Chocolate Mousse- Information for grown ups

Safety Advice

• This recipe contains both eggs and dairy, two of the 14 most common allergens. Make sure to take dietary requirements into account when cooking. This recipe can be modified to be either egg free (although this is technically a ganache) or dairy free.
• In 2017 the Food Standards Agency updated its advice on egg consumption and no longer advises against the consumption of raw eggs, even by vulnerable groups, provided that they are produced under the British Lion scheme. Make sure to use eggs with the Lion mark, keep them in the fridge and use before the best-before date.
• Take care when using an electrical mixer, children can still participate in stirring and folding if you do not think this is safe for them.
• Take care while melting the chocolate as this will be hot.

Tips and Tricks

• Separating eggs is easier when they are cold as the white is less runny, however, egg whites whip easier when at room temperature.  Separate the eggs first and leave the whites to one side to come to temperature while you focus on the chocolate and the cream.
• Melting chocolate can either be done in 10 second bursts in the microwave or in a Bain Marie- a bowl over a saucepan of hot water. Take care when doing this with children as something is bound to be hot!
• Whipping cream- Take care not to over whip the cream or you will make butter.
• Whisking egg whites- there are 3 stages of whisking eggs; ribbon – minimal peaks which form when the whisk is taken out of the mixture but don’t hold their shape; soft peaks which hold their shape without dropping; and finally stiff peaks which look glossy, and hold their shape, even when being held upside down! Ideally don’t add the sugar until you have a ribbon.  Make sure not to over whip your eggs at the end or the proteins in the egg which hold all the air in will break leaving you with a watery liquid with foamy clumps floating on it!
• “The Chocolate mix suddenly became solid and grainy” – This phenomena know as “seizing” is cause either by overheating the chocolate or getting moisture in it,  while unusual, it’s a potential hazard if your cooking with children / distracted.  It usually happens early on – if you don’t want to start again gently melt the mix into warm cream in a pan, use just enough heat to melt it. (NB putting Whipped cream into a pan is likely to make is split – so don’t use that!).  Then fold in the whites as in the recipe.