"Ice Burn" - Chocolate Mousse 2 ways
Kate Stark #2
EXCERPT:
Kate was in the kitchen whipping egg yolks, sugar, and Marsala wine in a zabaglione pot. An Italian dessert was incongruous with rest of the meal, but they were going to serve it in a split cup with Dirk’s mousse, with a hint of the chili from the first night’s mole sauce, topped with a slivered apricot that would also hark all the way back to that first meal she’d cooked. It would tie these last crazy days together up in a tight culinary knot.
Neat as…too neat!
All of the pieces came together at once.
Death Waits in the Dark. The sun was indeed setting outside the tall kitchen windows.
Swift, Silent, Deadly Death. Poison. But her kitchen was clean. Between her and the official taster, every single thing they’d sent to the Great Hall had been clean.
The attacks on her and Paul, both financial and by accusation.
And Stephanie Bronson was behind the murder of Maxwell Klugman in the Cooks Network studio. She’d always been the queen bitch of Chapin High. Even her brother Paul, on his deep, dark, guy-quest to bed every woman in his sister’s school—making Kate’s social life a living Hell all those years—had avoided Stephanie Bronson.
Note: This was a real nostalgia trip for me. My mom, who really was not a good cook, went through a brief cook-everything-from-Julia Child phase back in the 1960s. One of her few signature achievements? Julia’s chocolate mousse.
There are three very different ways to make mousse, all wrapped around which two of three ingredients you use: egg yolks, egg whites, and cream. Here’s two that I learned. They start the same, but finish differently.
The Egg Yolk – Cream Version (denser and richer)
Active time: 30-45 minutes / Total time: 4-1/2 hours / Serves: 3-4 (excepting chocolate gluttons)
Small Saucepan
- 2 Tbsp. (water [boring] or Grand Marnier and/or strained orange juice or maybe even apricot nectar, Julia uses strong coffee, but I hate coffee)
- 1/4 c. white sugar (superfine is even better)
Heatproof Bowl 1 (larger) Ingredients
· 2 egg yolks
Heatproof Bowl 2 (smaller) Ingredients
- 3-1/2 oz. dark chocolate (60-70%, not 80%), coarsely chopped
- 2 Tbsp. of liquid of choice (keep separate)
· 3 oz. unsalted butter, softened (keep separate)
Chilled Mixer Bowl 3 (absolutely clean, no grease of any kind, not even fingerprints)
Cream Version Bowl 4
· 1/2 c. + 1 Tbsp. whipping cream, chilled
· Tiny pinch of salt
Egg White Version Bowl 4
· 2 egg whites (can’t have any yolk in them) – as these aren’t cooked, for safety you must use pasteurized eggs, pasteurized liquid egg whites, or powdered egg-white meringue mix and reconstitute per instructions
· 1 Tbsp. white sugar (superfine is even better)
· 1/8 tsp. cream of tartar
· Tiny pinch of salt
Toppings
· Orange zest (especially good with the Grand Marnier), a mint leaf, minced candied ginger, slivers of apricot, whipped cream…
The Instructions – Egg Yolks
1. Place a large mixing bowl (#3 KitchenAid bowl and whisk attachment, or steel bowl and beater attachments) in the freezer for at least 15 minutes.
2. Bowl 1: Hand whisk egg yolks hard for 3-4 minutes until it is foamy, pale, and forms thick ribbons.
3. Small saucepan: heat until sugar is just melted.
4. Whisk into egg yolks, dribbling very slowly at first to not cook the eggs.
5. Pour 1/2” of water into saucepan and heat until hot, but below a low simmer. Bottom of Bowl 1 should not touch the water when set on top.
6. Place Bowl 1 over the water. Whisk until foamy and hot to the touch, 4-6 minutes.
7. Set in bowl (#5) of ice and continue to whisk until cool and again forming ribbons. (It should be like a creamy mayonnaise).
The Instructions – Chocolate
8. Bowl 2: Just melt the chocolate over the hot water. Stir until glossy.
9. Off the heat, whisk in the liquid until the chocolate is smooth and glossy.
10. Slowly add the butter and whisk until fully combined.
11. Off the ice, gently mix into the Bowl 1 cooled egg yolks. Don’t beat or whisk.
The Instructions – Cream or Egg White Version
12. Take Mixing Bowl (#3) from freezer and whip the egg white-mixture (or whipped cream) (Bowl #4) to firm but not stiff peaks with KitchenAid or hand mixer.
13. Add 1/4 to chocolate/egg mixture and mix well (don’t beat) with a rubber spatula (much better than a wooden spoon) until smooth and the mixture loosens up, keeping as much air as you can.
14. Add the rest of the egg white-mixture (or whipped cream) to the bowl, handle very gently to knock out as little air as possible. Sweep the spatula under the bottom and scoop up the middle to fold it over. Do this until the streakiness is almost gone (the mixture will deflate by as much as a half, but be strong, try not to cry).
15. Scoop into small ramekins or cute glasses, like a martini glass, or just chill the whole bowl and scoop out to serve later (this motion will finish the mixing of the last white streaks). You can smooth the top with the back of a dampened spoon.
16. Refrigerate at least 4 hours (up to 5 days) covered. Top with wherever your imagination takes you.
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| The dense egg yolk-cream version. Topped with orange zest on one and candied ginger on the other. | These lighter egg yolk-egg white mousses were made with apricot nectar and slivered apricot on top (plus one with orange zest). |