and the syrup will be a little thinner.

Once it is done, remove the syrup from heat and then pour down the side of the beaten eggs while whipping them. Whip until the bowl is not hot but is still slightly warm on the outside. This will take around 4 minutes.

Then in an electric mixture in a new bowl, whip the heavy cream into medium peaks. That means that the peaks cannot stand up alone yet but they do not immediately fall over like a soft peak. Once it reaches that state, you can choose to fold in the optional extracts.

To complete, fold the egg mixture into the whipped cream. Then pour the chocolate mixture in and gently fold it in until the mixture is completely incorporated and homogenous.

If you want to put it on a cake, take the mousse out 2 hours ahead of time so it can be room temperature and so it will be easy to work with. If you want to eat it plain, it is better to leave it out about 30 minutes ahead of time or simply out of the refrigerator.