French Chocolate Mousse

WARNING: This Chocolate Mousse Can Be Seriously Addictive. Consume Ravenously With Care.

After a somewhat challenging few months, I have two things to celebrate. Firstly, 2024 marks one decade since I launched www.lovethekitchen.co.uk, and 12 years since I gave up smoking. For those interested in breaking the habit, see below. When it comes to recipe writing, there is still a lot more fuel in the tank (albeit at a more relaxed pace than I had first envisaged). Roll on 2034!
Any eagle-eyed follower of Love the Kitchen will notice that I hardly ever publish dessert recipes. This French Chocolate Mouse recipe will be my third dessert post in 10 years. In reality, this recipe is not new by any stretch of the imagination. I first made this mousse in 1992, after finding a version of this recipe in an old Australian Woman’s Weekly magazine. I have probably made French Chocolate Mousse once or twice a year since, as it has always been a firm family favourite.

Marlini and I always favour savoury over sweet dishes, and I struggle with justifying how long desserts take to make. This effort is then demolished within minutes (or sometimes less!). My French Chocolate Mousse is no exception. The actual time and effort to make it (particularly if you have invested in a robust food processor) is barely 30 minutes. The hard work really starts with the clean-up afterwards. If you happen to have a chocoholic and silicone spatula at hand, a lot of pleasure can be found in scraping and slurping the chocolate remains in both the food processor bowl and mixing bowls. I also wouldn’t tackle this recipe without a dishwasher to come to the rescue. The clean-up is seriously messy yet delicious (or so my kitchen helper tells me ;o).
You may want to invest in a padlock for the fridge to deter chocoholics from swiping the French chocolate mousse before it has had time to set. I think it is at its best after 24 hours in the fridge.

French Chocolate Mousse

As desserts are quite rare for us, our choice of receptacles to use for French Chocolate Mousse is quite limited. For this reason, we use a range of different options including: coffee cups, ramekins, and small drinking glasses. I really recommend adding some fresh season fruit or berries (the sharper, the better) as it really helps to contrast with the rich dark chocolate flavour. Adding fresh shredding mint leaves was a new addition this year, and just ‘works’.

Breaking the habit

Smoking was supposed to be an easy to beat habit – and ended up being a lengthy battle to break my addiction with nicotine. I tried everything conventional, then some more alternative options, and after many failed attempts broke the cycle. Annually, I tuck away the money I previously wasted on tobacco into a separate bank account – and reward myself with something meaningful. One year, it was a new NEFF Hob, Oven, and Extractor. Had I adjusted to today’s prices (double the cost today from when I quit) this would amount to £2,800. Beyond the health benefits of having stopped smoking, there is the gratification that nicotine no longer has any control over me.
Of all my regrets in life (and there are more than I care to admit), lighting that first cigarette as a teenager thinking it was cool is ‘up there’ with the most inept things I have ever done.

In the same year, I also took up cycling in Yorkshire after a 15-year hiatus, and had some really enjoyable two-wheeled adventures with Tim, Ian, Gary & co in the beautiful Yorkshire countryside. Whilst our move to Lincoln has been generally really positive, the cycling is what I miss the most.