A soft and fluffy chocolate mousse from Yotam Ottolenghi’s test kitchen that has a hint of coffee flavor and will surely impress your guests!
One day, my family and I were at the library, and I was perusing the new releases section. Within that area, there is a little section for brand new cookbooks. I saw that Yotam Ottolenghi had a new book out called Ottonlenghi Test Kitchen. I checked out the book without even flipping through it and knew that I’d find at least one recipe that I wanted to try.
I flipped and flipped (and flipped) through the cookbook but nothing stood out to me until I almost to got to the end. This chocolate mousse recipe seemed achievable and easy-ish so I tried it.
Well, it was originally a failure on two accounts. One, I got too lazy and decided not to wash my bowl after mixing the chocolate mixture. I hoped that I could whip the egg whites into medium peaks without cleaning the bowl. Um, yeah – that didn’t work. So I wasted two egg whites (NOOOO!) in the process and kicked myself for not following directions.
Two, I messed up the tahini fudge that came with the original recipe. I had tahini in my pantry and it appeared that it had separated. I tried mixing it back together and measured out the correct amount I needed for the recipe. However, when I mixed everything together, it was a watery mess. The flavors were spot on, but I wasn’t able to save it. Down the drain it went.
As a result, I opted not to share that tahini fudge recipe with you today. It just didn’t work out, and I prefer having the mousse as a standalone anyway. If you want, you can top this with chocolate shavings, chocolate covered coffee beans, or even some caramel sauce. Or, you can eat it plain.
My husband isn’t a big fan of coffee flavored things, so he docked some points from this recipe. Addie and I, on the the other hand, liked the chocolate coffee blend and also enjoyed the soft and airy texture. To appease my family, I may replace the coffee with additional cocoa powder next time and add a drizzle of caramel sauce.
Husband’s rating: 3.5 out of 5
Addie’s rating: 4.5 out of 5
My rating: 4 out of 5
Chocolate mousse from Yotam Ottolenghi
Ingredients
- 1 and ½ Tablespoons instant coffee powder not granules
- 1 and ½ teaspoons unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste or vanilla extract
- 1 Tablespoon maple syrup
- 1 cup (240 milliliters) heavy cream cold
- 2 large egg whites save the egg yolks for ice cream!
- 6 Tablespoons granulated sugar
- pinch salt
Instructions
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment or in a large bowl if using a handheld mixer, add the coffee, cocoa powder, vanilla paste (or extract), maple syrup and cold heavy cream. Turn the mixer to medium high speed until you achieve soft peaks, about 2-3 minutes. I actually turned my mixer to high to achieve this. Transfer the contents to a separate (large bowl).
- Wash the stand mixer bowl and the whisk attachment so it's sparkly clean and make sure you dry them completely before moving on to the next step. Trust me on this - I tried to get lazy by not washing the bowl or the whisk attachment and ended up failing on the next step and wasting precious eggs!
- In the bowl of your clean stand mixer fitted with the clean whisk attachment (or in another clean large bowl), add the egg whites. Mix on high speed until it starts to froth and get bubbly, about 1-2 minutes.
- Turn the mixer down to low and slowly stream in the sugar and the salt. Turn the mixer back to high speed until the egg whites turn shiny and you get medium peaks.
- Turn the mixer off and slowly fold the egg whites into the bowl with the coffee mixture. Do not over mix or you risk deflating the egg whites. Make sure there are no white streaks remaining.
- Transfer to 6 ramekins or bowls and cover with plastic wrap. Allow to cool in the refrigerator, at least 2 hours and up to over night.
I thought the recipe was going to be included
Author
Thanks for letting me know that the recipe didn’t attach, Debbi. I fixed it. 🙂