Chocolate mousse! [take 2]

My first attempt at Chocolate mousse is here. I loved it, but it was a bit dark and rich for almost everyone else in my family. Something wasn't right, so I decided to try making it again, this time with a few alterations.

I bought these custard cups the other day. I should have bought more than four, oh well.

Chocolate mousse:

250gms dark chocolate [62% cocoa solids is best, no darker.]

75gms of butter

8 T sugar

2 eggs, separated

250 mls of cream

6  T of milk

1/2 t vanilla

1. Melt chocolate and butter over double boiler.
2. Beat egg yolks, vanilla, 6 T sugar and 1 T milk in another bowl.
3. In yet another bowl beat egg whites till soft peaks, add two T of sugar and beat till combined- like a pavalova.
4. Separately whip the cream (until it is soft peaks).
5. Mix the yolk mixture into the melted chocolate and butter. Add the rest (5 T) of the milk.
6. Now lighten the chocolate mix with a spoon full of beaten egg whites then fold the rest of the cream and egg whites into the chocolaty mixture.
7. Either spoon into individual cups/ramekins or into a pretty serving dish, cover and set in the fridge for about three hours.
8. Serve with berries (and meringues, if you like)

You can also make chocolate meringues to go with the mousse. Pipe some meringue mixture into the bottom of your ramekins before cooking, crumble some cooked ones into the base of your serving dish before adding the mousse or just crumble some over top. Meringues are great with chocolate mousse, they add a really nice texture.

Meringues:

2 egg whites

1 t of vinegar

1 t of vanilla

1/2 C of sugar

a pinch of salt

1 t of maize cornflour.

1 t of cocoa powder

1. Heat your oven to 150`c.
2. Beat egg whites till stiff peaks form.
3. Gradually add the sugar while beating.
4. Continue beating until stiff peaks form.
5. Add the other ingredients and beat again to combine.
6. Spoon or pipe small blobs onto a baking paper covered tray and put in the oven for ten minutes. Then turn the temperature down to 135`C and cook for another 25 minutes.
7. After that give one of the meringues a poke, if it still feels squidgy or stickyish cook it for about 10-20 more minutes. What you really want to do is dry them out so that they won't be chewy.
8. Relax, meringues are pretty easy to make!

"This is good stuff!" announced one brother after his first spoonful. - I believe him, it's gotta be good.

We at the mousse as we watched Second-Hand Wedding (a real kiwi film, that). I asked the fam what I could do to improve the recipe, they're great critics. They looked at me blankly, as if that was a stupid question to ask. Then someone said "Umm... more?!" - everyone laughed, how could I attempt to improve perfection?

Look at the air in that!

"You like?"

If you're going to make anything with chocolate and cream you should definitely make this!

Note:  Don't serve this chocolate mousse to pregnant women as it contains raw egg, which is sad because it means coeliac sister can't eat it. She'd love it, perhaps I'll make it again when the baby is born?