Mousse au chocolat a l’orange recipe

As a result of not consuming enough Swiss chocolate during my week in Geneva, I brought a substantial amount home in my suitcase. As a treat for Kristoph I used it to make an orange infused chocolate mousse.

Given this was my first attempt at making mousse, I thought I’d be wise to take my lessons from the masters. 

So I followed one of David Lebovitz’ recipes, who adapted his recipe from Julia Child’s classic: Mastering the Art of French Cooking .

Not desiring a boozy mousse, I left out the rum and instead infused the dark chocolate with an orange syrup which gave the mousse a lovely zesty zing.

I made my mousse in small ceramic ramekins, in the vein hope of promoting portion control in our house. It didn’t work. Feel free to use any size ramekins you have. I’ve included below both the orange syrup recipe as well as the mousse. You’ll have some orange syrup left over. Decant into a small bottle or jar and keep in the fridge to add to soda water, or to mix with cocktails. You can also make the mousse without the orange syrup addition. 

For the mousse keep in mind you’ll need three separate medium sized bowls. Make sure you have them before you start. Here’s the recipes.  

Recipe:

(orange syrup)

Peel of one orange, cut into strips

¾ cup of sugar

2 cups of water

Step One: Boil the water in a pot. Once the water is boiling add the orange peel. Simmer for 20 minutes. 

Step Two: Strain the orange peel, and return the liquid to the boil. Stir in the sugar until it dissolves.

Step Three: Remove from the heat, cool, and decant into a small bottle or jar.

Recipe:

180 grams dark chocolate chopped (at least 70% cocoa solids)

170 grams unsalted butter, cubed

60mL dark-brewed coffee

4 large eggs, separated

170 grams brown sugar

5 table spoons orange syrup

1 tablespoon water

Pinch salt

½ a vanilla pod

Step One: Melt the chocolate by making a double boiler. Ie Fill to 1/3 with water, a medium sized saucepan. Put a bowl on top and melt the chocolate and butter. Add the coffee and stir over a simmering heat until the mixture is smooth. 

Step Two: In another bowl, whisk the egg yolks, 2/3 cup of sugar, orange syrup, and water, over the simmering saucepan, until the mixture reaches the consistency of runny mayonnaise.

Step Three: Remove the bowl from the heat and nest it in a bowl of ice water. Beat until cool and thick, then fold the chocolate mixture into the egg yolks.

Step Four: In another bowl, beat the egg whites together with the pinch of salt until they are frothy, and continue until they hold their shape. Add a tablespoon of sugar and the seeds of the vanilla pod. Continue to beat until the mixture is thick and shiny.

Step Five: Fold the beaten egg whites into the chocolate mixture until it is just incorporated. Do not over mix or the mousse will lose all of the volume you have created through beating and whipping.

Step Six: Transfer into a serving bowl, or ramekins and refrigerate until firm (around 4 hours). 

 

Note – if you don’t eat it all after four hours, it will last up to four days.

Spiced Christmas Bark

Kristoph and I are still full from indulgent Christmas Eve, Christmas and Boxing Day meals... We’ve both eaten far too much, too often, and should probably be limiting our next few meals to green vegetables. But as we loll around fire-side, it seems we’re both still reaching for a late comer Christmas hit: Spiced Christmas bark.

I came across this recipe over on Food 52, it was shared by Wanderash who writes the Smash and Sniff blog. Honestly, chocolate bark as never really captured my interest. It looks nice, but I always just viewed it as melted chocolate with a few nuts added. It reminded me of childhood “chocolate-making,” a common holiday activity in our house, which involved melting cooking chocolate and reshaping it into moulds. Lots of fun, but the chocolates weren’t winning any culinary awards, they tasted, well, like cooking chocolate.

Wanderash’s Ancho-Chilli Cinnamon Chocolate Bark however, aroused my interest. It was awarded the best edible gift contest at Food52, and included a delicious sounding mix of very Christmassy toasted spices – star anise, cloves and cinnamon.  The recipe didn’t disappoint, the unique salty, spicy savoury and sweet mix, was a huge hit with our family and friends this Christmas.

We served it on Christmas Eve alongside the pine-nut and rosemary brittle, and presented it in jars as gifts to very pleased family members.  

I altered Wanderash’s recipe a little, substituting dried cranberries for the cherries, and adding a little more star anise. Here’s the recipe: 

Recipe

3 whole star anise

1/2 teaspoon black peppercorns

3 cloves

2" cinnamon stick

1 teaspoon dried chilli

2/3 cups pistachio

2/3 cups lightly crushed cashews

12 ounces dark bittersweet chocolate (70% cocoa solids),

1/2 cup dried cranberries

sea salt

Step 1: Make the spice mix: Pre-heat oven to 200C. Place star anise, cloves, peppercorns, chilli and cinnamon on a baking tray, and toast until fragrant.  Remove from heat and grind the spices, either in a spice, or coffee grinder. 

Step 2: Toast the nuts by placing them on the baking sheet and place in the oven for around 10 minutes. Once toasted, lightly crush using a mortar and pestle.  

Step 3: Melt the chocolate in a double boiler. Once melted, stir in the spice mix. Add one teaspoon at a time, stir and taste. The strength of the spice flavour is personal preference – you can make it very subtle or quite strong.  

Step 4: Line a baking tray with aluminium foil. Spread out the nuts and cherries (reserving a few to use as topping). Sprinkle sea salt. 

Step 5: Pour over the chocolate onto the pan, covering the nuts and cherries evenly. Add remaining nuts to the top of chocolate. Put the tray in the fridge and leave to set for 45mins. Once set, break into pieces and store in containers in the fridge.