How to make a light, light and creamy chocolate mousse

We know that a good chocolate mousse should be light, creamy and not too oily. There are plenty of recipes for making it, as well as lots of toppings to serve it with. But there are still some clues that we need to follow in all these recipes to make our mousse the mousse it really is.

Whipping

Whisking is the process of incorporating air into an ingredient that can hold it, such as egg whites or whipping cream. We usually whip an ingredient with the desire to obtain a loose texture with volume, which of course does not settle back quickly. In other words, whipping is the art of making the egg whites rise and form a perfect snow, or of making cream, for example, frothy.

It is good to know that whipping is not something that can be done on the spur of the moment. You need to take your time and mix the ingredients at the right speed. The stability of whipped products is due to the air bubbles that form inside the mixture. If you mix at high speed, the bubbles are large and messy, so they don''t last very long and the result is not very satisfactory. In contrast, when mixing at medium speed, the bubbles become smaller and smaller, thus achieving longer durability and resistance to vibrations and the like.

Whisking the egg whites

When whisking the egg whites, always ensure that the container in which the whisking is to be carried out is completely dry and free of grease. Whisk the egg whites at medium speed with an electric mixer. The whisking can be stopped when the whites are soft and fluffy. This can be seen in the small sloping waves that form on the top of the snow when the beaters are taken out. It should look similar to men''s shaving foam or hair styling foam.

This snow will be fluffy, durable and easier to mix with other ingredients. If we whip it too much, it will become stiff and it will stick to the stirrers, forming little lumps, which is of course not what we want.

Whipping the cream

Always whip the cream well chilled and also at medium speed to increase its volume. Lightly whipped, frothy cream contains as much air as possible and is perfect for making our chocolate mousse. By this stage, the volume of our cream has increased by about 200%, which is more than enough. We don''t need to introduce any more air with the additional stirring, but at the same time the cream will start to flutter. However, if we keep stirring, we will have raw butter.

Do not try to whip the cream with a little fat. You will only make it harder for yourself, because the low fat content means that it will never become what you need it to be. In dairy and chocolate recipes, gelatine can be used to make the texture more solid and thus compensate for the lack of fat.

Common problems in making mousse

1) Mousse is lumpy

Make sure you warm the chocolate mixture a little before mixing it with the cream or whipped cream. When the mixture is already cooled and you try to mix it with a large amount of snow or cold whipped cream, the chocolate will harden and small lumps will form.

2) Melt the egg white in the bottom of the bowl

As mentioned at the beginning, the egg whites only need to be whipped until the snow is soft. If it is whisked until it is hard, it will lose its air content and liquefy slightly on contact with the chocolate. The solution is therefore to whip the snow/cream.

3) The mousse is too hard/soft

The hardness of the mousse depends mainly on the chocolate to be used. It is the cocoa butter that determines the hardness of our mousse. So the hardness of our mousse will depend on how much cocoa butter is used in our recipe - this is, of course, in the chocolate. If there is too much cocoa butter, the mousse will be too hard, and if there is too little, the mousse will be too soft. You can check the amount of cocoa butter on the wrapper of the chocolate you are going to use.

Serving the chocolate mousse

Once the mousse is ready, it should always be refrigerated for at least 12 hours. Then, half an hour before serving, take the mousse out to warm up to room temperature so that it is ready to serve. The mousse is usually good on its own, but strawberries, raspberries and other accompaniments can be served alongside it if desired.