While watching Nigella Lawson’s Express cooking show quite a while ago, I saw she made a lovely quick mousse, which doesn’t contain eggs and instead uses marshmallows to hold the mousse together.
I love chocolate, cream and marshmallows so this couldn’t go wrong… or so I thought…
Nigella seemed to cook this in 5 minutes, with not much cooling involved for the chocolate mix. When I added the slightly cooled chocolate to my whipped cream, the cream MELTED!! Well, what was I expecting… This only really affected the look of the mousse, with it needing to be cooled in the fridge for a while to set.
If you let the chocolate mix cool a bit longer – before it sets itself, it can be folded through the whipped cream and can be spooned into individual serves or a decorative bowl for serving. I haven’t tried it slightly chilled yet, only refrigerated for a while, which is lovely and best served with vanilla ice cream to soften the richness from the mousse.
The one that didn't work... because the chocolate mix was too hot.
This is a great recipe for those who prefer not to eat raw eggs or who are allergic. I’m sure it would be a great recipe for kids to help with too… although then you may have to fight over who gets to lick the spatula and bowl 🙂
Chocolate Mousse
Recipe by Nigella Lawson from Nigella Express
Serves: 4-6
150g mini marshmallows (or normal marshmallows, chopped)
50g soft butter
250g best-quality semisweet chocolate, chopped into small pieces
60ml hot water from a recently boiled kettle
284ml heavy (thickened) cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Put the marshmallows, butter, chocolate, and water in a heavy-bottomed saucepan. Put the saucepan on the stove over a fairly gentle heat to melt, stirring every now and again. Remove from heat to cool.
Meanwhile, whip the cream with the vanilla until thick and then fold the cooled chocolate mixture into the whipped cream until you have a smooth, cohesive mixture. (I poured the chocolate mix in while cooling [not very hot] and it melted the cream and became liquid, not fluffy – although leaving in the fridge still resulted in lovely tasting mousse)
Pour or scrape into 4 glasses or small dishes, about ¾ cup each in capacity, or 6 smaller (½ cup) ones, and chill until you want to eat. The sooner the better!
Very interesting recipe!
Few days back I too made Chocolate mousse. They are superb pleasures. I love to gorge on them.
Never made mousse with marshmallows..a different one and looks fantastic..so creamy!
I love the picture of the uncooked marshmallows and chocolate. Sounds like a tasty, easy dessert!
Sounds great- even tho you had a slight problem. Nigella makes me laugh- she is such a flirt. I really like a lot of her recipes though.
What a scrumptious treat!
Cheers,
Rosa
Oh, I remember this recipe! I have the DVD and book, so will have to revisit it, but judging from your attempt, it’s a winner. And thanks for the tip about cooling the chocolate.
ohmyword how fantastic! I’d love this with a super bitter chocolate to set off the sweetness of marshmallows. And I’m glad you had an edible product the first time around too – it can be so disheartnening when you make something to have it not turn out.
What’s the first photo of? Shredded coconut & chocolate?
What an interesting way of making mousse! Did it have a strong marshmallow taste?
Even though you are using marshmallows, it looks really light. I like Nigellas’s recipes
Hi Rilsta – It’s finely grated “top-deck” chocolate on top. Or pretty much white chocolate and milk chocolate. Coconut would have gone quite nicely though 🙂 I couldn’t really taste a strong marshmallow taste… it just made it sweet and soft.
I seem to recall having similar issues and just waiting for it to cool as I was afraid that it would do that. I put it in the fridge and it set a bit too hard too, I much preferred it at room temp 🙂
Fluffy chocolate mousse is such a good dessert! It’s cool to hear you can get the texture with marshmallow rather than egg, especially with your second fluffy success.
Fascinating recipe! Although, if you are worried about raw eggs you can: (1) use pasteurized egg whites: (2) make mousse with just chocolate and whipped cream; or (3) make mousse with even just cocoa, sugar and whipped cream (mostly nice for frosting because it is not as rich as mousse with melted chocolate, but you just can’t beat the ease of preparation!).
This sounds great! Never heard of the marshmallows being used before! Cool… I could eat that whole bowl right now!!
Ohh mousse made with marshmallows….sounds good!
Looks very easy, I will have to try this, I like the addition of marshmallows.
I just love Nigella’s never to fail recipes!! Your dessert looks attractive & so tasty!!
MMMMMMMMMMMMM,…
oh yum, it looks so fluffy and nice. Never thought of using marshmallow instead of egg, although I have a feeling it would be very sweet. Is it overly sweet?
Lorraine ALWAYS have the best recipes. Your mousse is solid (maybe not THAT solid) proof of that with its creamy, soft, yet firmness! yUM!
Marshmallows and chocolate… BRILLIANT!! Hee hee I should go make some mousse and watch Nigella dvds!
I think this is a great recipe and your marshmallows look different than the ones I see in the store. These marshmallows look more dense and not as fluffy.