Chocolate Mouse
Jun. 28th, 2009 03:55 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
prkWell, Mousse actually, but I'm whimsically amused at the thought of it being a chocolate mouse.
maharetr does an awesome Chocolate Mousse, so I thought I'd give it a try, with a twist - trying to make it low fat & low sugar.
It began with culinary espionage - attempting to steal the recipe frommaharetr without her knowing (danger adds to the taste don'cha know!). Unfortunately this was foiled by samvara's recipe guarding dog, Kenobi, and my complete inability to work out where the recipe was stored.
Giving in, I askedmaharetr for it, and she most graciously pulled down the recipe book, from where it had been in plain sight the whole time, and handed it to me. To maintain the espionage experience, I attempted to photograph the recipe with my phone's camera, but I couldn't get a clear picture. So I settled for typing it into my phone instead.
The ingredients were fairly simple - dark chocolate, cream for whipping, and eggs.
'Ahah' I thought, 'This should be easy to adapt - some sugar free dark chocolate and low fat cream and I'll be set!'.
I should have known it wouldn't be that easy. I couldn't find any low fat cream suitable for whipping - there was plenty of low fat sour cream or low fat thick cream, but no low fat whipping cream. Not being able to find a suitable substitute, I settled for normal cream this time.
Anyone know if there exists any low fat cream, suitable for whipping? Otherwise I'll have to investigate other options.
'At least the chocolate will be easier' I reassured myself, only to find out that there was no sugar free dark chocolate to be found, unless I wanted it in a mango, lime and chilli flavour. Deciding that wouldn't go in a mousse, I settled for sugar free milk chocolate, with baking cocoa, and equal to darken it up.
Whipping the cream in the absence of an electric beater was the next challenge. Easy enough, just energy and time consuming. For black humour amusement, I hummed Michael Jackson's "Beat it" whist I whisked it. With some assistance fromamarillion when my arm got sore, the cream was thoroughly put in its place.
amarillion also separated the egg whites and yolk, as I always flub that. Whipping the egg whites seemed a lot more effort than the cream, and despite both of us giving it a good attempt, we didn't seem to get it to peak. For future reference, Google tells me to separate the whites when the eggs are cold, but let the egg white reach room temperature before beating. Google also tells me that if it's humid or raining outside, they may never beat properly. Pride assuaged, I considered the mostly beaten egg whites suitable.
Melting the chocolate was easy enough with a microwave. Adding the cocoa and equal dried it out too much, so I added a couple of tablespoons of hot water to bring it back to a similar melted chocolate consistency. Folded in the egg yolks, then the cream, then the subdued (but not beaten) egg whites. Whisked it all a little more, then into the fridge to set.
Tastes good, albeit a little rich from the full fat cream, but we'll see how it sets overnight.
An overall success, but not quite as healthy as I wanted, due to the lack of low fat cream. Guess further experiments (and an electrical or mechanical beater!) are in order.
prk.
maharetr does an awesome Chocolate Mousse, so I thought I'd give it a try, with a twist - trying to make it low fat & low sugar.It began with culinary espionage - attempting to steal the recipe from
maharetr without her knowing (danger adds to the taste don'cha know!). Unfortunately this was foiled by samvara's recipe guarding dog, Kenobi, and my complete inability to work out where the recipe was stored.Giving in, I asked
maharetr for it, and she most graciously pulled down the recipe book, from where it had been in plain sight the whole time, and handed it to me. To maintain the espionage experience, I attempted to photograph the recipe with my phone's camera, but I couldn't get a clear picture. So I settled for typing it into my phone instead.The ingredients were fairly simple - dark chocolate, cream for whipping, and eggs.
'Ahah' I thought, 'This should be easy to adapt - some sugar free dark chocolate and low fat cream and I'll be set!'.
I should have known it wouldn't be that easy. I couldn't find any low fat cream suitable for whipping - there was plenty of low fat sour cream or low fat thick cream, but no low fat whipping cream. Not being able to find a suitable substitute, I settled for normal cream this time.
Anyone know if there exists any low fat cream, suitable for whipping? Otherwise I'll have to investigate other options.
'At least the chocolate will be easier' I reassured myself, only to find out that there was no sugar free dark chocolate to be found, unless I wanted it in a mango, lime and chilli flavour. Deciding that wouldn't go in a mousse, I settled for sugar free milk chocolate, with baking cocoa, and equal to darken it up.
Whipping the cream in the absence of an electric beater was the next challenge. Easy enough, just energy and time consuming. For black humour amusement, I hummed Michael Jackson's "Beat it" whist I whisked it. With some assistance from
amarillion when my arm got sore, the cream was thoroughly put in its place.amarillion also separated the egg whites and yolk, as I always flub that. Whipping the egg whites seemed a lot more effort than the cream, and despite both of us giving it a good attempt, we didn't seem to get it to peak. For future reference, Google tells me to separate the whites when the eggs are cold, but let the egg white reach room temperature before beating. Google also tells me that if it's humid or raining outside, they may never beat properly. Pride assuaged, I considered the mostly beaten egg whites suitable.Melting the chocolate was easy enough with a microwave. Adding the cocoa and equal dried it out too much, so I added a couple of tablespoons of hot water to bring it back to a similar melted chocolate consistency. Folded in the egg yolks, then the cream, then the subdued (but not beaten) egg whites. Whisked it all a little more, then into the fridge to set.
Tastes good, albeit a little rich from the full fat cream, but we'll see how it sets overnight.
An overall success, but not quite as healthy as I wanted, due to the lack of low fat cream. Guess further experiments (and an electrical or mechanical beater!) are in order.
prk.
