French Chocolate Mousse (Mousse Au Chocolat)

Chocolate mousse is one of my favorite desserts, as this creamy and tasty sweet course is really easy to do and requires very basic ingredients. It's also versatile, as it can be used either as a standalone dessert or as a filling or as a topping for a cake.

So without any further ado, let's make some French chocolate mousse!

150 grams of dark chocolate

280 ml of heavy cream

35 g of sugar

35 ml of water

4 egg yolks

To melt the chocolate, we are going to do something called a bain-marie.

It consists of placing the ingredients you wish to melt inside a metal recipient, which is itself placed on top of a pot or saucepan with just a bit of boiling water at the bottom of it. That way, the temperature inside the top recipient will rise very slowly and never exceed 140°F - preventing the chocolate from scorching because of the intense heat of the stove.

Now, two things you need to pay attention to:

• Verify that the top recipient sits in the air and isn't in contact with the base of the saucepan or the temperature could go too high.
• Make sure that there's no water getting into the chocolate, as that will seize it. A simple method to make sure that everything goes well is to use a bowl that is bigger than the opening of the saucepan - that way there won't be any droplets making their way into the melted chocolate.

Use a mixer to whip the cream until there are firm peaks forming on top.

Beat the egg yolks until foamy.

Mix the sugar and the water in a saucepan and bring to a boil, while stirring constantly.

Then, add that syrup to the egg yolks while the mixer is working.

This step serves two purposes:

• It adds sweetness to the mousse
• Most importantly, it pasteurizes the eggs and eliminates the potential Salmonella bacteria that could have made their way into our work-in-progress masterpiece.

Now that all the preparation is done, it's time to bring everything together:

Start by folding the chocolate into the egg yolks using a spatula. Then, add the whipped cream and slowly fold it into the mixture. Don't rush, or you will have a chocolate soup instead of a chocolate mousse.

Scoop the mousse into individual glasses and place in the fridge until the mousse turns firm.

For the serving, I like to add some berries on top of the mousse to balance the strong taste of the dark chocolate. Raspberries and strawberries work the best.

Enjoy!