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Chocolate Mousse (Mousse au Chocolat) History
and Ingredients
"Mousse"
is the French word for "foam",
while "Chocolat"
is of course French for "chocolate".
Consequently, "Mousse au chocolat" translates as "foamy
chocolate", and is one of a number of foamy desserts (many of
which are fruit based).
With a few rare
exceptions, all chocolate mousse recipes have two ingredients:
- Chocolate,
which is of course the essential element of the dessert, and
- Egg white,
which is whipped into a foam and then added to the melted
chocolate to provide the light and foamy texture, which is the
essence of the recipe
To this,
depending on the recipe, additional ingredients can be added to
change the taste and texture of the dessert. Common examples
are:
-
Sugar
- Mainly to make the dessert sweeter, as dark chocolate can
otherwise be too bitter for most people.
-
Cream
- This gives the dessert a softer and lighter texture.
For recipes using dark chocolate (some use white chocolate),
this ingredient makes the dessert taste more like milk
chocolate than dark chocolate.
-
Egg
yolks - Adds a rich taste to the dessert, plus uses the
yolks left over after one has used the egg whites.
-
Butter
- Like egg yolks, add a richness to the dessert.
-
Flavourings
- Many different flavourings can be added, the most popular
including: vanilla, orange and coffee. One could argue that
this is not "authentic" chocolate mousse, but if people
enjoy it, why not introduce some variety?
-
Decoration
- After the dessert is prepared, decoration is sometimes
added to the top. Most commonly, this is flakes or sticks of
chocolate, which not only is visually interesting but also
adds contrast (in both taste and texture) between the
chocolate flakes and the underlying chocolate mousse. Other
common decorations are cream or berries (raspberries and
strawberries are often used). A less common but elegant
edition is mint leaves.
Of these
additional ingredients, sugar is present in every recipe I've
ever seen and cream is present in most. The other items are
frequently, but far from always used.
The exact date
of the first chocolate mousse recipe is unknown. However, it is
believed to be from the second half of the 1800s. In 1977, in
New York City, chef Michel Fitoussi created a white chocolate
mousse, which for a period of time was extremely popular (up
until then chocolate mousse always used dark chocolate). Now one
can find both types of chocolate mousse, but in France it is
almost always based on dark chocolate.
We have a number
of recipes at
Chocolate Mousse (Mousse au Chocolat).
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