Chocolate mousse is the perfect dessert for someone like me, who did not inherit the baking gene, to make in an emergency. Valentine’s Day recently provided such an emergency. Although I am an adequate baker, I do know how to stock a pantry and thus was rescued from a last minute trip to the bakery.
A quick internet search for chocolate mousse turned up 88 options on
Food52 alone. Even more were generated with a regular
Google search. The local
Press Democrat offered Michele Anna Jordan’s Simple,
salted chocolate mousse. She is a favorite of mine and I love her recipes. So many choices, so little time! One of them, however, was a match for my pantry options. Paradise found!
I always have good quality baking chocolate on hand and also happened to have some plain Greek yogurt. I am currently drinking milk in my tea that I usually drink black - well, just because. Another score in the pantry/fridge.
There was no orange marmalade in my pantry as the recipe suggested, but I did happened to have some Triple Berry McEvoy Jam on hand. There was Grand Marnier in the pantry as well as some Kahlua and Frangelico. Options looked good.
So here is the very simple recipe, found on Food52, with some advice and tweaks from me.
Maria Speck’s Greek Yogurt Chocolate Mousse
Ingredients
6 ounces good quality dark chocolate with 70% cacao, finely chopped
½ cup whole milk
1 or 2 tablespoons Grand Marnier, or other good quality orange liquor
1 cup whole Greek yogurt (2% is okay, but don’t use nonfat)
4 tablespoons orange marmalade
Directions
1. Place the chocolate into a medium heat proof bowl. In a small heavy-bottomed saucepan, bring the milk just to a boil over medium heat. Pour the hot milk over the chocolate and leave it to sit for 1 to 2 minutes. Stir with a spatula or wooden spoon until you have a smooth ganache.
2. In a small bowl, beat the Greek yogurt with a small whisk or a fork until smooth. Fold the yogurt into the chocolate mixture using a spatula until thoroughly combined, then stir in the tablespoon of Grand Marnier. If you like a boozy dessert, add the second tablespoon.
3. Spoon the mousse into four small serving cups and chill until firm, at least one hour, or up to a day ahead, covered with plastic wrap.
4. To serve, spoon a teaspoon of marmalade onto each serving.
Here are some photographs of this mousse coming together:
Here are a few comments and a few tweaks:
* This is really chocolate pudding. Mousse to me means something is whipped and fluffy. It is good chocolate pudding - but not mousse. The texture is really silky.
*Other than the booze, which you can certainly leave out, this is a “no sugar added”wizard of a dessert. (Except, of course, for the jam which you could also leave out but, frankly, it needs the punch of sweetness.)
* I stirred in a couple of pinches of sea salt before chilling.
* It is sort of cool to have a chocolate pudding that has only high cacao chocolate, milk and yogurt as ingredients and comes together in 5 minutes - aside from the chilling time. The simplicity and time requirements are crazy good.
Here were the booze options from my pantry that made sense to me:
* I tried all three but the Frangelico, with it’s hazelnut flavor, was the one for me and it really worked with the fruity
McEvoy Ranch Triple Berry Jam.
Guittard pioneered the concept of single origin chocolate back in the early 2000’s and there are specific chocolate producing regions that are known to pair best with certain flavors. Perhaps the origin of this chocolate was destined to be paired with Frangelico and Triple Berry Jam!
Easy and delicious - I love it when those two words come in the same sentence! Enjoy!
