4-minute Chocolate Mousse

This incredibly decadent, luxurious 4-minute 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!!}

Ingredients

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

Brits, etc. use:

100 g dark chocolate (at least 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, or Amaretto Syrup (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 whale 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, Amaretto Syrup, or other liqueur (optional)

Tools

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

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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!

Cream + Chocolate

It's difficult to chronicle the order of events. Angry Chef recommends this step before the next, but I prefer them in reverse order. I'll let you make up your own mind about it.

Break the chocolate into small pieces and set aside.
In a small saucepan, heat half of the cream until it begins to boil

Note: this happens faster if you preheat the saucepan before adding the cream

Turn off the heat, add the chocolate pieces and stir until the chocolate has melted and the mixture is smooth.
Pour the mixture into a bowl set over a large bowl of iced water and add the rest of the cream and Amaretto, if using.
Using a hand-held electric whisk, beat the mixture to soft peaks. Remove the bowl from the iced water.

Egg White + Sugar

Separate egg white into a bowl
Whisk the egg white with a hand-held electric beater until stiff peak.
Add the sugar, a tablespoon at a time, and continue whisking to a soft meringue.

Fold Together and Devour

Carefully fold the meringue through the chocolate mixture, then spoon or pipe into chilled serving glasses.
Top with chocolate shavings or cookies or mint sprigs!
Try not to eat the whole thing at once or you may require a trip to hospital

With enough practice (and believe me, once you try this, you'll be more than willing to Try, Try Again!), I'm sure you can pare this process down to four minutes. But for the first time, maybe cut yourself a break and allow at least 10!

This is even better after chilling! _NOM