Before I finish off my mousse experiment, I want to remind all you faithful readers that this Saturday is the big Food Blogger Bake Sale! We have had a location change since my first announcement: the bake sale will be this Saturday, April 28, at Omnivore Books from 11-4.
Omnivore Books was the location of our first bake sale so I’m really excited to be back here! And, to continue a very fine tradition that started when Rose Levy Barenbaum was speaking the day of our first bake sale, Alice Medrich will be at Omnivore from 3-4 to talk about her new book, Sinfully Easy Delicious Desserts
I really hope you all can come out – please Facebook/tweet/spread the word about our bake sale so we can get a great turnout! If you don’t live in San Francisco, check out the national list of blogger bake sales to see if there’s one near you. Thanks so much!
Now, onto the final mousse of the taste testing!
Chocolate Mousse #5: Sabayon based
Unfortunately I have to start off my notes about this last mousse with a little disclaimer: this recipe is called Pâte à Bombe chocolate mousse in the cookbook but I don’t think that’s correct. Pâte à bombe is made from combining hot sugar syrup with whipped egg yolks – the resulting ultra-rich and airy base can be used for everything from mousses to ice cream. It would undoubtedly have made an excellent chocolate mousse, but the recipe I made instead is really a sabayon based mousse, which is also a perfectly valid mousse method, just different.
Sabayon is also another wonderful pastry staple that has near-endless uses: it’s basically the French version of the Italian zabaglione, and is little more than eggs and sugar whisked and cooked into a buttercup-golden custard that can be layered in desserts or just eaten by the spoonful. In the case of mousse, it lends a gorgeous creaminess and fullness of flavor. This is the one other mousse recipe in my lineup that uses cooked eggs, and the extra steps in this method are indeed worth the effort, in my opinion.
You might be thinking that this method seems similar to the creme anglaise mousse #4 I made, and in principle they are very similar. But if you compare the ingredient ratios you’ll notice there is much more egg in the sabayon recipe. This makes for a much thicker and darker mixture. There’s also less dairy in this recipe, so the chocolate flavor is more pronounced, with less cream to soften out the edges. I found the mousse to be sweeter and creamier than #4 as well. Zabaglione is traditionally made with Marsala, so it seems perfectly reasonable to splash a bit in this sabayon as well.
I really enjoyed this mousse – along with the first mousse, these two seem the most suited for straight eating. Just a couple more mousse-making tips – these apply to all the mousses I’ve made:
– Temperature is key. You’ll notice a temperature range for the melted chocolate in every recipe. When you are combining chilled whipped cream into warm chocolate, if the temperature difference is too great the cream will set the chocolate, creating little hard chips that ruin the texture of the mousse. You want the chocolate to have cooled down enough to avoid this temperature shock.
– Folding technique is also crucial. You’ve incorporated all this lovely air into the various mixtures – the last thing you want to do is mash it all out with over-vigorous mixing. That’s why most of the recipes feature steps where you incorporate a small bit of one mixture into another – for example, folding a third of the whipped cream into the chocolate – to help balance out the densities and make it easier to fully combine the two component together. Fold quickly and smoothly, and with as few strokes as possible – the more melt-in-your-mouth your mousse will be.
I hope this was a interesting tour of how many different ways mousse can be made. I would say that I could see uses for all of the five mousses I did try: #1 and #5 are great for eating, #2 is also good for milder palates, while #3 and #4 work well as dessert components. There’s still so many other methods I didn’t explore: pâte à bombe, meringue, Bavarian, or even the water-based mousse. I guess a second round is in order in the future? I’m going to take a little break from mousse right now, though, and let you all try and hand and tell me which one you like best.
Happy mousse making!
- adapted from Cooking with Chocolate
- 3/4 cup (200 ml) whipping cream, chilled
- 6 oz (170 g) bittersweet (60-68%) chocolate, finely chopped
- 3 large egg yolks
- 1 large egg
- 1/4 cup (45 g) sugar
- 2 tablespoons (30 ml) water
- Place whipping cream in bowl of a stand mixer and whisk with the whisk attachment until soft peaks form. Set aside.
- Place chocolate in a heatproof bowl and melt over a pot of simmering water. Remove from heat and set aside.
- Make sabayon: Whisk egg yolks, egg, sugar, and water together in a large bowl until combined.
- Place bowl over a saucepan filled with simmering water and stir until mixture reaches 180 degrees F. Remove from heat and set aside.
- When the chocolate mixture has cooled to 113-122 degrees F, fold in one-third of the whipped cream with a flexible spatula to lighten.
- Fold in the rest of the whipped cream, and then fold in the sabayon.
- Divide mousse among dessert glasses and chill for 12 hours. Mousse will keep for up to 2 days.
Anita Chu, also known as pastrygirl, is a baker, writer, and photographer with a passion for pastry. She trained at Tante Marie's Cooking School and is the author of Field Guide to Cookies, Field Guide to Candy, and Lollipop Love. Anita lives in San Francisco with her husband, daughter, and dog Max. 
Hello! I’ve been drooling over your mousse series and will definitely have to make one soon – just wondering which you think would hold up best in a layered cake? Most of the recipes I’ve seen used a gelatine based mousse but I can’t use that as a vegetarian…
Great mousse series! Planning on trying some of these recipes.
Wow, had no idea there were so many ways to make mousse! They all look great!
Wow! This series is so helpful! I’ve been looking for a good recipe for a chocolate mousse pie. I prefer to use the sabayon method, but I’m thrilled to have the various other methods outlined and explained so well. Thanks!
Hi, thank you for posting all of these. You saved me a lot of work! Question about the sabayon. Most recipes I’ve seen for that involve whisking the eggs and sugar either (ferociously) by hand with a whisk or electric mixer while it’s over the boiling water until gets ribbon-y like thin mayonnaise. Is that not what this recipe is going for? It just says to stir, not beat. I just want to know what to look out for as I’m making it. I’ll either go for this recipe or the creme anglaise one, can’t decide. So maybe both:)
Hi Rachel,
Thanks for visiting and thanks for your comment! I went and checked back in the cookbook and the wording is taken directly from the book, so they say to “stir constantly”. I do agree with you that most sabayon recipes involve whisking the ingredients together to get a thick mixture. I don’t remember if I used a spoon or whisk, but I would say it wouldn’t be wrong to use a whisk if it helps you combine them together faster and more fully. The recipe does not indicate what final texture to look for; I would say that as long as it is fully combined and looks thickened from both the heat and the stirring/whisking it will be fine.
Hope this helps! Perhaps you can test out whisk vs spoon and see if it makes a big difference. And I agree, trying out different mousse recipes can be fun and rewarding! Happy baking!