Tips For Selecting the Perfect Chocolate Mousse Ingredients
Photo by M.studioWhat is Mousse?
Mousse is a sweet or savoury dish that can be made in many ways like a cake, the ingredients can vastly alter the final outcome of the mousse – especially for a choc mousse cake.
A sweet mousse is usually served chilled, semi-frozen, or even frozen to have a texture similar to ice cream. Depending on how the mousse is made, mousse is usually fluffy in texture like shaving cream or can be on the dense side but still can be fluffy when eaten.
The best aspect of sweet mousse is that there are many flavour combos you can create and the combinations of flavours are exciting to make, not only to you but your taste buds as well!
Chocolate Mousse Cake Ingredients
There are many ways to create chocolate mousse but these are the typical chocolate mousse cake ingredients I use:
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Chocolate (pick your favourite)
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Heavy cream (minimum 35% fat)
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Full cream milk (lactose-free can be used as well)
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Gelatin powder (200+ bloom strength) or gelatin leafs
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Caster Sugar
If you noticed, I do not use egg whites in my mousse, this is not ideal as my mousse cakes go through a freezing process. Eliminating egg whites is not a deal-breaker as the egg whites give the chocolate mousse a fluffier texture.
(Also read this: Cosmos: Cookies n Cream Mousse Cake is Born)
The Chocolate Selection
Chocolate plays a huge role in the flavour and texture of your mousse cake. Here’s the good news, in my experience and research, you can technically not go wrong with the chocolate you select, whether it’s milk, dark or white chocolate. Pick your favourite and the flavour will come through, for example: if you like Cadbury’s traditional milk chocolate, go for it!
Some of the chocolate I use in my Dark Chocolate mousse cake and White chocolate mousse cake is:
Tip 1: Keep in mind some chocolate melts and burn easier than others if melting at a high temperature. One common reason why your chocolate is burning is that the cocoa butter separates from the chocolate, crystalises and burns. Chocolate melts between 40 - 55 degrees Celcius.
Tip 2: Under no circumstances that water or any type of moisture should get in contact with your chocolate. This will cause your chocolate to seize and there is no saving it! You either eat it or throw it out.
The Cream Selection
Use only heavy (some may label it as ‘thickened’) cream with a minimum of 35% fat content. Lactose-free can be used as well.
Tip: Using any cream under 35% fat, such as light cream will cause problems with your choc mousse cake as these creams have a higher water content thus the chocolate and other ingredients will not combine together and will curdle.
The Milk Selection
Milk shares similar reasons with cream. Use full cream milk rather than any type of milk such as light or soy as the fat content is lower.
Tip: Lactose-free full cream milk can be used
The Gelatin Selection
I personally use McKenzie's Gelatine Powder (bloom strength 210-230) or McKenzie's Gelatine Leaves (bloom strength 220-260). But any gelatin with the same bloom strength can be used.
Tip: You can bloom powdered gelatin in cold full cream milk instead of cold water. This is to reduce the water content in my chocolate mousse cake.
The Sugar Selection
Any brand of caster sugar works best as it dissolves easily, try to avoid powdered sugar (sometimes called confectioners’ sugar). You can use standard granulated sugar if you wish
Tip: Sugar can be optional depending on how much chocolate and what type of chocolate you use in your mousse. I personally use 60g of caster sugar with 280g of 45% dark chocolate but I don’t use sugar with my white chocolate.
That’s a Wrap
This blog is to inform the basic and needed ingredients to create a smooth chocolate mousse cake. There are many other chocolate mousse cake ingredients that can supplement these ingredients but for now, have fun with the base ingredients!
- Dante