Best Easy Creamy Dark Chocolate Mousse Dessert

Best Easy Creamy Dark Chocolate Mousse Dessert

Chocolate lovers, your perfect dessert is here!  Best Easy Creamy Dark Chocolate Mousse Dessert is an absolutely great little treat that even an inexperienced cook can put together pretty easily. Whether you choose to eat it out of a bowl with a spoon standing at your kitchen counter, or to (very generously) share it with your significant other as a date night treat, this dark chocolate mousse is sure to become one of your favorite desserts. Bittersweet chocolate, heavy cream, butter, eggs, and just a bit of sugar are all the simple ingredients it takes to create this truly decadent chocolate dessert recipe, all without a lot of work. 

Why You Should Give This Recipe a Try

This mousse is a smooth, creamy, and richly chocolate dessert that is easy enough for even beginner cooks to master.

The ingredients are easy to find. You probably already have most of them in your pantry!

It is a very versatile dessert that can be served as is, with a variety of toppings, or as a side to a light cake.

Recipe Ingredients

4 tbsp butter

6 oz bittersweet chocolate

​3 eggs, separated

1/2 tsp cream of tartar

1/3 cup sugar

1/2 cup heavy cream

Ingredient Notes

Bittersweet chocolate is the heart of this recipe. It has just enough of a dark chocolate flavor to give you mousse a deep, rich taste. Remember to go for the good quality chocolate since it is the basis of the whole dish. Most grocery stores carry a good variety now.

Melt together the chocolate with heavy cream and butter and you will have a hard time resisting eating it as is – but try.

A touch of cream of tartar is key to creating the glossy, stiff peaks from your egg whites. Can you do it without it? Probably, but cream of tartar will make your life so much easier! Why make things hard on yourself?

Step-by-Step Instructions

1. Chop the chocolate into small pieces and place it into a small saucepan. The pieces don’t have to be minuscule, but it is more difficult to melt chocolate evenly when the pieces are too large.

2. Separate the egg yolks from the egg whites. See “Tips & Tricks” for directions on how to do this.

3. Add in the butter and the heavy cream and over medium high heat.

4. Stir constantly until the chocolate is melted. While it can simmer gently, DO NOT let the mixture boil.

5. Remove from the heat to cool slightly.

6. You will mix the egg yolks into the melted chocolate mixture, but need to be very careful about not cooking the eggs. Raw eggs added to hot liquid can lead to scrambled eggs. To do this successfully, use a ladle or large spoon to drop a little of the chocolate into the eggs while whisking constantly. Make about 3 additions and then put the entire mixture into the saucepan with the melted chocolate, whisking until completely combined.

7. Pour the melted chocolate mixture into a large bowl and set aside.

8. Place the egg whites in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. You can use a hand mixer if necessary. See “Tips & Tricks” for instructions on how to prepare the bowl.

9. Add the cream of tartar to the egg whites and beat on low speed until foamy.

10. Once foamy, increase the speed to medium and beat until soft peaks form. In this stage, you will see the trail of the whisk in the egg whites but if you remove the whisk and turn it upside down, the mixture will not hold its shape. This takes about 4 minutes.

11. Once you have the soft peaks, increase the mixer speed to medium high and begin adding the sugar a little bit at a time. I usually add one to two tablespoons at a time, wait until they are incorporated, and add more. 

12. Continue beating until stiff peaks form, about 2 to 3 more minutes. You have stiff peaks when you can turn the whisk and egg whites upside down and the peaks hold their shape; in fact, with properly made stiff peaks, you can turn the bowl upside down and nothing falls out (I don’t recommend trying!).

13. Gently fold 1/3 of the egg white mixture into the chocolate mixer with a rubber spatula. 

14. Once combined, repeat the process two more times until the egg whites are completely folded into the chocolate mixture.

15. Smooth out the surface of the mousse and cover the bowl with plastic wrap. 

16. Place the bowl in the fridge and let chill for 6-8 hours before serving.

Serving Suggestions

Best Easy Creamy Dark Chocolate Mousse Dessert is absolutely delicious on its own, but if you are serving it for a special occasion, there are a few things you can do to zhuzh it up.

Try serving this classic chocolate mousse as is in a fancy glass or pretty, small bowls.

Top with whipped cream. You can make your own with the remaining heavy cream, or buy it made.

Go really fancy and add chocolate shavings to your whipped cream topping.

Top with fresh berries. Raspberries and chocolate work great together. You can add whipped cream on this as well. Strawberries on chocolate mousse seem like a great Valentine’s Day treat.

Storage

Store the mousse tightly covered in plastic wrap or foil in the fridge for 2-3 days.

Tips & Tricks

How do you separate egg yolks from egg whites?There are several ways and mine is probably the messiest: I crack the egg and place it into my very clean hand, letting the white drip between my fingers into a bowl. I then place the yolk in a separate bowl. If you prefer to be more civilized, you can pour the egg from one half of the shell to the other, always keeping the yolk in the shell while the white drips into a bowl. If you use my method, be sure to wash your hands immediately afterwards.

Beating egg whites to stiff peaks is not as difficult as you might think, but there are a few things you much be sure to do. First, make sure that you don’t have any egg yolks mixed in with the whites. Next, you need to be sure that whether you are using a stand mixer or another electric mixer, your mixing bowl and beaters are completely free of any kind of grease. To do this, you can wipe the inside of the bowl and the beaters with a little bit of lemon juice or white vinegar.

When mixing egg yolks into hot/very warm liquid, you want to temper the eggs. That means that you will need to add a little bit of the liquid into the egg yolks while whisking constantly. I like to do this about 3 times before pouring the eggs into the hot liquid.

Chocolate matters! The basis of this recipe is the bittersweet chocolate, so make sure it is good quality. 

Do not try to rush the chilling process by putting the mousse in the freezer. 

FAQs

What other kinds of chocolate can I use?

You can use semisweet chocolate if you’d prefer and do not need to change the recipe. I do not recommend using milk chocolate.

Can I use chocolate chips in this recipe?

I do not recommend using chocolate chips. Likewise, you cannot use cocoa powder.

Keep on Going!

Feeling empowered after successfully giving Best Easy Creamy Dark chocolate Mousse Dessert a try? Challenge yourself with another delicious dessert, pate à choux, dainty little cream puffs!

And don’t forget that there is another mousse in town, peanut butter mousse! Get the recipe for Easy Peanut Butter Mousse Pie with Chocolate Ganache right here.