4-minute Chocolate Mousse

This incredibly decadent, luxurious chocolate mousse recipe comes to us from Gordon Ramsay (to whom I lovingly refer as Angry Chef). You have to try this! It's worth every single minute of effort.

_{WARNING: THE FOLLOWING RECIPE IS EXTREMELY ADDICTIVE}

"But Scooch," you say, "Restaurant-quality chocolate mousse in four minutes?! Sound too good to be true?" Yeah, I thought so too.

So I decided to take this recipe to task - could it possibly be done in four minutes without the use of a microwave? I had to find out.

Then, of course, I realized I'd have to stop and take pictures and make notes along the way; I really wouldn't be the best judge of the passage of time here. So I enlisted my trusty assistant (who was also able to help me translate the Britishisms) to help out so that we could get a better idea of the time.

It went VERY fast. I'm sure that after a couple stabs at this recipe, four minutes would be no problem at all.

Also, have I mentioned yet how DEADLY DELICIOUS this is? I could eat about two spoonfuls before I was down for the count.

This is going to be a new staple in our household. Keep the ingredients on hand!

_{YOU'LL ALWAYS BE FOUR MINUTES or so FROM ABSOLUTE DECADENCE!!}

Step 1 Ingredients

Here's the recipe in its original British, and then followed with an American translation.

Brits, etc. use:

• 100g dark chocolate (70% cocoa solids) broken up into pieces -
• 300ml double cream
• 50g caster sugar
• 1 large egg white
• chocolate shavings, to garnish
• 2 tbsp Amaretto or other liqueur (optional)

Yanks, etc. use:

• 4oz bar of high-quality dark chocolate (I used Ghiradelli). You'll use 7 of the 8 squares, and the 8th square you can shave for garnish (or munch on to keep your cravings at a minimum while whipping this up)
• 10oz heavy whipping cream (I was lucky enough to find a very charming British grocery in SF where we had a ball of a time picking up yummy snacks and double cream!)
• 1/4 cup extra-fine granulated sugar (not powdered sugar!), or just grind up regular granulated sugar in a food processor or coffee grinder. Caster sugar is just really fine sugar. DO NOT USE POWDERED SUGAR
• 1 large egg white
• chocolate shavings, to garnish
• 2 tbsp Amaretto or other liqueur (optional)

Tools

---

• Hand-held electric mixer
• Bowl inside another bowl filled with ice water
• Scale to measure ingredients (opt)

UPDATE

As suggested by many a viewer, if you are not able to acquire pasteurized eggs, or are concerned about having an egg white in the recipe, try substituting in meringue powder!

From user HollyMeeker:

• 2 teaspoons Wilton Meringue Powder
• 2 tablespoons cold water
• 1/4 cup super fine sugar (Use the recipe's suggestion to make the granulated sugar fine.)

In a large bowl, combine meringue powder, water and 1/4 cup minus 1 teaspoon of the sugar. Whip at high speed for 5 minutes. (A stand mixer makes this whole process much easier.)

Gradually add the rest of sugar and continue whipping at high speed for 5 minutes until meringue is stiff and dry. Makes the the equivalent of one egg white.

Use according to your recipe. Meringue powder can be used to replace egg whites in your recipe if egg white is beaten with sugar before adding to ingredients.

Just a note: Chefs say that using a copper bowl to beat egg whites will make them higher and lighter.

Thanks, Holly!

Comments

[HollyHarken]

Smoochmaroo, OMG this is a killer dessert! I made it last night after emailing you to ask how much it makes. Since I'm going to a friend's house and I don't know how many extra kids there will be I doubled the recipe. I had thought about using milk chocolate, but it would never have had the fantastic flavor that dark chocolate gives this dessert. The next time I make it I will put the cream in a much deeper bowl. I was smart enough to put the ice bowl in the sink so that I wouldn't have to deal with water spilling everywhere. The mousse splattered everywhere as I mixed it until it started to thicken. Maybe I shouldn't start on high speed. Many lessons were learned making this for the first time. I will make it again that is for certain, assuming that my friends don't drop dead of a heart attack after eating this for dessert tonight. I can think of so many different flavorings to add. If I have any leftover I'm going to try freezing it to see if I can make a mousse ice cream. As I was stirring the chocolate into the hot cream I realized that this would make a great ice cream base. Just add in the sugar and some vanilla to the cream instead of the egg whites and put into an icecream maker after you've cooled the cream in the ice water bath. After I got the mousse made I pulled out my fancy cake decorating gun so that the heat from my hands wouldn't melt the cream in a pastry bag. I piped the dessert into plastic wine glasses. Each serving is just under 4 ounces and I ended up with 10 & 1/2 glasses. I've come to realize that I should have allowed the mousse to chill overnight and then piped the dessert into the glasses so that it would have held the piping shape better. Live and learn. I'm including some photos since I know you'll want to see what my efforts looked like. I see that I should have put a small cookie in the bottom of the glass to keep the mousse from sinking into the stem.

