Elevate your Plate

Backstory:

After watching a cooking show, I was inspired to make a chocolate mousse. Rather than sticking with the ordinary milk chocolate version, I thought, “why not make it a bit healthier?” and chose dark chocolate. Love it or hate it, dark chocolate has an underlying bitterness and so I knew that pairing it with fruit was the best way to go. I stumbled upon this recipe and I’m glad I did!

Recipes:

Chocolate Orange Mousse: https://desertislanddishes.co/chocolate-orange-mousse/

Caramelised orange segments:

• Peel and segment a couple of satsumas and put aside
• Add a dessert spoon’s worth of sugar to a small pan with 2 spoonful’s worth of water
• Place the pan on a high heat and leave the sugar mixture untouched till a golden colour settles
• Once a golden colour is reached, remove the pan from the stove and quickly mix in the orange segments
• Top the set mousse (after refrigeration) with caramelised orange segments

Tips and Tricks:

• I changed the dark chocolate in the recipe to an 85% bar to improve the richness
• Double or triple the orange juice in the recipe, if you’re going with a higher percentage dark chocolate, in order to balance the bitterness.
• When mixing make sure to fold the mousse to avoid air loss.

Recommendation and Rating:

Overall, it’s a pleasant dessert! The slight bitterness from the dark chocolate complements the bursts of sweetness from the caramelised orange segments. The mousse itself is light, airy, and moreish, making you go back for more. Although the orange flavour isn’t intense in the mousse itself, the topping makes up for it. Because grated orange zest was added, the mousse was slightly bitty but that was expected. Next time I’d top it with more orange segments, use less grated orange zest and add in more orange juice. A simple yet delicate dessert which needs a few tweaks, and so it gets a 4 star rating!