Recipe by Jodie Smith

Chocolate Truffle Mousse Pots

Name: Chocolate Truffle Mousse Pots
Prep time: 20 min
Yield: 6

Serves6 people

Prep20 min

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Chocolatier Pimm's Liqueur Truffles 110g

$12.95

Hand-packed and dispatched from our Corio, Victoria warehouse, with free delivery Australia-wide on orders over $100.

A dark chocolate mousse whipped rather than set, spooned into six small glasses, with a liqueur truffle balanced on each one at the last minute. Twenty minutes of work and three hours in the fridge, so it is finished the day before you need it. An adult dessert. Serves 6.

Ingredients

Serves 6, in glasses of about 150ml. Prep 20 minutes, then 3 hours in the fridge, and the oven stays off. The chocolate, cream and sugar are a supermarket buy. The truffles and the biscuits come from us.

For the mousse
200g	dark chocolate, 55 to 70 per cent, chopped
100ml	thickened cream, for the base
300ml	thickened cream, cold, for whipping
2 tbsp	caster sugar
	a pinch of fine salt
On top, at the last minute
6	Chocolatier Pimm's Liqueur Truffles, one per glass
1	Chocolatier Pure Delight Milk Chocolate Speckle, shaved with a peeler
On the side
	Jen's Traditional Choc Oat Biscuits or Jen's Choc Viennese Whirls
	VPC Milk and White Chocolate Raspberries, in a bowl

Whipped, not set

There are two ways to get chocolate into a glass and they taste nothing alike. A ganache is chocolate and hot cream stirred together and left to firm up, which gives you a dense, glossy, truffle-textured pot. That is what our dark chocolate ganache tartlets are, and it is the right answer when there is pastry underneath. This one goes the other way. The same ganache is made first, cooled to room temperature, then folded through softly whipped cream, so air goes in and the finished spoonful is light enough to eat after a large meal. It sets with cream rather than egg, so there is nothing raw in it and nothing to curdle.

The truffle on top, and why it goes on last

The Chocolatier liqueur truffles are milk and white chocolate cups with a liquid centre, made in Australia, and the pack asks for cool dry storage at 14 to 18C. A fridge is colder and damper than that, so a truffle left sitting on a mousse overnight softens and sweats, and the shell loses the snap that makes it worth putting there. Keep the box in the cupboard, put one on each glass as you carry them to the table, and you get a firm shell, then the liqueur, then the mousse. Enjoy responsibly.

Method

Sit the chopped chocolate in a large bowl.
Heat the 100ml of cream in a small pan until it steams and just begins to bubble at the edge. Boiling it makes the ganache greasy.
Pour it over the chocolate, leave it for a minute without touching it, then stir from the middle outwards until it is smooth and shining. Stir in the salt.
Leave the ganache on the bench for 20 minutes, until it is no warmer than your hand. Warm ganache will melt the cream you are about to fold in.
Whip the cold 300ml of cream with the caster sugar to soft peaks. Stop while the peaks still flop over, since stiff cream will not fold in without knocking the air out.
Stir a third of the cream into the ganache to loosen it. Be brisk about this one.
Fold in the rest in two more additions with a large spoon, cutting down through the middle and lifting over, until there are no pale streaks left.
Spoon into six glasses, leaving 1cm at the top for the truffle to sit in.
Cover each glass and refrigerate for at least 3 hours, or overnight.
Just before serving, shave the chocolate speckle over the tops with a vegetable peeler and set one truffle on each.

A pot without the liqueur

The mousse itself contains no alcohol, so if you would rather leave the liqueur out of it entirely, finish the glass with a couple of VPC Milk and White Chocolate Raspberries or a shaving of the chocolate speckle instead of a truffle. Make two of the six that way and label them, and everybody at the table is looked after without a second recipe.

Common questions

Can I make chocolate mousse the day before?

Yes, and a cream based mousse like this one is better for it. Make it in the morning or the night before, cover each glass and keep it in the fridge for up to two days. Cover it properly, because chocolate takes on the smell of whatever is sitting near it. What does not keep is the topping: add the truffle and the shaved chocolate in the last minute before it goes to the table.

Do the truffles keep their shape in the mousse?

On top, yes. Pushed down into the mousse, no. A truffle sitting on the surface holds its shape and its snap for a couple of hours at room temperature. Buried in cold mousse it softens from the outside and the shell goes dull, and a liquid centre will eventually leak into the mousse around it. If you want the liqueur through the pot rather than on it, chop two truffles and fold the pieces in at the very end of step 7, then serve within a few hours.

Is there a version without alcohol?

Yes. The mousse is chocolate, cream, sugar and salt, so it is already free of it. Finish the glasses with chocolate raspberries, a shaving of speckle or a few fresh raspberries, and serve the truffles separately on a plate for those who want one.

Allergens

Read the box before serving anyone with an allergy. Our listing for the Chocolatier liqueur truffles declares milk and soy, and states they may also contain peanut, almond, hazelnut, wheat and gluten. They contain alcohol and are intended for adults. Store them cool and dry at 14 to 18C. The chocolate, cream and biscuits you add carry their own labelling.

The truffles and the speckle are on the Chocolatier brand page with the rest of our chocolate and confectionery, and a tray of these belongs on a festive entertaining table. For the rest of the course, easy Christmas desserts and Christmas desserts in Australia cover what else to make, and the Christmas hampers are the version you send rather than cook. Shipping is free Australia-wide on orders over $100.