Mamy D's Mousse au Chocolat

This recipe comes from my husband's grandmother, Mireille Durandeau. For the butter, I chose beurre cru that my fromager was selling, but you can use just about any kind of fresh butter and it will be delicious.

Mamy D’s Chocolate Mousse
serves 6.

180 g. (about 6 ounces) dessert or bittersweet chocolate
4 eggs
75 g. or 7 Tablespoons unsalted butter
90 g. or about 1/2 cup granulated sugar

- Separate your egg yolks from the whites, putting the whites into a big clean metal or ceramic bowl, and the yolks into a cup.

- Break up your chocolate and melt it in your habitual manner. Some people know their microwaves very well and can melt chocolate in them lickety split without burning it. Whenever I try that, I always singe my chocolate, so I normally play it safe and just melt mine in a bowl set snugly over a saucepan with simmering water in the bottom. It takes about the same amount of time.

- Once your chocolate is melted, add the butter and stir until it's melted and mixed in completely.

- Remove the butter and chocolate from over the hot water and incorporate the yolks and the sugar (off heat). The eggs will make it thicken at this point, even if you melted the chocolate in the microwave and it's not very warm anymore.

- Beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form, and fold them into the chocolate mixture.

- Voila! The work is done. Now the fun begins.

- Pour the mousse, which should be a thick fluid a bit like chocolate cake batter, into the dessert cups: old teacups, stemmed glasses, little bowls, ramekins, old yogurt pots, or whatever pleases you to serve it in.

Note: Today I put a spoonful of the mousse into glazed ceramic pots, then added a nice pocket of some of this season's black cherry conserves, and then topped it off to the very top with chocolate mousse. Think about what you like with chocolate. Orange goes very well with chocolate too. I had in a restaurant recently a dessert they called "Temps des Cerises": They started with cubes of genoise (white cake), which they put into small mason jars. Then they added cherries which had been soaked in eau de vie. The fluid dripped down and soaked into the cake. Then they added the chocolate mousse over that just to cover it up, leaving about an inch at the top. THEN they added chantilly (whipped cream) to the top, sealed the jar with it's own closure system, and chilled it. Any combination of things can be mixed with this chocolate mousse. It is also very good plain.

-Cover each dessert pot with foil and refrigerate (at least two hours) until it is time to serve dessert.


For Sue, who asked me very delicately if I share my recipes.