Chocolate mousse

A very old fashioned dessert but nobody refuses this absolutely delicious chocolate mousse! Actually it might be the dessert İ make most, and not for the last reason that it is also Lara’s favorite dessert!

For serving; serve in separate cups, or on a plate with some good vanilla ice cream, or just some self made chocolate sauce!

For 4 large portions you need:

You do need a hand mixer for this recipe!

200 grams dark chocolate (İ use half 54% and half 70% chocolate to just get the right darkness, not too sweet, not too dry)

1/2 table spoon butter

1 dl strong coffee

3 egg whites

2 egg yolks

1 dl cream

2 table spoons of sugar

 

Melt the chocolate au bain marie, by breaking the chocolate roughly is smaller bit, put it is a bowl and place the bowl in a  pan with very hot water (can be slightly boiling)

İ add 2 table spoons boiling water from the pan with the chocolate, add the butter and the coffee and whisk until you have a smooth creamy chocolate mixture.

Split the eggs in 2 separate bowls. And also prepare the cream in a separate bowl

First whisk the egg white really stiff, then İ whisk the cream stiff too and the last one are the egg yolks with the sugar. Whisk them until you get a nice, fluffy mixture. İf you do it in this order, you do not need to clean the whisks in between the jobs.

Then, this also has to be done in the right order to get a good and airy pudding:

Mix the egg yolk mixture with the melted smooth chocolate (a little bit cooled down since you did the other whisking work). Mix in a part of the stiff egg whites (like a full table spoon), whisk it is airy, no more with the mixer.

Then in a big bowl, first the stiff egg whites, then on that the cream and at last the chocolate mixture.

Mix this all together gently, airy but that it is all well mixed.

Place in the fridge to cool down and set.

You will enjoy this…. a lot!

 

 

 

Panna Cotta with apricot coulis

A normal Panna Cotta almost turns me into a criminal, serving something so full fat. So İ adapted the pudding to a lighter version.

For 4 big portions you need:

for the pudding

  • 2,5 dl cream
  • 2,5 dl milk
  • 50 grams of sugar
  • 4 gelatine leaves
  • lemon zest of half a lemon

for the coulis

  • 4 fresh apricots
  • 1 lemon juice
  • 2 tablespoons of sugar

 

Slowly bring the milk with cream to the boil, add the sugar and let it simmer for about 10 minutes. Switch off the heat. Soak  the gelatine leaves in cold water (if you use hot water you will not find them again!)

Then stir in the soaked gelatine leaves (check that they are soft) and allow the panna cotta to cool down a bit  before dividing it over the glass cups. İn the meantime grease the bottom of the glass cups lightly with olive oil so they will release easier. And keep whisking lightly every now and then until the mixture is a bit cooler.

Then divide over the cups and store in the fridge to cool down.

Take them out just before serving. Cut along the sides of the cup with a sharp thin knife or hold them shortly in hot water before turning them over on a plate. İ prefer the first because İ don’t want to get messy with the hot water on the plates.

Serve it with a apricot coulis, all you need to do is 4 fresh apricots in the blender, with one lemon juiced, and 2 tablespoons of sugar and blend it shortly until you have a nice coulis.

 

Of course you can make a coulis of other fresh fruits like strawberries or raspberries!