Comfort Food #3: Chocolate Mousse

Aah, good old mousse au chocolat. Or chocolate mousse to the rest of us. Or 'chocolate mouse' if you're in a Two Ronnies' skit!

Some things never go out of style and chocolate mousse is one of them. Once people had got over their obsession with black forest gateau in the seventies (which is equally yum by the way!) chocolate mousse pretty much became the dinner party dessert of the eighties, and it's not hard to see why: elegant, sophisticated, and considered the ultimate dessert for those who wanted to do 'fancy' (but thought profiteroles were too much hard work!) And you always had room for light-as-air mousse even after a very rich meal.

Our Childhood Memories

For those of us who remember the last three decades of the twentieth century, you couldn't escape these velvety, foamy clouds of chocolatey awesomeness. Even if your mum wasn't whipping up a mousse for her latest dinner party, they could be found in the freezer section at the supermarket (but became more popular in the chiller section in the early nineties) or in just-add-milk packet form a la Angel Delight. Cooking shows were teaching you how to make chocolate mousse, and there were recipes aplenty in magazines and cook books. This is hardly a surprise as the seventies and eighties were the years of Cordon Bleu cooking and French cuisine was all the rage - especially if you wanted to appear worldly, sophisticated and give the impression that you had a weekend cottage in the French countryside!

But that doesn't stop some know-it-all on Come Dine With Me declaring that a fellow contestant has chosen the 'safe' option when mousse is spotted on the menu. Although if you spot chocolate mousse on a menu these days it is a surprise because it is unfairly considered a little passé and a dessert that screams 1980s dinner party. Personally we don't think there's anything wrong with an eighties dinner party, and it's a real pity that chocolate mousse is considered 'so last season' because it is deliciously decadent and seriously... who couldn't like chocolate mousse! It's not old-fashioned - it's a classic. But we do still see chocolate mousse as a filling for a cake or pie, or a component/accompaniment for other desserts, so like an eighties legend making a cameo in a new movie, chocolate mousse does indeed pop up from time to time.

Now For The History Bit!

Although the exact origins of chocolate mousse are unclear, it is believed to have originated in nineteenth century France ('mousse' is the French word for froth or foam) around three centuries after chocolate was first brought to Europe by the Spanish from Mexico, and was used mainly in hot beverages. Savoury mousses were created in France in the eighteenth century, and dessert mousses - which were mainly made with fruit - made an appearance around a hundred years later.

The Evolution of Chocolate Mousse

Despite dessert mousses being created in the latter part of the nineteenth century, there are recipes in cookbooks from the 1700s for 'frozen mousses' though these were more like ice-cream rather than mousse as we know it today. Mousse eventually found it's way to America where a recipe for chocolate mousse appeared in the Boston Globe in 1892. However this mousse was more like a chocolate custard-type dessert rather than the foamy dessert we are more familiar with.

Americans started to become more acquainted with chocolate mousse during the 1930s. It's popularity continued to grow around the world after the Second World War with the rise of French cuisine. And indeed it was in the thirties that mousse as we now know it began to develop. The consumption of electric whisks made it far easier to whip up the eggs and/or cream, taking it from the thick custard sauce-type consistency to something more light and fluffy. And as if this wasn't exciting enough, it was in 1977 that chef Michel Fitoussi created white chocolate mousse (it just gets better and better!) at New York restaurant, The Palace.

What Makes A Good Mousse?

Chocolate mousse - or any kind of mousse for that matter - may appear simple and easy to make, and indeed it probably is easy for those who are blessed with an abundant amount of culinary talent. But mousse can be a risky option when you want a dinner party dessert that impresses as there are a number of things that could potentially go wrong including setting issues; problems with the consistency; the texture being more custard-pudding than mousse-like; the mousse becoming too grainy if the chocolate isn't tempered correctly... plus we all know that desserts with raw egg can be unsafe for certain people. So not as simple as it looks.

There are certain key ingredients needed to make a good, rich but light, flavourful chocolate mousse, the first of which is a good quality chocolate with a high cocoa content. Of course there's also the aerator to create that cloud-like texture, and for that you could use whisked egg whites, whipped cream, or whisked aquafaba. If you want the chocolate mousse to hold it's shape better, you may also want to include some kind of setting agent like gelatin or agar agar.

No Two Mousses Are Ever Alike!

