This recipe is based on Herve This’ Chocolate Chantilly. It’s ‘free’ as it’s free from dairy, wheat, egg, basically anything apart from a really good quality chocolate and water. Yes, chocolate and water, I know that they don’t go together and your Mum’s always told you that if you’re melting chocolate and get any water into it that you have to throw it away but this is one recipe where we’re going to mix melted chocolate and water together and make the mousse.
You have the get the measurements of chocolate and water exactly right, you can add alcohol but make sure you replace some of the water with the alcohol and have the same basic liquid measurements.
for 6-8 servings
230ml water
270g good quality dark chocolate at least 70% cocoa solids, broken into pieces
Ice cubes
Raspberries, thawed if frozen
Lemon juice to taste
Icing sugar
A few whole raspberries
- Place the water and chocolate in a saucepan on a medium heat. Gently heat until the chocolate has melted. Don’t worry if it boils, you may need to add a little more water to compensate for the water that has evaporated in the steam. The quantity of liquid has to be exactly right.
- Once melted, stir to mix and pour into a medium mixing bowl, place the ice cubes and some cold water in the large bowl and set the smaller bowl inside over the iced water. Whisk the chocolate mixture vigorously for 5-7 minutes until it starts to thicken and takes on the texture of whipped cream. Remove from the iced water and keep mixing until it thickens a little more and you have egg free and dairy free chocolate mousse that it stable at room temperature.
- To make the raspberry puree, place the raspberries in a small saucepan and set over a gently heat, if they have been previously frozen you can omit this stage. Cook for 3-4 minutes until the fruit collapses and the juices run.
- Press the raspberries through a fine sieve then discard the seeds. Add lemon juice and icing sugar to taste. The lemon juice helps bring out the flavour of the raspberries and prevent them from discolouring and the icing sugar sweetens them to complement the dark chocolate.
- Serve the mousse in a small glass or piled onto a plate, drizzle with raspberry puree with a few whole raspberries on the side.
I’ve made this recipe at Foodies Festival Chef’s Theatre to complement Casillero del Diablo Cabernet Sauvignon red wine, it goes very well with red wine providing you use a very high cocoa content chocolate, around 85% works well.