Quick Chocolate Mousse

This rich mousse is really easy to make, and for the lover of rich, dark chocolate is a great pudding.

 

Chocolate, in Mousse form

 

Actually, for me this was a little rich.  We used a rich, dark chocolate which is mixed in with (single!) cream, some raw egg and some Marsala.  That is all that is in there – but somehow, it tastes richer than the chocolate that went in!  Very strange. The egg doesn’t contribute to the flavour – it just makes it set in the fridge – and somehow the cream doesn’t take the edge off.

I think dark chocolate lovers would like this a lot more than I did, and perhaps I’d prefer it with milk chocolate.  But I do appreciate that there is no gelatine in it!

Who made it: Anna

Recipe: “The daily cook book” by Love Food, February 24th.

Easter Nest Torte

There are five different uses of chocolate in this Torte, and Anna presented it so well that my feeble photography skills can’t cope.

Perfectly presented easter torte. I'd love to see the bird that made this nest!

There are only four types of chocolate visible here: mini eggs, flake, the chocolate border and the chocolate mousse.  The final one is a fairly thin layer of chocolate sponge, visible in the piece below.

Torte, open for the eating. The imperfections only appeared on the cutting.

This cake confuses me.  On the one hand, it looks amazing and everything in it tastes great individually.  For me the whole is a little less than the sum of its parts, which I think is because the mousse changes the texture of the chocolate on top and doesn’t taste very strong itself.  Now I should be clear here – it tastes really rather good.  Just not, in my opinion, as good as an ordinary chocolate sponge cake with chocolate icing and chocolate on top would have done.  Perhaps the vege-gel in the mousse is to blame, or perhaps the mousse should be made with a higher proportion of chocolate (though actually, that would be difficult…)

I can’t even begin to describe the recipe as Anna did all this when I was not here – you should have seen the silly grin on my face when I found this in the fridge!  It is moderately complicated but there are clever tricks to getting a professional finish without having to be artistic. Indeed, I would like to point out the great job Anna did with the chocolate collar, which holds the mousse in.  It was some of the most professional chocolateering to come out of our kitchen, rivalling the picture in the book for smoothness and crispness (although my photos do not rival the books… sorry!)

Who made it: All Anna’s handiwork!

Recipe:”Simply Cadbury’s Chocolate”, by Joanna Farrow, page 120.

Chocolate Pots

Chocolate Pots. That would be pots, filled with chocolate.

Dark chocolate, white chocolate and milk chocolate make for a chocolatey chocolateness

This recipe comes from  the “Co-operative magazine” which mysteriously appears every so often in the post.  In fact, this magazine has some exceptionally good recipes in; so good we thought “Mmm, lets write a blog about all this yummy food”.

This comes as a slight disappointment on the tail of the previous recipes from the co-op, which remain sadly unreviewed. The bottom layer is a creamy chocolate sauce, topped by white chocolate mousse, and a milk chocolate mousse.  These are all pretty tasty as you’d expect, but the overall effect is extremely sweet and it took me two tries to make it all the way though.

This is a shame, as the dessert would have made a perfect topping for a cake, or flavouring for smaller chocolates.  In general, I’ve found this sort of dessert a bit much, favouring instead cakes or baked puddings.  Perhaps I’m just a simple cake monster and should stick to what I know and love?

Who made it: Anna slaved over a hot stove and a whirring blender whilst Dan supervised by licking everything he could find.  Yes, everything.