Chocolate Orange Mousse

Chocolate Orange Mousse w Sweet Short Crust Pastry.

My favourite experiment so far,

Heres the recipe --

Ingredients:

Sweet Short Crust Pastry -

250g Plain flour

50g Icing Sugar

125g of unsalted butter

The Zest of 1 orange

1 egg

Splash of milk

Chocolate Orange Mousse -

300g dark chocolate, chopped

1 tsp powdered gelatine

2 Eggs

1 Cup full cream

Juice of three large oranges

Making The Pastry --

Step One:

Start by setting up a clean work surface to bring together the pastry on. Sieve the flour on to the surface followed by the icing sugar over top.

Step Two:

**Top tip: run your hands under cold water prior to this step (this will stop your hands from melting the butter)

Cut the butter into small cubes and work into the flour and sugar by rubbing between your fingers. You'll know the butter is completely incorporated when the mixture becomes crumbly and similar to the texture of wet sand.

Step Three:

Add the orange zest to the crumbly mixture

Step Four:

Beat the eggs and milk, add to the mixture and work until the pastry forms a ball of dough. Don't work the pastry too much, flour lightly and wrap in plastic wrap and rest in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.

Step 5:

Preheat your oven to 180 C

Flour your work surface and roll out your pastry until 1/2 cm thick. Cut out rectangles of pastry to fit your individual moulds (totally up to you what shape you are after). Place into your moulds making sure the pastry is slightly bigger than the base of your moulds to allow for shrinkage.

Step 6:

Blind bake your pastry for 15 minutes using baking beans (or rice). Making sure to line your pastry with parchment paper. After 15 minutes remove the parchment paper filled with baking beans and bake for a further 5 minutes until golden brown.

Step 7:

Remove the pastry bases from the oven and leave to cool completely.

Making the Mousse --

Step 1:

To make the mouse, melt the dark chocolate in a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water. Meanwhile, combine 2 tbs boiling water with 1 tsp of the gelatine in a small bowl until gelatine dissolves. Add to the melted chocolate and stir to combine.

Step 2:

Separate the eggs. Add egg yolk to chocolate mixture and stir to combine (saving the egg white).

Step 3:

Add the freshly squeezed orange juice to the chocolate mix. Depending on the size of your oranges you may need to add extra orange juice to taste.

Step 4:

Use an electric mixer to whisk the cream until soft peaks form. Add to the chocolate mixture and fold to combine.

Step 5:

Use a clean electric mixer to whisk the egg white until soft peaks form. Gently fold into the chocolate mixture until just combined.

Step 6:

Divide the mousse among your preferred moulds and decorate. Simply grating orange zest or shaving some chocolate on top both work a treat !

Step 7:

Place in the freezer for 2 hours to set. I find these mousses work best from frozen to get the perfect finish from your moulds. Remove from the moulds 20 minutes before serving and allow to defrost at room temperature (they don't take long at all). These mini mousses will keep well in the freezer for up to a week !

The finished product --

#chocolate #mousse #orange #pastry #sweetshortcrustpastry #zest #chocolatemousse #chocolateorange #patisserie #baking #dessert