Chocolate Mousse Recipe from Le Rendez-Vous
This chocolate mousse recipe is the same recipe used at Le Rendez-Vous...a favorite stop on the West Palm Beach Food Tour. If you’re craving chocolate, thank Chef Cory Willard for sharing this decadent recipe. If cooking is not your thing, Chocolate Mousse is always on the menu at Le Rendez-Vous, that trendy Parisian restaurant at 221 Datura Street in downtown West Palm Beach.
Ready for your cooking class with Chef Cory? Follow along and learn some cooking techniques and tips to make your mousse look just like the picture!
By following the steps exactly you can create an airy, creamy, intensely flavored mousse like served at our restaurant. By deviating, improvising and experimenting you can create a dish that is truly your own.
Chocolate Mousse Recipe
Chocolate Mousse Ingredients
1 cup cream
3.7 ounces chocolate – semisweet
1 egg yolk – whisked to ribbons
1 tablespoon espresso – chilled (strong coffee may be substituted)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
Begin by melting your chocolate in a double boiler. At the same time take your cold cream and whisk it to stiff peaks. Once you have achieved stiff peaks on your cream place in a large chilled mixing bowl and store in the refrigerator for later use.
By now the chocolate should be melted. Smooth it out with a rubber spatula and add 1/3 of the chocolate to the whipped cream. Quickly, but gently, fold the chocolate into the cream. Once integrated add 1/2 of the remaining chocolate and repeat until all of the chocolate has been completely combined.
From here the chocolate mix needs a bit more flavor and body. Add the espresso, egg yolk and vanilla extract; fold to combine. At this stage the mixture may seem a little loose for a mousse. Cover, place in the refrigerator and allow to completely cool.
Once the mousse is set plate, garnish and enjoy.
TIPS from Le Rendez-Vous Executive Chef Cory Willard
- While working with chocolate be sure that all pieces of equipment are completely dry. Water and chocolate don’t mix well.
- To set up the boiler take a pot filled with an inch of water and place another vessel above; the top vessel will be housing the chocolate. This can be anything from a mixing bowl to another pot of the same size.
- If you’re working with larger pieces of chocolate break them down to hasten the melting process.
- Be sure that your two vessels are appropriately sized. If the chocolate holding vessel is too large for the pot of boiling water the chocolate may burn.
- To achieve stiff peaks any number of methods can be used. A stand mixer with a whisk attachment is the easiest. Secondly, a mixing bowl with a hand mixer is efficient, although a bit more tedious. Finally, the old fashioned way with a whisk and elbow grease will prove effective however more time consuming.
- This is one of the easier steps to fault on. Over whipping will cause the cream to become butter and create a mousse with a strange mouth texture. Under whipping will cause the end result to be liquid and soupy.
- Garnishes can range from fresh sliced fruit, chocolate shavings from a microplane, or a baby leaf of fresh mint.
- Once you’ve mastered the technique of properly whipping cream get creative and apply this to other dishes. Melt some goat cheese and make a goat cheese mousse or whip some egg whites and make a lemon meringue tart; the techniques used here have endless applications.
Who’s going to be whipping up this Chocolate Mousse recipe for Mother’s Day, and who’s going to opt to dine at Le Rendez-Vous? Either way, dessert will be delicious!
Bon appetit!
More delicious West Palm Beach Food Tour recipes are just a click away!