Recipe: Chocolate Mousse

On our first date, we had chocolate mousse for dessert. It has since become the dessert we place on a pedestal (except for the molten chocolate cake we had on our honeymoon, which still Strom longingly groans over. Don't tell him, but chocolate mousse is better. Much better). So, for this Valentine's Day (ahem, yesterday), I thought I would surprise him by making chocolate mousse for dessert!

Keep in mind I'm not a big dessert eater (though I could be - death by chocolate is how I'd like to go in the end!), so the thought of making something as fine-tuned as mousse sort of freaked me out a little. Nevertheless, I found a seemingly doable recipe from the dear Alton Brown (ya know, that Food Network guy that either you find amusingly pleasant, or sorta kinda scary...). And what seemed doable was in reality very doable! Yes, it was time consuming, but I promise it is worth it. This health nut ate way more than she should have and didn't feel guilty at all. Okay, maybe a little, but the pleasure outweighed the guilt, so I moved on. 

So, let me walk you through this process. It seems daunting from the recipe description:

Alton tells us to "chill the metal mixing bowl and beaters in the freezer." Done.

Then dear Alton tells us to combine the chocolate chips, espresso (or coffee) rum (I did vanilla extract instead) and butter in a double broiler. Well... I have the espresso, butter and chocolate chips part covered, but yikes, I never registered for that double broiler when I got married...

So what do you do?? Go ghetto style, that's what you do! And let me tell you, it works!! I pulled out my largest pot, filled it 90% of the way with water, boiled the water, then let it cool to a nice simmer. Brilliant me (no bragging whatsoever) placed the bowl inside the pot, like so:

And by George, it worked. Really well too. So then comes this weird "blooming" step. I confess, in all my years of loving to cook, I never heard the term "bloom" - Don't shoot me. I'm not even certain I bloomed it right, but it tasted incredible, so I don't care. 

Crazy Alton says to put the measuring cup over a candle (say what?) and heat it up that way. I had too much to do to hunt down a candle and stand over the open flame for the next hour, so I held the measuring cup over the still-warm water and did the swirly action. I don't know if that's acceptable, but hey, it worked for me. It didn't boil - and that's all the instruction I was given! So, I added the bloomy cream to my chocolate, whipped the cream, added the cream to the chocolate (I forgot about my camera at this point) and put it in cute little glasses, and set it to chill. 

When it came time to eat, it looked like this:

I know you want to give it a try. You're salivating as you stare at the cup of divine decadence. Do it.... It's not a fluffy mousse, I will warn you. It's a bit thicker. It's rich, but it is not too sweet. There is a difference in my book. It was delicious. Absolutely delicious. 

Bon Appétit!