Chocolate mousse Easter eggs
Easter - to me, at least - is one of those festivals that is essentially an excuse for excessive eating of delicious food. And with Easter you get the added additional benefit of it totally being acceptable to eat chocolate with everything. Perhaps not the original idea behind the celebration, but it’s how I celebrate, and this year that is going to be with these chocolate mousse Easter eggs as dessert.
I’ve been thinking about chocolate mousse a fair bit lately (I’m not sure why, apart from the fact that it’s delicious and been ages since I made any), and when I saw someone filling an Easter egg with Angel Delight a few weeks ago on Twitter I realised that the mousse was going to have to become a seasonal treat. I don’t think I’ve had Angel Delight since I was a kid - and I suspect it’s a happy food memory left well alone - so it’s time to make it a little more grown up. The result of this thinking is these chocolate mousse Easter eggs.
The booze element was a little trickier and was originally intended to be amaretto, but a recent visit from my friend Mel (of Sharky Oven Gloves fame prompting much food blogging chat) promoted a change - she offered me some crème de cacao infused with chilli - home infused, I should add. Now some things in life are too perfect to turn down, so the amaretto was put to one side whilst the chocolate chilli goodness took over.
I made a couple of these with some excess mousse to share with friends, and it’s gone down an absolute storm. Sure the eggs are a little bit fiddly, but I think it’s totally worth it over all for the sheer joy of having boozy, chilli chocolate mousse in an edible chocolate egg-bowl!
Easter egg chocolate mousse
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Total Time: 20 minutes
- Yield: Serves 2 1x
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This recipe is an original to The Usual Saucepans, but the mousse method is loosely based on a Nigella recipe from Kitchen. I didn’t have proper egg moulds, so adapted some from the plastic packaging one of my other eggs came in, lined with cling film The chilli in the crème de cacao was also infused by hand by my friend Mel. This recipe makes two half eggs (and a little mousse left over – my eggs are quite small (about 10cm tip to base), so if you’re making bigger ones, up the chocolate and marshmallow volumes. I used dark chocolate (75%), but you could use milk if you prefer – prepare for it to be quite sweet though.
Ingredients
for the egg:
80g dark chocolate
for the mousse:
100g dark chocolate
20g butter
60g mini marshmallows
115 ml double cream
25 ml crème de cacao
1 milky bar (to decorate)
Instructions
Start the egg earlier in the day – as it needs multiple layers. Melt the chocolate and put a spoonful into the base of your mould. Using a pastry brush, paint the inside of your mould, ensuring it is entirely covered. If your chocolate isn’t sticking to the sides because it’s too runny, leave it to sit a minute or two and it’ll start to set again. Leave to one side to cool and set (about 30 minutes) then repeat the process. I did two layers, but a large shell will require at least three.
To make the mousse, put a pan of water on the hob with a glass bowl over the top (make sure the water isn’t touching). Whilst the water and bowl are heating up use a very sharp knife to chop the chocolate finely (it speeds everything up). Put the butter in the bowl and when it starts to melt add in your chopped chocolate and mini marshmallows (if you only have larger mallows put them in first, as they’ll need longer to melt). Leave these all to melt, stirring occasionally.
Whilst the chocolate mix is melting, pour the cream and crème de cacao into a bowl and start to whisk them together, pausing every so often to stir the chocolate/mallow mix. Whip into stiff peaks.
When the chocolate and marshmallows are fully melted, remove the bowl from the pan and turn off the heat. Leave to cool for 1-2 minutes, then gently fold the cream into gloomy chocolate mix. Pour into a bowl and put in the fridge to set.
Go back to your egg shells and check they are ready – if it has a slight rim, heat up the tip of the blade of a metal knife on the hob and use the hot metal to melt/cut the edges.
After the mouse has been in the fridge about 5-8 minutes take it out and fill your egg shells – it needs to be cool enough to melt the chocolate, but also still not that set, so it can pour. Fill the shells right up and then put everything in the fridge to set.
About ten minutes before serving, decorate the eggs. I opted for white chocolate stripes. I didn’t want much messing about with piping bags, to I put the milky bar (in its wrapper) into a cup of boiling water to melt, then cut off one corner and piped it straight from there.
Serve to ‘whoos’ of general amazement from your impressed ensemble.
- Category: Sweet treats
This looks like it could be sold at one of those fancy restuarants with the innovative menus. Impressed ensemble sounds about right!
Chilli creme de cacoa sounds very interesting. If I ever track down creme de cacao I will have to reserve a bit for chilli infusing. I’ve never heard of using marshmallows in a mousse before, but it looks easier than the gelatine method.
Thanks for entering BWS!
Ah, why thank you! Definitely felt like it was worth the effort, I’m really happy with them.
It’s absolutely delicious - if you do come across it, snap yourself up a bottle! I’d never heard of it either until I saw Nigella do it on TV - never gone back now, makes it so easy!
Yum!!! Mousse in a chocolate egg is such a genius idea, I love it!! And so glad that the crème de cacao came in handy (although I knew you’d find something scrumptious to do with it – otherwise I’d have hoarded it, haha).
Chocolate in chocolate upon chocolate, decorated with a little more chocolate for good measure, what could be better? Thanks though - it was definitely an excellent addition.
Oh what an absolutely wicked recipe Craig. Mel is a genius and much as I love amaretto, I do agree that chilli chocolate liqueur has to be the way to go for this. Your moussy egg looks just fabulous and sounds as though it would taste even better. Thanks for entering it into WSC - I hope you’re not too late!!!
Thanks, Choclette - she really is, definitely wonderful combination (and I’ve still some left, so there’s bound to be more soon!). Rachel was great and I caught her just before she wrote the round up post so she let me enter anyway - definitely going to be more organised next month!
Oh. My. Goodness. Forget that Easter is over, I want one of these now. They sound delicious!
I know right - why should we keep chocolate eggs just for Easter? I say let’s have them whenever we please!