Easy Chocolate Mousse

This is probably my very favorite dessert of all time. I love desserts- so that’s saying something but this one is particularly special. And it’s also super easy, takes few ingredients (and is therefore pretty inexpensive!), and it always seems really fancy so it’s great for special occasions. Like Valentine’s Day tomorrow! (Or the afternoon before Valentine’s Day because your husband has the day off and you need to photograph it before blogging the recipe and because you can…)

Anyway, here’s what you’ll need:

4 eggs, separated (at room temperature helps too- the egg whites will puff up more if they are not cold)

1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

1/3 cup of really hot, strong coffee

2 Tablespoons of Creme de Cacao (optional! OR, you could use Bailey’s if you’re partial to Irish Cream… )

(And whipped cream to serve on top!!)

And how to make it:

1. Put your chocolate chips in the blender and pour your really hot coffee over them (it has to be hot to help the chocolate melt!) and blend until the chips have melted.

2. Add your Creme de Cacao (if you’re going to) and your 4 egg YOLKS. Blend until smooth.

3. Beat your egg whites until stiff peaks form. (I tried taking pictures of this step but my mixer is white and egg whites are white so they didn’t turn out very well. Anyway, if you don’t know what stiff peaks are, you should be able to swipe your rubber spatula through the whites to make a peak and they shouldn’t flop over.)

4. Pour your chocolate mixture over the stiff egg whites and gently fold it in until it’s all incorporated.

5. Spoon the mixture into your serving glasses. (I use stemware because it’s fun but if you want to use less breakable dishes or even mason jars, that’s fine too!) I would recommend making 6-8 servings- it’s very rich!

6. Refrigerate several hours (I always do mine overnight but 4-6 hours is probably enough if your servings are small enough) until it sets up.

7. Top with plenty of sweetened whipped cream and serve!

That’s it! Told you it was easy. 😉

A couple of tips… Make sure your chocolate chips are room temperature. I took mine out of the freezer once and they didn’t fully melt which affected the texture- if not the taste- of the finished mousse.  And the texture should be really light and full of air bubbles- not filled with chunks of chocolate.

Let me know if you try it! (I’m going to try not to eat the rest of them before dinner now… )

-Elise