Chocolate Mousse - Blue Ribbon Challenge

    Welcome to our first Blue Ribbon Challenge!

    I am so excited you are here!

   If you are a participant, please link up your post. If you are a visitor, have fun browsing through the entries. Either way, have fun!

    If you would like to join the challenge next month, see this page for more info.

   Our first theme is mousse. That sounds divine already. I had this one recipe on my to-make list for so long and I just needed the perfect occasion to try it. Hence this month's theme. :)

           I decided on Hershey's Special Dark and semi-sweet chocolate chips for two reasons.

1. My Hubby convinced me to try good ol' American chocolate.
2. I wanted to see if inexpensive ingredients that most of us have on hand would work for this recipe.

        Well..... they did! You can whip up this dessert with minimal time by the stove ( just to melt the chocolate ) and enjoy this decadent treat in no time!

       It's easy and quite against the rules. Why? Because we are mixing chocolate with water and whipping it into a mousse!! If you are at least a little bit interested in baking, you probably know that mixing chocolate with water is a no-no. Well, not it this recipe. The author, Herve This, wrote a book "Molecular Gastronomy". It's brilliant and I want it.

 Chocolate Mousse

makes 4 4oz. servings

12 5/8 oz. chocolate ( I used 1 bar of Hershey's Special Dark and semi-sweet chocolate chips and measured it out on a kitchen scale )
1 c water

Prepare ice bath: in a large mixing bowl, place about 10 ice cubes and 2 cups of water.
Set a smaller mixing bowl on top of the ice. Set aside.
In a medium saucepan, combine chocolate and water and cook over medium heat until chocolate melts.
Pour the water chocolate mix into the top bowl and with a whisk or a hand-held electric mixer, whip the chocolate until thick. It can take 3 minutes or up to 7 minutes. Watch it carefully, you do not want to over whip it as it will become grainy. If that happens, place the chocolate back in the saucepan and melt again.

Note: The original recipe calls for 9 5/8 oz. of chocolate with 70% cocoa solids. Because I was going to use chocolate chips and chocolate bar combination, I had to increase the amount of chocolate for this mousse. I ended up adding another 3 ounces of chocolate chips.

Divide the mousse among serving cups and serve or refrigerate until ready to serve.

source: adapted from Cafe Fernando via Grace's Sweet Life

       So, as you can see,  there are only two main ingredients in this recipe. Chocolate and water. You can add liquor and sugar, depending on what chocolate you are using. I skipped both and my mousse was fabulous! Rich but fabulous! Next time I might add Frangelico just for fun. :)

      Let's start the challenge! I can't wait to see what everyone came up with. :)

      Remember to click "like" for your favorite entry! Voting ends the next day at midnight.

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