Chocolate Orange Pots - a happy accident
Chocolate Orange Pots are an adaptation of the chocolate orange pots from a Gordon Ramsay cookbook. These use a more intense dark chocolate because I bought a very intense dark chocolate by accident. So I had to adjust the recipe for the mousse and I added an orange cream topping. And I love the combination of dark chocolate with bright, and slightly boozy, orange flavours.
So what do you do if you’ve used a chocolate that is too dark and bitter for the mousse you’re making? You need to add sugar and fat that will make it sweeter and lighter in flavour. There are a few different options. You could add more eggs, beating a few spoons of sugar into the egg yolks till they have a butter-like consistency. You could also whip up the egg whites and fold them in. But while this will lighten the taste it will also really increase the yield of the recipe. Another option is to add more of whatever you are using to sweeten the mousse and add melted butter to the melted chocolate.
I chose to add more cream and more Grand Marnier to the chocolate. This made a nicely intense chocolate orange mousse that I topped with some cream whipped up with icing sugar and fried orange zest. Worked out well. A happy accident.
Could you make an alcohol-free version of this? I haven’t tried but I found this non-alcoholic chocolate orange mousse that looks gorgeous.
One last thing, if you can’t find an unwaxed orange, just use a normal orange. Rinse it well under a hot tap and then scrub it dry with a clean tea-towel.
Chocolate Orange Pots
Yield: Makes 4 pots
Suitable for: Gluten-free diet
Ingredients:
- 100g 70% intense dark chocolate
- 125ml fresh cream, for topping
- 2 tbsp fresh cream, for chocolate mousse
- 100ml Grand Marnier
- 1 tsp vanilla bean paste
- 3 large eggs, separated
- 2 tbsp icing sugar
- 1 unwaxed organic orange, zest
Instructions:
Make the chocolate mousse
Break the chocolate up into a deep microwaveable bowl. Melt in short, max 30 second, bursts, stirring after each go. It takes much less than 2 minutes to melt the chocolate this way. And you’re less likely to overheat it. Next, stir the two tablespoons of cream and all the liqueur into the melted chocolate. It’s a good idea to have the cream and Grand Marnier at room temperature before doing this. Next, beat in the egg yolks and vanilla bean paste. Now, in a clean, grease-free bowl, with a clean grease-free whisk, whisk the egg whites until they form soft peaks. Gently fold the egg whites into the chocolate mix. Then pour into 4 pots. Leave to chill for at least 3 hours.Make the orange-cream topping
Just before serving, zest an orange and quickly fry the zest in a dry pan on a moderate heat for a minute or two, until nicely fragant. Remove from the heat. Next, whisk the cream just till it is starting to form soft peaks. Add ¾ of the fried orange zest to the sifted icing sugar and then beat it into the cream. Spoon the cream onto the pots and sprinkle the rest of the fried orange zest on top.
Enjoy!
