When my sister called me yesterday with a “mousse emergency”, my mind immediately jumped, like every Vermonter upon hearing those words, to her having hit a “moose” with her car.  A scarily, common occurrence around here that can have dire, and sometimes even deadly, consequences.  Once she calmed me down, she specified that it was, in fact, a chocolate “mousse” emergency.  Now that, I could help her with.

Chocolate mousse is really only about two basic ingredients: eggs and chocolate.  The rest of the ingredients are window dressing.  A little bit of sugar and salt for flavor, and some butter to help soften and thin the chocolate.  My measuring ratio for chocolate mousse tends to be 1 oz Chocolate + 1 Egg = 1 serving Chocolate Mousse.  The real trick to chocolate mousse is in how you combine these two simple ingredients to create a light, fluffy, chocolaty treat.

Ingredients:

• 6 oz chopped Bittersweet Baking Chocolate
• 1/4 cup (1/2 stick) diced unsalted Butter
• dash of Salt
• 6 Eggs (room temp)
• 3 tbsp Sugar
• Whipped Cream (for serving)

Directions

1. Carefully seperate your egg yokes from the egg whites.  Use the three bowl (one bowl to crack the egg into, one bowl for the egg yokes, and one bowl for the egg whites) method to ensure that the egg whites stay clean.
2. Fill a medium sized pot halfway with water.  You should be able to set a glass bowl in the water without the pot over flowing.
3. Place your glass bowl in the water, and turn on the burner at a low flame.
4. Place the butter into the bowl followed by the chocolate, and slowly allow the chocolate to melt.
5. Meanwhile, beat your egg whites into stiff peaks, adding the sugar when the egg whites are still loose and frothy.
6. Briefly set your egg whites aside, and beat your yokes until they turn light yellow and obtain a ribbony consistency.
7. By now your chocolate and butter should have melted together, remove the glass bowl from the simmering water.
8. Pour the egg yokes into the glass bowl with the chocolate.  It is important that the egg yokes and chocolate are in the warm glass bowl because if the chocolate cools to quickly it will harden before you can fully incorporate it into the mousse.
9. Stir the chocolate and the yokes together, and season with a dash of salt.
10. Scoop a spatula full of the egg whites into the chocolate bowl, and fold them into the mixture.
11. Continue this process until only about half of the egg whites remain outside of the mousse, and the chocolate in the mousse has begun to soften.
12. Add the remaining half of the egg whites, and gently fold them in.  You want your mousse to retain as much air from the egg whites as possible.
13. Scoop your mousse into individual serving glasses or a nice serving bowl, and place them in the refrigerator to set for a couple of hours.
14. Serve with whipped cream.