Simply Chocolate Mousse

My friend S and her husband, A, gave me these two, huge packets of beautiful, pure, dark, Italian 72% chocolate. A works for a large, industrial food company and they supply different kinds of ingredients in bulk to restaurants, industrial bakers, small and big food businesses, etc....In short, the experts. I'm no expert, but I do know that when you have chocolate this pure and premium, you've got to use it in a recipe where the chocolate is the star. If it's masked, overpowered and drowned by other ingredients, that would simply be sacrilegious!

One bag of dark chocolate bits, perfect for topping the mousse, and another bag of big, dark chocolate chips.

So I decided to make a simple, chocolate mousse. Nothing complicated, just to let that chocolate flavour shine through.

SIMPLY CHOCOLATE MOUSSE
Serves 6

200 grams unsweetened chocolate chips
3 fresh eggs
1/2 cup white sugar
1 vanilla bean (substitute: 1 teaspoon vanilla extract)
1 tablespoon cocoa powder
300 ml whipping cream
2 tablespoons white sugar

Topping:
150 ml whipping cream
Chocolate shavings

Procedure:

1. Melt the chocolate chips in a bain marie. If you don't have one, put the chocolate chips in a heat proof, glass bowl. Heat some water in a pot until it is simmering. Put the bowl on top of the pot (make sure the bottom of the bowl is not touching the water) and stir the chocolate until it melts.

Once the chips are fully melted, take the bowl and set it aside to cool. By this time, you will see that the chocolate has a shiny, satiny feel.

2. Prepare the vanilla bean by cutting it in half. Cut it lengthwise and scrape off the vanilla.

Tip: Don't throw away those pods! Put it into your sugar container to make vanilla sugar!

Put the eggs, sugar and vanilla in a large mixing bowl.

Beat with an electric mixer until the mixture is pale and fluffy. Set aside.

3. Fold the melted chocolate and the cocoa into the egg mixture. It will become dark, thick and pasty. Set aside.

4. In another bowl, beat the cream and 2 tablespoons sugar until it is thick (don't overheat or it will become butter!). Add the cream in batches into the chocolate mix.

It will become light and no longer pasty, and will glide more smoothly.

5.  Spoon the chocolate mixture into 6 ramekins.  Leave 1 cm till the rim. Refrigerate this for at least an hour so that it sets.

When you're ready to serve, beat the cream and put it on top of the chocolate mousse. Use a spatula to smoothen it. Sprinkle with chocolate shavings. Then sit back, and enjoy!