Not Just a Man's World

Sometimes you need something special to serve up, either because you’ve got guests visiting who expect pudding (and wouldn’t be impressed with just a cheeseboard) or just because it’s a special occasion at home.

On investigating chocolate mousse recipes I found that they all had sugar, but did they really need it?  After all, we quite like the taste of 85% cocoa chocolate, so why would you need to add sugar to sweeten it?  Would the mousse come out with the wrong texture if you didn’t have that grainy sugar in the mix? 

Here’s the final recipe I settled on and it’s gone down well both times I’ve made it.

Paleo chocolate mousse

Ingredients:
200g dark chocolate (we use 85% or 90% cocoa)
4 fl oz warm water
3 eggs (separated)
1 tsp stevia (optional)
Pouring cream to serve (optional)

Directions:

1. Break the chocolate up into a large heatproof bowl and add the warm water.
2. Place the bowl over a saucepan of barely simmering water and be sure that the bowl doesn’t touch the water.  Keeping the heat low allow the chocolate to melt, which will take about 6 minutes.  If you leave it too long the chocolate will go grainy and dry, rather than into a smooth paste – if this happens beat the chocolate vigorously with a fork while adding a little warm water.  Continue this process and, if you are lucky, it will eventually turn back to a smooth paste!
3. While the chocolate is melting, beat the egg yolks in a bowl, adding the stevia to this if you are choosing to sweeten the mousse slightly.
4. Take the chocolate off the heat and leave to cool slightly for 2-3 minutes.
5. While the chocolate is cooling, whisk the egg whites in a clean bowl until they form soft peaks (if you over-beat the egg whites you’ll find the mousse is stiffer and airier, but you will also find it harder to fold into the chocolate so you may end up with small lumps of whipped egg white in your chocolate mousse).
6. Mix the beaten eggs yolks into the chocolate – you will see that the chocolate mix starts to thicken slightly.
7. Next, using a clean metal spoon to fold a tablespoon of the egg whites into the chocolate mix, using this to lift the chocolate away from the sides of the bowl.
8. Fold the rest of the egg whites into the bowl a little at a time, taking care not to lose the air out of the egg whites (this is what makes the mousse light and fluffy).
9. Spoon the mousse mix into your chosen serving dish or into small ramekin dishes.  Cover with cling film and leave it in the fridge to set for at least two hours before serving.

Variations:

• The second time I made this (on holiday), the only chocolate available was some 70% raspberry chocolate.  This actually tasted ok, if a little alcoholic (there was a half inch in the bottom of the bowl that wouldn’t set properly, so there probably was some alcohol in it).  It certainly went down well with everyone present.
• Try adding the zest of an orange to the egg yolks when you are beating them and replacing some of the warm water with the juice of an orange (depending on how much juice there is in the orange this may be more or less of the water) to make a chocolate orange mousse.
• Next summer I’m going to try crushing a couple of cups of raspberries into puree, pass this through a sieve to remove the pips, and then add coconut cream until it is the same quantity/consistency as the melted chocolate.  This could then be used instead of the chocolate to make a raspberry and coconut mousse – I’ll let you know what it is like when I’ve tried it.

Related posts:

1. Paleo kitchen experiments: carrot and orange cake
2. Paleo kitchen experiments – pumpkin soup and seeds
3. Paleo recipes: salmon mousse
4. Paleo recipes: banana bread