French
Chocolate Mousse
Classic French chocolate mousse: Valrhona Guanaja 70% chocolate, egg yolks, stiffly beaten egg whites, no cream. The texture should be dense and intensely chocolatey, not light and airy like a mousse made with whipped cream. The chocolate content makes every other mousse a pale comparison. This is the mousse Escoffier made — adult, dark, unapologetic.
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I
The Market List
The benchmark for each ingredient, and who stocks it near you. Tap a stockist to go straight to the product.
200 g
dark chocolate
70% cacao, chopped
Your own market
60 ml
heavy cream
cold
Your own market
60 ml
whole milk
Your own market
4
large egg yolks
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30 g
caster sugar
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300 ml
heavy cream
chilled
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5 ml
cognac or vanilla extract
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2 g
fine sea salt
Your own market
II
The Method
1
Heat 60 ml cream and milk in saucepan until steaming; pour over chocolate in bowl; let sit 1 minute then whisk until smooth and glossy.
From the canon — Steaming cooks food using the latent heat energy carried by water vapour at 100°C. Steaming →
2
Whisk egg yolks with sugar in heatproof bowl set over simmering water, whisking constantly, until pale ribbon forms (5 minutes); yolks should reach 60°C.
3
Fold warm chocolate mixture into egg yolks gently; add cognac and salt; cool to room temperature, stirring occasionally (15 minutes).
4
Whip 300 ml cold cream to soft peaks; fold into chocolate mixture in two additions until no white streaks remain.
5
Divide into serving glasses or bowls; refrigerate minimum 3 hours.
6
Garnish with cocoa powder, candied orange peel, or chilled whipped cream before service.
From the canon — Whipped cream begins with heavy cream at 35-40% butterfat, chilled to 4°C/39°F or below — the fat must be cold and solid for the network of air bubbles to hold. Whipped Cream — Soft Peaks to Stiff Peaks →
IV
Sensory Tests
◇Where it lives or dies. The moment where chocolate mousse lives or dies is the chocolate temperature when the yolks are folded in — the chocolate must be warm (45-50C) when the yolks are incorporated; cool chocolate seizes around the yolks rather than absorbing them. Then the chocolate-yolk mixture must cool to 35C before the egg whites are folded in — folding whites into a hot chocolate mixture cooks them and collapses the foam instantly.
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VI
What to Pour
The pairing
Mugnier Musigny Grand Cru
Domaine J.-F. Mugnier · Chambolle-Musigny
Not yet stocked in British Columbia
Wine
From British Columbia
Wine
Without alcohol
GT's Synergy Organic Kombucha — Gingerade
Not yet stocked in British Columbia
Non-alcoholic
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The whole pairingPillar VII
Origin and lineage are part of membership.
Where the dish comes from and how it came to be — on every recipe.
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