The Everyman's Chocolate Mousse

The Everyman's Chocolate Mousse

*My brilliant baker friend Sarah loves to challenge herself by making Jefe-friendly desserts. This one is his favorite and I am always jealous cuz he won't ever share. It is super simple and has literally 3 ingredients, 2 of which are different forms of water. SO, this mousse is allergy AND vegan-friendly!


INGREDIENTS:

3/4 cup (6 oz.) water
8 oz. chocolate (70% recommended, but pick what you love)
ice cubes
whipped cream for topping *optional


DIRECTIONS:

1. Pour water into a saucepan *you can flavor it with orange juice or cassis puree if you want to get fancy. Over medium-low heat, whisk in the chocolate. The result is a homogenous sauce.

2. Put the saucepan in a bowl partly filled with ice cubes or pour into another bowl that is over the ice--it will chill faster. Then whisk the chocolate sauce by hand or with an electric mixer *if mixer, it will thicken faster, so watch out! Whisking creates large air bubbles in the sauce, which steadily thickens. After a while, strands of chocolate form inside the loops of the whisk. Pour or spoon immediately into ramekins, small bowls, or jars, and let set. Serve immediately or refrigerate


3 things can go wrong and here's how you fix them:

1. If your chocolate doesn't contain enough fat, melt the mixture again, add some chocolate, and then whisk it again.

2. If the mousse is not light enough, melt the mixture again, add some water, and whisk it once more.

3. If you whisk it too much so that it becomes grainy, this means the foam has turned into an emulsion. In that case, simply melt the mixture and whisk it again, adding nothing.

Pumpkin Panna Cotta

Happy Thanksgiving!  This year saw my first effort to contribute in the kitchen.  I dug into the archives for a recipe with some seasonal flavors - and definitely sounds much fancier than it actually is to put together:

Recipe

1/2 cup milk
1 envelope  gelatin
2 cups half-and-half
1 cup (half a can) pureed pumpkin
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 tsp cinnamon
chocolate for garnish (optional)

Combine the half-and-half, pumpkin, sugar, and cinnamon and mix (or blend) until it's very regular.  Meanwhile, put the milk in a large saucepan and sprinkle the gelatin on top.  Don't turn on the heat for about five minutes, then warm over low until the gelatin dissolves.  Then add the pumpkin mixture, cook over medium and stir until it steams.  Then pour into a dish (or individual dishes) and chill for a couple hours.  Once it's firm you can garnish with ground chocolate.

Outcome

For the hungry, sweet-toothed clan, I doubled everything.  The chocolate was my own addition to the recipe, for an extra texture and flavor (but also to distract from a little bit of a splotchy top).  We used an ounce of unsweetened baker's chocolate over the top.  The result wasn't too sugary, so you could potentially use something richer...

On its way to being fully consumed...