Cream & Egg-Free Chocolate Mousse Pie

You will only need 4 ingredients to make this Cream & Egg-Free Chocolate Mousse Pie. You’re reading it right. It is possible to make a delicious and rich chocolate mousse from just a few ingredients: water, chocolate, dates and pecans.

You don’t need cream, milk, egg yolks or whites. What you do need is a little elbow grease. I have used a technique that is so rewarding, and so easy and the mousse is absolutely rich and delicious. Just try it and you will not be disappointed. On the contrary, I am sure that you will be very happy with the result.

I wanted to see if I could make a chocolate mousse pie without all the cream and eggs. Various attempts did not give me satisfying results. A little bit of research on the internet brought me to Hervé This. He is a French chemist, holding a doctorate in molecular gastronomy. Molecular gastronomy is a form of food science that explores the underlying science behind cooking. In my humble opinion this a very interesting field. I have always been intrigued by finding out why things happen the way they do.

Want to read his book? This is the title ‘Molecular Gastronomy: Exploring the Science of Flavor’. A little more lighthearted, but nevertheless answering the why behind the how: The Food Lab, by J. Kenji Lopez-Alt or CookWise by Shirley O. Corriher. You may even like to watch Alton Brown on Food Network. Many years ago, I met Shirley Corriher, during one of the Dietetic Congresses I attended. She was hilarious and inspiring.

This Cream & Egg-Free chocolate mousse pie is one of example of applying chemistry knowledge to cooking.

How Herve This applied his scientific logic

The traditional way to make a chocolate mousse, is by whipping cream and egg whites and add that to melted chocolate. Egg yolks are mostly added as well. Like this Chocolate Mousse recipe. By whipping the cream you’re introducing air bubbles that are stabilized by protein molecules. At the same time the fat droplets of the cream crystallize because of the low temperature. That’s why it is always recommended to work with cold ingredients and utensils.

Can we obtain a mousse without the cream and eggs?

Cream contains water, fat and other ingredients, but for this mousse, only the fat and water are important. In cream the fat is dispersed as small droplets in the water-part of the cream, creating an emulsion. In order to create a chocolate mousse without cream and eggs, Herve This argued and tested that we need to create an emulsion, based on chocolate.

And so we did.

This chocolate mousse pie is created by mixing chocolate and water! What? Yes, chocolate and water! I did not believe it either, but it works and you’ll have an amazing and fast result.

This is what you need to do

• In a saucepan, heat water and finely chopped chocolate over medium-low heat and cook until melted.
• Pour the chocolate into the empty bowl, resting in an ice bath. Whisk the chocolate by hand until the chocolate thickens.
• Continue until the volume increases and the color becomes slightly lighter, because of the formation of the air bubbles.
• Continue until you have a mousse – pure chocolate mousse.

THAT IS ALL!

A few things can go wrong

• The chocolate you use does not contain enough fat and does not become thicker.
  • Melt the chocolate mixture again and add some more chocolate and whisk again.
• The chocolate mixture is not airy enough
  • Melt again and add some water and whisk again
• The chocolate mixture has become grainy
  • Melt the mixture and whisk again. Do not add anything, just whisk less long.

For a mousse Herve This recommends to 8 oz. of chocolate and 6 oz. of water. I have used a little more chocolate because I wanted to use the chocolate mousse in a pie and needed it to be a little thicker.