The One With the Chocolate Mousse

I thought I'd share with you one of my favorite dessert recipes for entertaining: Chocolate Mousse.
I love it for four main reasons:

1. It is really good.
2. It is really easy.
3. It seems really fancy, so people think you are extra cool when you make it. 
4. It is made mostly of air, so it can't possibly be that bad for you. Right?

Yeah, it uses six ingredients and takes just about five minutes to make. Well, let's give it ten, just to be sure, but still. Also, if you have a kitchen aid you could almost make this in your sleep. I just got mine and boy, oh boy, am I a satisfied consumer. Or maybe I'm a gruntled consumer. As in not disgruntled. I don't know. I'm writing this late at night. But on to the good stuff:

Chocolate Mousse
Serves 8

• 6 oz. milk chocolate (1 cup milk chocolate chips)
• 6 oz. semi-sweet chocolate (1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips)
• 4 egg whites
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 Tablespoon vanilla
• 2 cups heavy whipping cream 
• Pirouettes by Pepperidge Farms in your favorite flavor for garnishing, if desired

In a microwaves safe bowl, melt the chocolate. Begin with 30 seconds and then microwave in 15 second intervals, stirring between each one, until chocolate is smooth. Set aside.
Separate your eggs into whites* and yolks. Using a mixer, beat on high until white, stiff and foamy. When you take your beaters out, stiff peaks should form and hold their position.
Thoroughly clean your beaters (and bowl, if necessary) and towel dry. On high, beat the heavy whipping cream until stiff. Add the sugar and vanilla and beat again until fully incorporated. Again, your whipping cream is stiff enough if when you lift out the beaters, peaks form and hold their positions.
Using a spatula, gently fold together the chocolate and egg whites, being sure to scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl to fully incorporate all the chocolate. Finally, gently fold the egg and chocolate mixture into the whipping cream.**
Spoon or pipe into serving bowls and refrigerate until serving.*** Serve with Pirouettes if you like. I know I do.

*It is very important that you do not get any yolk in your whites, as it will keep your whites from stiffening up properly.
**Folding, unlike mixing, is a delicate process that involves more of a scooping gesture than a stir. The idea is to keep as much air in the mixture as possible. So be patient, and try to lift the mixture, instead of smash it.
***I used my little 8 oz. mason jars that I bought for the Strawberry Pretzel Salad. I think they look sweet. And the lids make them easy to store in the fridge.But any little serving dishes will work fine. I also spooned mine into a Ziplock bag with an icing tip to get it all swirly in the jars. But let's face it. Unless you're taking pictures, nobody probably cares about how swirly it looks. Especially once they start eating it. Because they will be eating far too quickly to care about presentation. So just save yourself the trouble and use a regular ol' spoon.

 

This recipe originally came to me from my mother, who used to make this on special occasions. It was a big deal because of all the implied fanciness. You know how exciting that is to kids.
She originally made it using all semi-sweet chocolate chips, which you are also welcome to do. I prefer to use half milk chocolate because that's the kind of girl I am. But also because I think it is more appealing to all crowds, even if they aren't crazy into chocolate. But if you are, feel free to experiment with your ratios of chocolate.
So, even if you think you are not fancy enough to pull something like this off, give it a try. I promise you that you will come out with something you like. It tastes good no matter what.

Check out my "Linked and Featured" tab to see where I linked this up!