The above is a rough guide to the basics of chocolate mousse-making. But the end result can vary greatly depending on the combination and kind of ingredients used. The textures can differ from thick and slightly puddingy to light and overflowing with chocolate air bubbles (that's the best kind - Angel!) You can omit the eggs entirely and just use whipped cream, or a plant based whipped cream with aquafaba. If you wish to jazz things up a little, try adding your preferred flavouring such as vanilla, brandy, peppermint, orange or coffee. You could also top it with sweetened whipped cream, chocolate flakes, mint leaves, fruit pieces or crystalized petals or orange rind to make your dessert look pretty.

And if you couldn't decide between dark, milk or white chocolate for your mousse, you could just use all three for a layered dessert that was very popular in the eighties and nineties!

A Most Versatile Dessert

Back in the day, chocolate mousse was usually served with shortbread or tuile biscuits as part of the dessert course. In fact those biscuits are still a favourite accompaniment for chocolate mousse. But this dessert is actually very versatile and can be served in a variety of ways. Chocolate mousse can be:

• Piped into profiteroles, eclairs, doughnuts, choux buns or even cream horns (remember those!)

• Used as a filling for tartlets or pies

• In the form of a mousse cake or as a filling for a gateau

• Set with gelatin to create a type of airy, much lighter blancmange

• Frozen to make a type of ice-cream

• As a topping for a trifle

Recipe

While there may be a whole host of more trendier desserts out there, we doubt that anything could really take the place of chocolate mousse! There's something about the decadent, velvety texture of chocolate mousse that brings back memories of celebrations gone by as we remember the entertaining traditions of a time we once knew. We reckon that Hyacinth Bucket would see mousse au chocolat as a very fitting finale to one of her candlelight suppers! Chocolate mousse looks stunning and luxurious but it is a dessert that requires minimal preparation time, although you will have to prepare it well ahead of time so that it will chill in the fridge for at least eight hours and set well.

For our Comfort Food Recipe, we wanted one that was deliciously vintage - because we're all about the vintage at Nostalgia Pie in case you couldn't tell - so we looked through our collection of vintage recipe books for inspiration, and then decided to base our chocolate mousse recipe on one from Good Housekeeping's Hot and Cold Puddings which we believe was published in the 1950s. We loved the old-fashionedness of this recipe and felt it was proper retro! Unlike a lot of the other chocolate mousse recipes we'd come across, this one uses just eggs and no cream in the actual mousse. So we felt it was very vintage and quite unusual for today's tastes. However if you're concerned about using raw eggs, you can always use pasteurized ones or leave out the eggs altogether and use whipped cream or aquafaba but bear in mind that it will obviously make a difference to the taste and texture. And we were also inspired by a recipe which featured on BBC's Breakfast Time back in the eighties which featured rosewater. So here's our take on a very retro chocolate mousse.

Chocolate Rosewater Mousse

Prep time: 15min

Cook time: 5 mins

Set time: 8hrs

Serves: 4-6

Ingredients

• 8oz good quality plain or milk chocolate (with cocoa content minimum 60%) grated

• 1 tbsp hot water

• 1 tbsp espresso or strong coffee

• 2oz butter

• 4 eggs, separated

• 3-4oz caster sugar

• 1 tbsp. rosewater

• Crystalized rose petals

• Chocolate flakes or curls

• Sweetened whipped cream (optional)

• Raspberries or strawberries (optional)

Method

• Put chocolate, water, espresso & butter in pan.

• Heat gently until chocolate melted & mixture creamy.

• Cool slightly before adding beaten egg yolks & rosewater.

• Whisk egg whites until stiff, adding sugar a bit at a time.

• Fold egg whites gently into chocolate mixture.

• Pour into glasses.

• Set overnight.

• When ready to serve, top with sweetened whipped cream and berries if using.

• Decorate with rose petals and chocolate flakes.

Cook's Tips

• To really emphasize the rose aspect of this chocolate mousse, add a layer of rose petal jam or jelly to the bottom of the glass before topping with the chocolate mousse.

• For those of you wondering how coffee and rose work well together as a flavour combination, the coffee exists only to enhance the chocolate, not to flavour the dessert so shouldn't taste it. But if you prefer you can omit the coffee and just add another tablespoon of water instead.

FREEBIE ALERT!!!

For the first time ever, Nostalgia Pie are giving away a free recipe card to accompany this Comfort Food feature for chocolate mousse. Download and save it to your computer. Or print it out and store it in a recipe box if you want to be real old-school!

Only Nostalgia Pie members have access to the Free Recipe Card page, so if you're not a member, sign up to join the Nostalgia Pie community (it's free!) Then keep your eyes peeled for future free cards.

Madame, with this free recipe card, you are really spoiling us!

Photos from: Pixabay and Wix

Word cloud: Angel Noire