Tried & Tasted #4

Week: Four, Recipe: A magical bowl of chocolate mousse, By: Anna Jones.

I write this newsletter awaiting a delayed flight home from an amazing week-long trip to Kenya. From the coast to the bush, to Nairobi’s markets and tea farms, we squeezed in as many different landscapes and experiences as possible, and ate like kings the whole time. The vibrant colours and flavours of the fruits and spices were a joy after a long UK winter (think turmeric, ginger, cashews, coconut, and mangoes sweeter than I’ve ever tasted). And it will be very hard to rival the fresh seafood consumed in abundance (lobster, crab and my particular favourite: red snapper carpaccio). No doubt they will be featuring heavily in my cooking - and future newsletters - as I reflect on the trip.

But for now, I bring you a chocolate mousse recipe which - in its simplest form - calls for just two ingredients: dark chocolate and water. Anna Jones calls it a ‘magic bowl of chocolate mousse’ which is a description I’d have to agree with. I first saw the recipe in her weekly Substack, where she explains the French technique of making chocolate mousse using water instead of cream, which involves whisking the ingredients together in a bowl sitting over an ice bath (sort of like an inverted Bain Marie). In true Anna fashion, she puts a bright twist on the dish, adding citrus zest, honey and salt to the chocolate as it melts over a low heat with the water, before it is transferred to the cold bowl and whisked until it resembles a thick and silky chocolate sauce (for about four to five minutes if you’re whisking furiously by hand which was my technique).

The short ingredient list and quick preparation time make this a great pudding if you don’t have the bandwidth or time to turn the oven on or fuss with lots of shopping. For four people, Anna’s recipe calls for 200g dark chocolate and 175ml cold water. It is important to use chocolate with cocoa solids above 70%, otherwise the mixture won’t hold its shape properly. It’s also a fun one to spruce up with different toppings and looks like a deceivingly fancy dish.

Though the mousse is simple and quick to make, you have to be pretty precise so I’d recommend following the recipe originally published in Anna’s book, The Modern Cooks Year, and recently reshared here. It doesn’t cost much to subscribe to Anna’s newsletter which never fails to brighten up my Friday afternoon. Alternatively, the French technique she attributes her method to can be found here.

After the whisking, all that’s left to do is to divide the chocolate mixture into four small bowls, or pour it into one bigger one to scoop portions from when you serve. Leave it to set in the fridge for at least three hours and up to a total of six days.

To accompany the rich dark mousse, I followed Anna’s advice of adding a dollop of crème fraîche topped with orange zest and some chopped stem ginger soaked in syrup, which is great to have in your cupboard at this time of year to pair with any rhubarb-based desert. If you want to go the extra mile, you could add some candied citrus peal or a boozy cherry or two, or any fresh fruit that takes your fancy.

Triumph or tribulation?

All in all, triumph. But on the two occasions making this, the end result was slightly more chocolate pot than mousse. This could’ve been down to me using a hand whisk rather than an electric one, or maybe I’m just comparing it to the over-aerated supermarket mousses which are altogether a different texture. Either way, it made for an indulgent desert that I’ll definitely be making again. I would say to trust the quantities in the recipe - while the portions can look small when you pour the mixture out, the mousse is very rich so you don’t need masses to be more than satisfied.