Name: Mousse au chocolat review by diloyloyy at CERU Farringdon, London, United Kingdom
Item: Mousse au chocolat
Rating: 4.9
Author: diloyloyy

Mousse au chocolat is the French dessert of melted dark chocolate lightened with beaten egg whites, sometimes with yolks and butter folded in first, set in the fridge and served cold in a glass or spooned from a bowl. In its home form it contains no cream and no gelatine: the structure comes entirely from the air in the whites and the chocolate setting as it cools, which is why a proper one is dense, dark and faintly bitter rather than fluffy and sweet. The word mousse was used for savoury and sweet foams in French kitchens from the eighteenth century, and the chocolate version appears in recipe books by the early twentieth; it became the bistro dessert of the post-war decades, served from a large bowl at the table in the style of the Paris brasserie, and it remains the dish by which the kitchen's pastry section is most easily judged because there is nowhere to hide.

The chocolate is the dessert, and it should be a dark couverture of sixty to seventy percent cocoa, chopped and melted gently over a bain-marie with a spoon of butter or a little coffee. Egg yolks are beaten in while the chocolate is warm but not hot, which thickens the mixture and gives richness; the whites are whisked with a pinch of salt and a small amount of sugar to firm peaks that still bend at the tip, and a third is stirred into the chocolate to loosen it before the rest is folded in with a spatula in as few strokes as will leave no white streaks. The mousse is poured into glasses or a bowl and chilled for at least three hours, ideally overnight, so it sets fully. Versions with whipped cream folded in are lighter and paler and common in restaurants; the cream makes the mousse easier to hold but dilutes the chocolate, and a kitchen should say which it is making.

A spoon should go in with slight resistance and lift out a piece that holds its shape, with a texture that is airy yet dense, melting on the tongue and leaving the mouth coated with chocolate, not fat. The colour should be deep brown, the taste bitter-sweet with the cocoa well ahead of the sugar, and the egg should not be detectable. Mark down a mousse that is grainy from chocolate that seized or whites that were overbeaten, one that is foamy and collapses, which means the whites were under-whisked or the mousse was too fresh, a pale, sweet, creamy version served without warning as the classic, any taste of gelatine or raw egg white, and a mousse served straight from a cold fridge so hard it has to be scraped. A spoon of unsweetened whipped cream or a crisp tuile on the side is a reasonable accompaniment; sauces, fruit coulis and sprinkles are hiding something.

Mousse au chocolat

United Kingdom

CERU Farringdon

I have to say one of the best mousse I have eaten it is with dark chocolate and tahini, served with crystallised ginger pieces, and the presentation of the dessert in the Turkish coffee mug is a nice touch!

Mousse au chocolat review by diloyloyy at CERU Farringdon, London, United Kingdom

Mousse au chocolat

CERU Farringdon

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