Chocolate Caramel Mousse

I pulled this one from the depths of my recipes for Valentines Day! If there was ever a dessert that makes me think of Valentines Day, chocolate mousse is it. There is something so classic and romantic about chocolate mousse. It is delicious and fun to eat, and there are a million ways to serve it and garnish it. (I chose my grandmothers antique red cocktail glasses for our dessert- use your imagination)

So then there is the question of what type of chocolate mousse to make! Well this was my go to chocolate mousse recipe when I was catering. I always loved that it had that extra dimension of rich amber caramel. It winds up light and silky, but with a luxurious extra kick of the caramel.

This may seem a little complicated- but don’t be intimidated. As long as you have all of your ingredients prepped, the process goes very quickly and then you are left with an incredible dessert your entire family will be worshipping you for!

Side note- PERFECT dessert for a dinner party. You can make this the day before, pipe it into glasses and then refrigerate until you pull out the elegant dessert at the last minute and serve it up to a round of oohs and aahs!

Chocolate Caramel Mousse, serves 4-6
½ cup white sugar
1 cup heavy whipping cream
3 yolks
300 grams dark, good quality chocolate
2 cups heavy whipping cream

Chop the chocolate (the finer the better) and place in a heat proof bowl.

In a bowl of a standing mixer, whisk the egg yolks until very smooth, pale and fluffy.

Meanwhile, heat the dry white sugar in a medium saucepan until a deep amber color.

While waiting for the sugar to melt, heat 1 cup of cream in a small saucepan until simmering.

When the sugar is melted, or almost all melted, stir with a wooden spoon, and add the hot cream to the sugar.

Keep the heat on low, and stir the caramel until all of the sugar is melted and the caramel is smooth.

Now, with the bowl of whipped egg yolks, turn the mixer on medium. Add on spoon of hot caramel at a time to the yolks, and then make sure to mix well before adding more. You are tempering the egg yolks without scrambling them.

When you have mixed all of the caramel into the yolks, the mixture will still be hot. Immediately pour the caramel over the chocolate.

Let sit for a moment, and then stir until all of the chocolate is melted and smooth.

Now, if you are like me, and are a little lazy, and therefore didn’t chop the chocolate very finely, and was dilly dallying, taking pictures, puttering about, etc. and didn’t get the hot caramel poured over the too big pieces of chocolate in time- then it isn’t going to melt all of the way.

In this case, place the bowl over a small pot of simmering water and watch it very carefully, stirring like crazy until smooth- then IMMEDIATLEY remove from heat.

Now, just to be clear- the consistency is not like ganache- remember that there is caramel in there. It looks like chocolate caramel- thick and shiny.

Now, whip the remaining two cups of cream to soft peaks.

Add about ¼ cup of the whipped cream to the chocolate caramel and vigorously whisk until the chocolate caramel thins a bit and gets glossy.