chocolate mousse

You might have guessed from the lack of sweetness on my blog. It's time I come out and tell you... I'm not much of a dessert person. There. I said it. Sorry to disappoint you.  I do enjoy the occasional decadence but to be really honest, baking intimidates me.

I recently took a cooking class at a local restaurant and learned how to "whip" up this fabulous, light, fluffy, perfect amount of sweet treat. AND I love making things with very few ingredients. How hard can it be to throw some eggs, cream and chocolate together?

{just a bit}

Get this...

6 eggs

1 bag of dark chocolate chips

heavy cream

2 tsp of salt

Begin by melting the chocolate chips over a double boiler.

{I've actually never used a double boiler and don't own one, so I jimmy-rigged a metal bowl over my pasta boiler colander pot set. You can now refer to me as McGyver Ray}

Once fully melted, remove from heat and let cool slightly.

while that's working it's magic...

separate the eggs, yolks in one bowl, whites in another.

{This is the difficult part, at least it was for me} 

It doesn't matter which order you do the next three steps in. In fact I'm not sure if I did them in the following order. Just do each separately. You'll combine them all at the end.

If you have an electric hand mixer or the amazing kitchen aid mixer whisk the heavy cream until forms small peaks as pictured here...

{or better yet, if you have Popeye-esque forearms you can whisk by hand for about 20 minutes} 

   

   

Next whisk the egg yolk until canary yellow.

{about 2 minutes on medium speed}

Return to separate bowl.

Finally, whisk the egg whites until light and airy but not quite to the meringue stage.

{I could have done this a bit more, but hey it's my first time. Get off my back! Geesh}

Add salt to whites while mixing.

This next step happens really fast, so I didn't get a pic...

Add about a third of the melted chocolate to the egg yolks, whisk briskly, 

{to avoid making chocolate scrambled eggs}

until thoroughly mixed.

Combine the whipped cream and egg whites in a large bowl.

 {Just plop them in there together and don't stir or you'll lose your fluffiness}

Gently fold in the chocolate egg yolk mix.

And lastly gently fold in the remaining melted chocolate.

Refrigerate for 4 excruciating hours and eat straight from bowl with large spoon.

Kidding.

{Or am I?}

Serve it up to some very special people in fancy glasses or bowls made of chocolate.

Pairs excellently with a 16 year scotch.

I'm not quite sure if this is the exact process I learned in the cooking class...

{this was the last thing we made after 4 brandy old fashioneds and I didn't take any notes so my memory was a bit foggy}

but it turned out, was DELICIOUS, and despite being almost completely made from raw eggs never made anyone ill. Maybe the scotch helped...

So really, not that difficult. I'm not a baker and I did it.

{Although this didn't require any actual baking so probably doesn't qualify as baking}

I will most definitely being doing this again and I can't wait to experiment with other flavors. I'm already thinking of balsamic, and cinnamon, and some berry flavor... Oh the possibilities.