Plain old dee-vine. You can serve this in cups and it will serve around 8 people. This is a very rich chocolate mousse and has a little Mexican spice to it. Julia Child was my muse as this is mostly her recipe which I nipped , tucked and added to here and there. I piped it into little molded chocolate cups and topped each one with three fresh raspberries to serve from a platter. Read it once or twice before you start to make it, you will use lots of pots and pans on this one and it’s best to have them all set up before you get started. I put the egg yolk mixture in the fridge while I’m working the chocolate.
Ingredients:
4 eggs separated
3/4 cups plus 1 tblsp fine granulated sugar
a pinch each cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and ancho chile powder
1/4 cup calvados, armagnac or cognac (in order of personal preference, see ‘A What?’ tab)
6 oz bitter-sweet chocolate
4 tablespoons espresso
3/4 cups unsalted butter
pinch salt
Beat egg yolks and 3/4 cup sugar together with mixer until thick and pale yellow. Beat in liquor and then place bowl over a pan of barely simmering water. Continue to beat egg mixture until it is foamy and too hot to touch with your fingertip. Place mixture over a bowl of ice water and beat until it is cool and has the consistency of mayonnaise (about 4 minutes). Melt chocolate with coffee and spices in a double boiler stirring very frequently. When chocolate is melted, remove from heat and beat in butter a little at a time. Beat chocolate into yolk mix. Beat egg whites and salt until soft peaks form. Add sugar and beat until stiff. Stir 1/4 of the egg whites into the chocolate mixture. Fold in the rest being careful not to deflate the egg white too much. Refridgerate until serving.
Memoirs of My Family Kitchen 