Chocolate mousse is one of those very popular desserts that are fairly easy to whip up while tasting delightfully luxurious. Add to this yet another widely loved flavour and you have your creamy salted caramel chocolate mousse, a gem of a dessert. One spoonful of this fluffy sweet and slightly salted fare and all the previous courses will be forgotten. With Yummefy’s salted caramel chocolate mousse recipe, making this gourmet dessert at home just got a lot easier.
We owe it to the French for this rich culinary wonder, the mousse. It can be created in a variety of flavours, like a white chocolate mousse recipe, a salted caramel recipe, or vanilla, raspberry, lemon, orange but dark chocolate mousse remains the classic that outshines any other version. Don’t be surprised if you come across some mousse in savoury flavours. It’s loved in all forms and shapes.
A perfect mousse though simple and easy to make, requires a technique which once mastered can prove to be a real gift when it comes to making this masterpiece of a dessert. The preparation of mousse is really a science which must be understood before diving any deeper into the recipe. Any mousse has at least these four basic components: a flavour, a binder, an aerator and some seasonings. In salted caramel chocolate mousse, the caramel and chocolate provide the primary flavour, egg yolks and cream act as the binder, the egg whites provide the fluffy texture and make the mousse airy, while the salt and sugar are the seasonings used in this mousse. The technique of making mousse revolves around creating an airy texture with egg whites and then using binders like whipped cream, egg yolks, chocolate to stabilize the foam. Once the ingredients coalesce, successfully trapping the air bubbles, the mousse is left in the refrigerator to set as the very last step which further helps in sealing the air bubbles.
The salted caramel chocolate mousse recipe looks pretty easy to replicate but there are certain intricacies that will be the deciding factor for the success of your recipe. There are various things that can go wrong with a mousse recipe like, the mousse might not be fluffy enough, or the mousse may get grainy, the foam may collapse, or it may not set. But cast your worries aside because if you follow the recipe carefully, step by step then there are very little to no chance of your salted caramel chocolate mousse going wrong. Aside from that, there are certain tips which will result in the best chocolate mousse with a perfectly creamy and fluffy texture.
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The very first thing to consider is caramelizing the sugar evenly so as not to burn the sugar. It is also important to work with the various ingredients like butter, cream and chocolate quickly and sequentially, adding them immediately one after the other, so that the heat from the caramelization of sugar alone can be used to melt the subsequent ingredients. Heating them directly may curdle the mixture or make it grainy.
This also reduces the temperature of the mixture for the yolks to go in without getting cooked and scrambled from the heat. That is very important for this chocolate mousse recipe as scrambled eggs would ruin the mousse.
Next step involves beating the whites from the eggs separately till stiff peaks form and a mixture that can hold its shape but should not look dry. This is the aeration step where air is introduced in the mousse. The egg whites are then divided into four parts and folded into the chocolate mixture one part at a time along with some salt. Make sure not to whisk, instead use a cut and fold method to combine them gently. It’s important to work with the mousse gently at this point to ensure that the air in egg whites gets incorporated in the mousse without losing much of it. The mixture is then transferred to ramekins or small bowls which are tightly sealed with cling wrap and left in the refrigerator for eight hours to set. The cooling time in the refrigerator is also of prime importance because it allows the binders like chocolate, cream and yolk to harden and tightly encapsulate the air pockets thus resulting in the stable foam of mousse.
Take note that this salted caramel and chocolate mousse recipe uses raw eggs which are not recommended for certain people with sensitive digestion like children, elderly and pregnant women. You may use pasteurized eggs for this recipe if you like. Pasteurizing eggs at home is also possible if you can’t get hold of any in the market.
Once you are done preparing the salted caramel chocolate mousse, including the eight hours in the refrigerator, the dessert is then ready to be served. You may garnish it with some chocolate shavings, a sprig of mint, whipped cream or have it as it is, without any frills. The mousse is fluffy owing to the lightness provided by foamy egg whites. Its fragile frothy goodness cannot accommodate copious or heavy garnishes. Every bite has a velvety texture and a melt in mouth quality, which delivers the deep flavour of bittersweet chocolate, finely balanced out by the salted caramel. This chocolate and salted caramel mousse is all about its light and smooth texture that makes it shine.
So indulge in this decadent chocolate mousse additionally flavoured with gooey salted caramel. Lose yourself in its light and creamy smoothness which will leave you hopelessly addicted!