Can’t be bothered chocolate mousse

I love making food to eat, there is no denying that. In particular, I love making desserts. I’m usually the one that will volunteer to bring over a dessert when invited over for lunch or dinner. This became a habit when, on one New Years Eve, I was over at a friend’s place having the usual Aussie BBQ dinner, we had all finished dinner and it became increasingly obvious that something was missing. We were all craving something sweet! I felt very hollow and incomplete without that little bit of something sweet to complete a meal. I thought “never again!”, my friends and I will never be left wanting for something sweet after a main meal. So now, I always volunteer to be the dessert person. As much as I do like making desserts, there are times when I’m not in the mood to make the effort. The good ol’ chocolate mousse is my fall-back dessert whenever I’m in that situation. I mean, everyone loves chocolate, right? Now that I’ve revealed my dirty little secret, my friends will know that if I bring over chocolate mousse, it’s because I can’t be bothered making anything else….Hmmmmm, this could be awkward. To make things a little more special, I add a small amount of liqueur. You can pretty much add any type of liqueur that goes with chocolate, for example Bailey’s Irish Cream, Kalua, Cointreau, Crème de Menthe – the list is endless. This recipe makes 6 to 8 serves, depending on how much you want to serve.

Can’t be bothered chocolate mousse
150g milk cooking chocolate
50g dark cooking chocolate
4 eggs, separated and at room temperature
300ml thickened cream, at room temperature
50ml Bailey’s Irish Cream (in Australia, you can get 50ml bottles of liqueur)

Place the chocolate in a heatproof dish over a saucepan of simmering water, ensuring that the bottom of the dish does not touch the water. Melt the chocolate, stirring occasionally until combined. Remove from heat and set aside for about 5 minutes to cool slightly.

Lightly beat the egg yolks and the Bailey’s together in a jug. Add the egg mixture to the melted chocolate and stir until combined. Don’t over stir the chocolate, as it can harden.

Put the cream into a bowl and whip it until it forms soft peaks and just clings onto your beater. Gently fold half of the cream into the chocolate until well combined. Then fold in the rest of the cream. It’s really important that the cream is at room temperature when you add it to the chocolate, otherwise it will harden the chocolate and your mousse will be grainy.

Put the egg whites into another clean bowl and whip it until it forms soft peaks that fold over itself when you pull the beater out. You don’t want stiff peaks because your mousse won’t be airy and fluffy. Gently fold half of the egg whites into the chocolate and cream mixture until well combined. Then fold in the rest of the egg whites.

Grab the containers that you are going to put the mousse in and use a ladle to gently spoon in the mousse. Whenever I make these to take over to someone’s house, I’ll use plastic wine cups. Presentation wise, they look nice and it saves on washing up later. Chuck the mousse into the fridge for 3 hours to set.

Note: I have made some amendments to the original recipe which I found in a magazine back in 2002. The original recipe used 180g of chocolate and only used one type of chocolate, i.e. milk or dark. I like to use a bit of both types of chocolate, because I find the taste of using all milk chocolate too sweet, and all dark chocolate too intense.

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