Welcome back to Home for Christmas. If you’ve been keeping up with this recipe series, you will have gathered, by now, that I have an insatiable sweet tooth. Most of the time I tend to balance the temptations of a busy working kitchen by limiting dessert test-tasting to a teaspoon of this and a teaspoon of that, but once the winter frost appears and the festive season arrives along with family and friends, so too do my chocolate cravings.
With this in mind and only a few days to go before Christmas, it is little wonder that I'm now totally and unashamedly committed to extravagance, especially when it comes to desserts. So, today I have a simple yet utterly indulgent treat for you (and me) - clementine chocolate mousse cups.
This chocolate mousse takes inspiration from my Clementine Possets (which you all seemed to love) and would be perfect for a Christmas eve dinner party.
Ingredients
100g dark chocolate, roughly chopped
100g milk chocolate, roughly chopped
400ml heavy cream
9 clementines: 8 clementines for the mousse cups*
1 clementine for the zest
½ tsp orange essence (optional)
*There will be enough chocolate mousse to fill the hollowed-out shells of 8 clementines. The extra clementine is needed for the zest. As the recipe only requires 35ml of juice, to avoid waste, reserve the spare juice from all 9 clementines for cocktails (spicy clementine marg perhaps?), a breakfast beverage or a zingy addition to any number of recipes.
Method
Remove the zest of 1 clementine and set aside. Cut the fruit in half and squeeze the juice into a measuring jug.
Cut off the top ¼ or 1/3 of the other 8 clementines and keep these sections as lids. (I like to freeze the ‘lids’ with a little flesh inside for the final presentation + frozen clementine tastes like orange sorbet and is rather refreshing!)
Then, using a paring knife, carefully remove the flesh from the clementines, and place in a sieve. Use the back of a wooden spoon to strain this juice into the measuring jug, which will now contain the juice of all 9 clementines. Measure out 35ml of the juice for the chocolate mousse and set aside. (Any remaining juice can be kept for other purposes.)
Place the 8 hollowed out clementines in a cup cake tin. This will stabilize the cups when you are ready to pipe or spoon in the mousse.
Place the chocolate in a medium bowl.
In a small saucepan, heat 150ml of cream over low-medium heat until warm. Pour the cream over the roughly chopped chocolate.* After a few moments, stir the chocolate and cream gently until smooth, then allow to cool for approx. 5 minutes.
*You could always heat the chocolate and cream together for a few minutes in a medium saucepan if you prefer.
In a separate bowl whisk the remaining heavy cream until soft peaks form.
Add the cooled chocolate little by little to the whipped cream and continue to gently whisk on low speed until all the chocolate is incorporated and stiff peaks have started to form.
Place the mousse into a piping bag and pipe into the clementine cups (or simply spoon the mixture into the cups) You could also use ramekins or espresso cups.
Refrigerate the mousse for 2-3 hours or overnight.
That’s it for today - phew! I’m back to editing the final recipes for Home for Christmas. If you make any of these recipes, please be sure to comment. Hearing from you makes my day.
Sarah