So many mousses...

1 day before great Christmas Party 2009, I had 3 meringues to make as part of:

1. A double batch of Bittersweet Frozen Chocolate Truffle Mousse Cookies
2. A lemon mousse cake
3. The outer layer of the baked frozen Buche de Noel.

I was a little nervous.

First the Bittersweet Chocolate Truffle Mousse.

I can't remember the last time I ate a truffle, one you buy at a gourmet chocolate shop. So when I discovered Ricemilk Chocolate bars that came in a dark truffle variety I think I cried from joy. Well, that or called my also lactose-intolerant mother to share the good news. Christmas present shopping has been easier ever since.

This bittersweet chocolate truffle mousse recipe actually only calls for bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, of which you can find many varieties without dairy, but for pure truffle decadence, you have to try this ricemilk chocolate bar from Terra Nostra Organic for baking. You can google it. I've advertised for them enough now.

Gelatin
eggs, separated
cocoa
sugar
milk
4 oz dark chocolate truffle bar, chopped fine
vanilla
cream of tartar

I've already given this recipe in a previous post, but basically you use the egg yolks to make a thick mixture of the sugar, cocoa and milk in a saucepan that you pour over the chopped chocolate, gelatin and vanilla, and leave to cool in an ice bath.

Then you make the meringue. I figured it would actually be easier to make the needed double recipe since the egg whites wouldn't cook as quickly...or I'd end up with twice as many scrambled egg whites. I even managed to separate 4 eggs so no yolk got into my whites and caused them to lose volume when I beat them. I had my thermometre ready in a very, very hot mug of water near the frying pan/double boiler and had assistance in keeping the stirring going while checking with the thermometre after 1 minute to see if the whites had reached the safe temperature of 160 Fahrenheit. I had gotten a hot mat ready in advance for the bowl which came out of the frying pan quickly, and the beaters were plugged in and conveniently placed next to the mat to start beating immediately. I don't know if this is all paranoia but it certainly seems like you can't leave your egg whites to sit and wait while you plug things in and set things up. They will revolt and either cook or refuse to expand. So I immediately beat them until cool and stiff, checking with the beaters by turning them off and lifting them out of the bowl to see if the meringue stuck up like stalagmites and stayed in place. They stayed.

Then I folded. Some chocolate on top of egg, then egg back on chocolate. Then it froze. The nice thing about this chocolate mousse is by freezing it the mousse tastes richer and it doesn't need to be as fluffy as, say, a lemon mousse. It won't taste like chocolate pillows of air, but it needed to be made correctly so it didn't just melt and ooze out of the chocolate cookie sandwiches I was going to put it in. The picture above is of the cookies set out as sandwich layers and a bowl of chocolate mousse from which party guests could fill them. Make-your-own frozen chocolate mousse sandwiches...A bit messy if the mousse gets oozy, but so, so delicious...This was about 3 hours into the party and the mousse had mutinied by then, BUT for a good hour the frozen mousse held its shape.

I'll call it a success. Baby steps in the right direction...ever toward mousse.