Baked Chocolate "Mousse"

This dessert is perfect for all chocolate lovers. While at my grandmother's house earlier this month she taught me how to make "mousse". However the outcome was nothing like your typical mousse. While her original recipe called for cooking all egg products my grandmother wanted to skip that part, so when it came down to eating this dessert it had 8 raw eggs in it. All of us grandchildren knew this couldn't be done and put them in the oven. Thankfully they came out wonderful and we now have a new and easy dessert.

Serving Size: about 6

Ingredients:

• 8 oz of semi-sweet chocolate (the exact amount is not necessary. I have used as little as 6 oz)
• 8 eggs
• 1 cup of sugar
• 1 tsp of salt

Tools:

• A small microwavable bowl (for the chocolate)
• Microwave
• A large bowl
• Fork/whisk
• Mixing Bowl
• Electric mixer

Before you start anything separate the eggs. Everyone has their own way of doing this, but I accomplish it by cracking the egg and carefully putting the egg whites in a small cup/bowl before dumping the egg yolk into the bowl. Then put the egg white into the other bowl and repeat with the next egg. This method ensures no egg yolks will be mixed in with the egg whites.

Put the egg whites into the mixing bowl and the egg yolks in the large bowl.

When you melt chocolate you can either double boil it or microwave it. In the summer I prefer microwaving so as not to heat up the house. Chop up the chocolate into small pieces and place 2/3 of it in the microwave safe bowl. Microwave this chocolate in 15 second intervals until it is melted, stirring between each. Then stir in the remaining of the chocolate, microwave another 15 seconds if needed.

Take your 8 egg yolks and beat them with a fork or a whisk (like you would when making scrambled eggs). Once they are thoroughly beat slowly add the sugar (1 cup). It is helpful to have two people doing this, one person stirring in the sugar and the other pouring.

Stir the melted chocolate into the egg yolk mixture. If it has harden any place it back in the microwave for a few seconds. Set this bowl aside.

Going back to the egg whites you separated out earlier, add the teaspoon of salt.

Now that the salt is in the egg whites take the electric mixer and beat the whites. As you beat the egg whites will slowly expand, becoming more opaque as well as thicker. Continue beating until they are stiff but not dry. They meet these requirements if, with a quick up drawing of the mixer, the whites stand up strong. The image above is and example of how they should appear.

Before you can cook and eat this chocolate goodness you have to combine the two mixtures you just finished making. To do this take about 1/4 of the egg white mixture and put in the chocolate mixture. Using a spatula or a similar tool fold the whites into the chocolate until the color is uniform. Then slowly fold in parts of the egg whites until there are none left. This step should result in one uniformly colored mixture such as the one in the last image above.

Clear a space in the refrigerator and put your mixture in it. Then let it sit for an hour or two before serving.

Dish out the mousse into the preferred oven safe containers. Then put them in the oven at 400° F for ~8 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow them to cool for a few minutes before eating.

When you take a bit of this delicious dessert the inside will still be creamy while the outside is a little harder. It is similar to a lava cake in this way. If you wish, top each bite with a squirt of whipped cream before letting your taste buds enjoy the decadent dessert.