Easy Chocolate Mousse

This past weekend M & I had my parents, my brother and his partner over for dinner for the first time. It was super exciting, for me, and I made (what I thought was) a great menu of antipasto followed by mushroom risotto and chocolate mousse. I did plan on taking lovely photos all the way through, but Mum & Dad supplied the wine and then the Grey Goose M's sister got us for Christmas came out, and, well, I forgot!

However, M did catch this proud moment on film;

My starters & I.

Oh well, it was a great night regardless of lack of photographic memories.

The night ended, as I mentioned, with chocolate mousse. I first made this chocolate mousse for M earlier in the week for Valentines Day, (the perfect excuse), as I know that, although he is not a sweet tooth, he does enjoy chocolate mousse. Being titled 'Chocolate Mousse in Minutes' on Taste made it the most attractive option in my search as I was to be cooking it along with two other courses after work that day. I was so pleasantly suprised with it's ease, flavour and, importantly to me for chocolate mousse, it's texture, that I had to share it with you.

That, and I promised my brother's partner I'd share the recipe.

Chocolate Mousse in Minutes

For Mel

As seen on Taste.com.au

I;

• 300g good-quality dark chocolate, roughly chopped (I used a mix of Club Dark & Club 70% Cocoa)
• 3 eggs
• 1/4 cup (55g) caster sugar
• 1 tbs good-quality cocoa powder, sifted
• 300ml thickened cream, plus extra whipped cream to serve
• Grated chocolate, to serve

M;

1. Place the chocolate in a heatproof bowl over a pan of gently simmering water (don't let the bowl touch the water). Stir until melted. Remove bowl from heat and set aside to cool slightly.

2. Place eggs and sugar in a large bowl and beat with electric beaters for 5 minutes, or until mixture is pale, thick and doubled in volume. Fold in cooled chocolate and cocoa powder until combined.

3. In a separate bowl, whip cream until thickened (be careful not to over-beat). Use a large metal spoon to carefully fold the cream into the chocolate mixture, trying to keep the mixture as light as possible. Spoon into 6 serving glasses and chill in fridge for at least 1 hour. Remove from fridge 15 minutes before serving, then top with extra whipped cream and grated chocolate to serve.

Serves 6

I didn't take them out of the fridge 15 minutes before serving, but I otherwise followed the recipe to the point. It is definitely my new staple mousse as I hate the fussiness of seperating the eggs, and my old staple used twice the amount of eggs - it was delicious but far too heavy at the end of a meal!

Yes I love nutritious food and obviously, this is not. But I live very much by the motto that if you're going to do something, do it properly or don't do it at all.

Now go and make some mousse. It's probably been way too long since you last did.

Stay well,
Nat x

Peanut Choc-Chip Muffins

Although I whole-heartedly believe in a balanced lifestyle and all the perfectly balanced meals that come with that, I believe that a big part of every balanced lifestyle should be a few meals that would be suitable for a detox, and some suitable for a re-tox. Both of which are fine in a balanced scheme of things along with what I hope is your life of mainly balanced meals.

However, this is the re-tox.

Peanut Choc-Chip Muffins

(For Casey)

Recipe from 'The Essential Vegetarian CookBook' - Murdoch Books

I;

2 cups (250g) self-raising flour

1/3 cup (80g) raw sugar

1 1/2 (240g) dark choc bits

1 egg

1 cup (250g) crunchy peanut butter

2 tablespoons strawberry jam (I used raspberry)

60g butter, melted

1 cup (250ml) milk

Icing sugar for dusting (I ignored this)

M;

Preheat oven to moderate 180c

Brush a 12 hike standard muffin tin with melted butter or oil (I sprayed olive oil)

Sift flour into large bowl

Add sugar and choc bits; make a well in the centre

Add combined egg, peanut butter, jam, butter and milk

Stir until just combined (do not over beat)

Spoon evenly into muffin cups

Bake for 20-25 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean

Loosen the muffins in the pan and leave for 10 minutes before turning onto a wire rack

When cool, dust with icing sugar (I found them sweet enough)

Enjoy!

Stay well,

Nat x