Saturday, December 25, 2010

chocolate and water

62. Chocolate chantilly

Turn to the 'molecular gastronomy' entry in Larousse Gastronomique and you'll find a single recipe: a chocolate mousse made without eggs or gelatine. The preparation is just like the one Heston Blumenthal demonstrated on Kitchen Chemistry a few years ago, when he still had hair. You take 200 mL water (or coffee or tea or orange juice) and combine it with 220 grams of chocolate. You make an emulsion and then you whisk the shit out of it until you end up with something frothy and pale. This you then refrigerate.


In my case, I used Earl Grey tea (black) and Lindt's 50% dark chocolate. Normally with mousse I'd look for something with 70% cocoa solids but you have to remember that this mousse doesn't contain any cream. I'll eat straight 70% but I don't enjoy it anywhere near as much as a strong milk chocolate or a mild dark chocolate (something in the range of 45-60%). Hence the use of 50%. And the Earl Grey? I took that idea from Guillaume Brahimi (and he took it from wherever he took it from, I suspect). At Bistro Guillaume a few months ago I had a chocolate tart that was served with a Earl Grey creme anglaise. The combination worked well.


Now. Problem. The chantilly didn't work well. It partly set but partly didn't. I have an island of okay-mousse sitting atop a sea of Earl Grey-flavoured chocolate. It doesn't look like Heston Blumenthal's at all. My friend told me more chocolate would solve the problem but I didn't have any more on hand. Chalk it up to experience. I'll make it again some time as I've seen chantilly work well as a tart filling.

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