Heavenly Chocolate Mousse

Decadent! I served this for a dinner party and everyone absolutely loved it. BUT a word or warning -- this is not an easy recipe. I would say it is at least an intermediate recipe. Some reviewers have reported consistency problems and there are many ways I can see that having happened, even following the instructions, because there are a few details the recipe leaves out. First: to properly whip heavy whipping cream, start with a chilled mixing bowl and whip it until it is a very fluffy, almost buttery consistency. Do not stop mixing too soon. We used a hand held electric mixer to do this. Second, the proper way to melt chocolate is *slowly*! If you don't have a double boiler, I recommend using a saucepan on the stove over low heat. This will take a while, but the microwave can actually be a harder way to melt chocolate because you have to be careful not to do it too quickly and you have to take it out many times to stir. I also want to emphasize the importance of getting the temperatures right...try to follow these to the letter. I highly recommend having a candy thermometer to get the eggs, sugar, and water to exactly 160 degrees. Finally, I just thought I'd mention that we added some chunks of high quality milk chocolate and a sprinkle of powdered sugar for a nice presentation and a good compliment to the dish.

This is a wonderful recipe. I deviated slightly in three ways. 1) While whipping the cream, I added a bit of unflavored gelatin. This merely gives the whipping cream better consistency and permits the dessert longer refrigerator life. When I write "bit," I mean perhaps half a little package. I never know; I just add it. If you've ever been to Europe, especially Eastern Europe, the bakeries often use the gelatin in their creams. 2) I added a "bit" of vanilla after combining the chocolate and egg mixtures. 3) Rather than stirring over ice, I put the chocolate mixture in the freezer for five minutes, took it out, stirred, returned it to the freezer for another five minutes, took it out, and combined with the whipping cream.

I have never made chocolate mousse before but my boyfriend is an avid chocolate mousse fan so I have been scouring the internet trying to find a good recipe that I couldn't mess up. And this is it!! I almost went with the too simple "just chocolate and whipped cream." But the extra work with this one is worth it! The texture is absolutely creamy and smooth. It looks like mousse from a five star restaurant (which is what I want!). I mixed the chocolate and butter with hot tap water and only needed two 10 second intervals in the microwave to melt to a smooth consistency. I don't own a candy thermometer so I was stressing about how to know the right temperature for the egg yolks. All I did was cook them on low, whisking them the whole time, until the egg mixture was a uniform yellow consistency. Like runny pudding. And it was perfect! I added the cream dollop by dollop into the chocolate mixture and it blended beautifully...no flaking or chunks! So smooth, so decadent, so worth it!

I LOVE THIS RECIPE. I used it to fill a chocolate cake. The only change I made was that I used 1/2 cup strong, cold coffee instead of water. It really amps up the chocolate flavor without adding a coffee taste.

I made this as a dessert to follow my 1 year anniversary dinner. It is amazing! It is also very rich. I've got a sweet tooth, so I didn't mind. My husband, on the other hand isn't normally a dessert person. He'd take a bite and say how rich and filling it was, but he never put his spoon down! He scraped the insides of the glass with it, in fact. I take that as a compliment coming from him. For someone else who asked, I did make it with milk chocolate. I used plain old Hershey's bars actually. It turned out really good and you could really tell it was Hershey's. I followed the rest of the recipe exactly. I spooned it into martini glasses, piped whipped cream on top using the star tip, and I used a little more melted chocolate to make little xoxo's to stick down in the cream. It was beautiful and elegant.

A wonderful recipe! The measurements seem to use an odd amount of ingredients, so I modified the proportions. I used 1 bag of semisweet chocolate morsels, 3 T of butter, 4 T of sugar, 2/3 cups water, yolks from 5 medium eggs and 1 pint of whipping cream. Whatever chocolate you use comes out very strongly in the finished product, so a good quality chocolate is key. I am already fantasizing how next time I will try white chocolate, or perhaps milk chocolate. Thanks for a great fattening recipe!

Definitely a keeper. I made mine with strong coffee instead of water, and I added a tad of vanilla to the whipping cream as well. Top it off with homemade whipped cream and some raspberries, and you'll feel like you've died and gone to heaven.

I made this and froze it in Zip locks ahead of time for a wedding shower. It was amazing! I defrosted in the fridge and simple snipped the corner of the bag and squeezed into crepes and covered with fresh strawberries and whip cream! What a hit!

I made this mousse for my family and everyone loved it. It's relatively easy to make too! It's very rich, so it's a little hard to eat all of it at one time. The only change i made to this recipe was adding vanilla to the whipping cream before whipping it. In my opinion, it's best served by itself with a dollop of whipped cream on top.

I used mint chocolate chips and it turned out very well! If you can, be sure to leave it overnight!