I know, this is not politically correct.
Monday is for detox and “clean” food and here… you find chocolate!
So I can understand if you prefer save the recipe for the next weekend dinner with friends, but please, give it a try.
This spoonful dessert is for chocolate lovers: the bitter and strong taste of the dark chocolate meets the indulgent, comforting touch of the milk chocolate then finishes with the white one, sweet and rich of vanilla taste… a remind of childhood’s memories.
The final surprise is a nutty and creamy pistachio mousse layer.
I love mousses, the fluffy consistency and the rich taste make them the perfect “finale” for each dinner.
If you never have improve yourself in the preparation of this kind of dessert, these “verrines” could be a good exercise, as you will find in their method all the “basic steps and rules that you can read below
FLAVOUR
It’s the main ingredient you use to prepare your base. Can be meltet chocolate, or pureed fruit, or hazelnuts/pistachios paste. You can also add flavour to your mousse directly in your custard, adding coffee or infusing teas and herbs.
AIR
Any kind of mousse is made adding “air” into a base: you can use whipped whites + sugar or whipped cream or whipped eggs + sugar.
When you add this “aereators” to the base, you need to work carefully in order do not break the air bubbles.
The best way is to start adding just a small portions of aereator in your base to make it softer, the add the rest in two o three times “folding“, that means stirring with a delicate moviment from the bottom to the top of the bowl.
THICKENING AGENT AND REFRIGERATION
Some mousse thickens perfectly after the refrigeration, like the dark chocolate one, some others like the white chocolate one or fruit ones are more liquid and need the addition of a thickning agent like gelatine or agar agar.
Mousse must be refrigerate for at least 1 hour, if you layer them, sometime you will need to refrigerate your pots between one layer and the other one.
PLATING AND SERVING
Don’t be confused by their fluffy and light consistency, mousses are almost all rich and nutrient. Serve them in small nice pots, guarnishing with fresh fruits or one small cookie.
Verrine 4 chocolats ( from the book “Patisserie!” – Christophe Felder)
Ingredients for 7 small glass pots
2 gelatine leaves – 90 g. dark chocolate (minimum 70% cocoa) – 90 g. milk chocolate – 90 g. white chocolate – 40 g. pistachio paste – 250 g. full fat milk – 550 g. fresh cream – 3 egg yolks – 30 g. sugar
Using two separate bowls soak the gelatine leaves in cold water (1 gelatine leaves in each bowl).
Chop finely the chocolate and put them in three separate bowls, put the pistachio paste in a fourth one.
In a heavy pan heat the milk and 50 g. of cream. In a bowl wisk the yolks and the sugar just the time to combine the cream – avoid to make them pale – then add the warm mixture of milk and cream little bit at time, to avoid to curdle them. Put the cream in the same pan, turn on the flame on medium low and stirring continuously, heat until it coats the back of your wooden spoon. Turn off.
Squeeze the gelatine and put one leaves in the white chocolate and the other one in the pistachio paste.
Put 95 g. of warm cream in each of the four bowls, stir to melt and combine the ingredients and set aside.
Whip the fresh cream to soft peaks the add 125 g. of it in each bowls, folding gently.
Using a spoon put the mousses in small glass pots doing four different layers.
The white mousse tend to be softer then the other ones, it could be necessary to refrigerate the pots between one layer and the others.
When ready, refrigerate for one hour. Enjoy.
Verrines 4 chocolate
