Hed Chef: Satisfy your sweet tooth with chocolate mousse trifle
Learn the art of compromise with this boozy chocolate mousse recipe. This year, I turned to the ready-to-use cake mix from Betty Crocker. I added two tablespoons of Cointreau to the cake mix for extra flavour.
The chocolate mousse recipe is adapted from a Belgian friend's recipe and combined with the recipe from the eighth edition of The Professional Chef by The Culinary Institute of America. My friend's recipe does not contain cream, but I find whipped cream lends a smoother texture to the mousse.
Add a dash of colour with fresh raspberries, blackberries, mint, store-bought whipped cream, and use a vegetable peeler to shave chocolate as a topping. Best to consume the chocolate mousse the next day.
INGREDIENTS
- 300g dark couverture chocolate
- 40g unsalted butter
- 6 tbs (90ml) Cointreau
- 6 tbs (90ml) rum
- 5 egg yolks (from 65g eggs)
- 60g sugar
- 1/3 tsp salt
- 6 egg whites
- 150ml whipping cream
- 180g devil's food chocolate cake, cut into (6cm x 6cm x 1.5cm) pieces
- 10 glass jars (7 ounces or 207ml each)
METHOD
1. Heat a saucepan with water 3cm deep. Keep the heat on low, as the water should be simmering, barely boiling. Over the saucepan, place a metal bowl with the chocolate and butter. Stir to make sure the chocolate is melted evenly. Once the chocolate is melted, turn off the heat and set it aside to cool to room temperature.
2. Add 1 tablespoon of the Cointreau and rum each to the chocolate mixture and stir. Set aside.
3. Place egg yolks in a dry mixing bowl and beat for 30 seconds. Add sugar. Continue beating until the mixture is pale yellow.
4. Add the chocolate mixture into the beaten egg yolks. Add the salt and stir through. Set aside.
5. Place egg whites in a dry mixing bowl. Whisk the egg whites into soft peaks.
6. Pour the whipping cream into a dry mixing bowl. Whisk at low speed for a minute, then increase the speed. Whisk until soft peaks form.
7. Fold the egg whites into the chocolate mixture.
8. Fold the cream into the chocolate mixture.
9. Place remaining Cointreau and rum in a deep dish.
10. To assemble each trifle, dip a piece of chocolate cake in the alcohol mixture and place it at the base of a glass jar.
11. Spoon 1½ tablespoons of the chocolate mousse into the jar. Place another piece of alcohol-dipped chocolate cake into the jar and cover with more chocolate mousse, leaving an allowance of 1.5cm so that the mousse does not touch the jar cover.
12. Seal the jar and refrigerate overnight. Do the same for the other jars.
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