[scoochmaroo]

Oh Holly! Thank you so much for the time you took to document your efforts. I know your trials will be helpful to everyone who tried this recipe. Your desserts look amazing! Let me know how further adventures go!

[eulaliaaaa!]

I just made some for dessert tonight, and it was amazing! Everyone liked it! Here are the pictures:

[scoochmaroo]

Awesome!!!

[Nahual]

Is there any way to make a Chocolate Channel on this website? :)

[adrofig]

Hey, I was wondering, aren't you not supposed to eat uncooked egg whites because of salmonella?

[PyroTrician95]

Chances are low of getting it so most ignore it haha :)

[GummiBear]

Salmonella from eggs only comes from the SHELL (at least im told), so you're good...unless you like your mousse crunchy. (lolz)

[akasperavicius]

Make sure you use fresh eggs and you'll be fine.

Salmonella will give you the runs, that's about it. It has been completely overblown by the Americans who want you to sterile-ize everything - which sounds like a "safe" idea until you realize we have never eaten that way.

Sterilizing everything destroys your body's natural immunity to bacteria and will make your more susceptible to disease in the long run.

Besides, it tastes better.

[urtlesquirt]

Thumbs up if the 5 minute recipies ebook brought you to this 4 minute recipie.

[Pinksalamander]

This recipe also doubles for delicious chocolate ice cream! Just do step 2. It's REALLY GOOD!

[Pinksalamander]

This was fun to make and VERY delicious! I wasn't able to make it in 4 minutes though. It took me about half an hour! But it was well worth the wait. I took the picture on my laptop, so you can see a part of my laptop. Everyone loves it! Here are the pictures:

[TheCritic]

I just gained 20 pounds reading this recipe.....But it made me happy. I am gonna try this.

[AussieAnglerGal]

haha, thanks for using two types of measurements schooch, i hate scratching my head over American terms

[Birdy Jane]

If I'm going to use meringue powder , do I use the 1/4 cup sugar in the instructions plus the 1/4 cup sugar in the recipe?

[HollyHarken]

No you use the 1/4 cup for the meringue and 1/4 cup for the chocolate/ cream mixture.

[HollyHarken]

Smooch, I just wanted to let you know that I made a double batch of this fabulous chocolate mousse so that I could make a mousse pie. In the past I had been using a commercial mousse mix and dream whip. Now that I know how to make this fabulous mousse thanks to you, I decided to use your recipe. First I made and baked a chocolate graham cracker crust and let it cool. Then I made my superfine sugar with my food processor. I weighed out my chocolate chips using a bag of 60% cacao chips that I bought at Aldi during the Chrismas baking season. I measured out my cream and got every thing ready so that I could proceed. Then I made my egg whites using meringue powder instead of actual egg whites. I got it all whipped up before I started my mousse making. Next I got out one of my bigger bowls and put about a tablespoon of salt in it. Put a bunch of ice cubes in the bowl, added water and stirred to dissolve the salt. Adding salt makes the water temperature go below freezing. (I think I'll use this method to make my whipping cream the next time I make it.) I then placed the big bowl in my sink and used a 3 quart Farberware bowl to mix the cream in. Then I mixed half of the whipping cream with some very strong rum that I have from Austria. This is 160 proof rum (serious stuff) so it is to be used sparingly. I only used 2 tablespoons and it was just right. Any more would have been over powering. NO I DO NOT KNOW WHERE THE AVERAGE PERSON CAN BUY THIS RUM. My uncle gets it for me through the PX down in the DC area. The bottle is over 20 years old that is how little I use it. I only use it to make mousse and Chrismas cookies. I got the cream whipped a bit and then started adding in the chocolate/cream mix as the beaters were running. I really could have used another set of hands for this task! I did it this way in hopes of avoiding lumps of chocolate. I still ended up with a few, but over all it worked out very well. I got the cream whipped and then added a bit of the meringue to lighten it. Then I poured the cream mix into my big stand mixer bowl and used the whisk attachment to fold it all together by hand. I’m thinking I need to invent a handle for the whisk attachment to make this process easier. It is very hard to hold it in my hand. I didn’t want to use the mixer to fold the ingredients together as I was worried that it would have deflated. I filled the pie crust and then let everything sit in the refrigerator over night. This morning I took the cold leftover mousse and piped shells onto the pie. Here’s a photo of the finished dessert. I’m sure that I’ll have to serve small slices so that we don’t all keel over from a heart attack from the richness of this dessert.

[jacopez]

hi, i was just wondering approx how many people this serves? it sounds like a great recipe, can't wait to try it out!!

[Babsy972]

Lots of positive reviews here.. did you guys add a liqueur or not?

[kbawcutt]

When you say tablespoon do you mean an english tablespoon or an american tablespoon? (when it comes to liquer I tend to assume people mean an Australian tablespoon XD).

[AMAZONIAbydjljwilliams]

An American tablespoon is 15mls..while an Australian tablespoon is 20mls

Here's my list of measurements its taken me awhile to compile..most handy for online recipe surfing
1 cup = 16 tablespoons
¾ cup = 12 tablespoons
½ cup = 8 tablespoons
¼ cup = 4 tablespoons
2 thirds cup = 10 tablespoons + 2 teaspoons
3 eighths cup = 6 tablespoons
1 eighth cup = 2 tablespoons
1 sixth cup = 2 tablespoons + 2 teaspoons
1 sixteenth cup = 1 tablespoon
2 cups = 1 pint
2 pints = 1 quart
1 quart = 4 cups
3 teaspoons = 1 tablespoon
48 teaspoons = 1 cup
1 pinch = less than 1 eighth teaspoon
1 dash = 3 drops to ½ teaspoons
2 tablespoons = 1 oz
1 cup (AUS) = 250mls
1 tablespoon (AUS) = 20mls
1 teaspoon (AUS) = 5mls
1 cup (USA) = 237mls
1 tablespoon (USA) = 15mls
½ cup (USA) = 118mls
1 teaspoon (USA) = 5mls
1 pound (USA) = 454g
454 grams = 16oz
1 kilo = 2.2 lbs
1oz = 28.5 grams
3oz = 85 grams
stick of butter = 113grams

[adrofig]

Hey, I was wondering, aren't you not supposed to eat uncooked egg whites because of salmonella?

[skaar]

there was mention of pasteurised eggs... so, is safe.

[intiguy]

can u tell me wat can i use instead of egg , i am a vegeterian

[Batness]

You mean you are vegan?

[kaikoi]

bananas! It's true, they have ligament :)

[GGCR]

I made this yesterday, it was awesome! It still is, as I made a double batch and have it stored in the fridge, haha. Since I live in the Netherlands, I couldn't get my hands on any double cream or 'heavy' whipping cream. Instead I just improvised and used 500ml mascarpone and 100ml regular whipping cream. Note this is for a double batch - it worked out perfectly.

So, no double cream? Substitute using 250ml mascarpone and 50ml regular whipping cream!

[TheArtiste]

this takes nowhere close to 4 minutes. misleading title much?

[bowow0807]

hello any recipe that says takes x minutes it all depends on how you used you are to the recipe. if you make it for the first time it may take 10 minutes and if you become comfortable with the recipe you can prepare it in the 4 minutes

[guillotine]

i had a hard time beatting the mixture what might i of done rong

[jrogge1]

We also couldn't get it to form soft peaks. Not sure if we didn't get it cold enough?

[anonymouse197]

Its a lovely dish, but possibly a little too rich for my liking - although looking at the ingredients that is to be expected!!

[dawsonj]

you Americans, and your lack of metric-ness : )
I haven't made this yet, but it sure must be delicious!

[juicymoose]

you even did one for us brits!! thanks soooo much!!

[eulaliaaaa!]

When I first heard the term "chocolate mousse", I had kind of the same idea as the Swedish Chef here: 

[friendship12396]

This turned out pretty good, but it took us way longer than 4 minutes...

[pjrpumpken]

Scooch how do u get all these awesome ideas

[Nelyan]

Scooch, look what you did! I'm hungering for something chocolaty EVEN when I am already eating chocolate while I'm reading 'ibles!

[melmano]

Did this recipe two times now; My parents love it (and I do too)! First time, I used semi-sweet chocolate chips, and it was a bit too sweet. Second time, I used Baker's dark chocolate : Perfect! Thanks for the great recipe. Be sure I'll continue making it!

[crazyaboutbeads]

How many measuring cups of the finished product does one batch make? I'm pondering this for my birthday. 8)