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Chocolate MousseChocolate Mousse
April 27, 2020 | Updated March 17, 2023 | Laura
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✽ Recipe from Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Vol. I | Julia Child ✽
Julia Child Recipe 99 | 429 recipes to go!
✽ Chocolate Mousse [Mousseline au Chocolat / Mayonnaise au Chocolat / Fondant au Chocolat], p. 604
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✽ Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Vol. I was written by Julia Child who co-authored with Simone Beck & Louisette Bertholle and was published by Alfred A. Knopf in 1961.
✽ You can buy Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Volume I which contains these recipes here. (affiliate link)
The purpose of this Julia Child section of my blog is to document my journey of learning how to cook. To show my successes, my failures, and what I learned along the way.
Since I didn't create these recipes (if only!), I do not post exact amounts of ingredients or word-for-word instructions. If any of these recipes spark your interest, I highly recommend you buy Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking (affiliate link). It's a great investment and learning tool and contains hundreds of classic recipes.
What you will find on my blog is:
✽ Butter Count & Cost Total
✽ How the Recipe Tasted
✽ Answers to Questions about Recipe
✽ Fun Facts about Recipe or an Ingredient Used
✽ The Recipe Process
✽ Step-by-Step and Final Photos of Recipe
I hope that you enjoy reading my thoughts, learn something new, and leave inspired to try a new recipe. Bon appétit!
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Butter Count & Cost: Chocolate Mousse
✽ Butter Count: +12 TB
✽ Cost: $8.77 [~$1.25 per serving]
Check out the total Julia Child butter count & cost here!
→ Looking for a different Julia Child recipe? Here's a list of all of the completed and pending Mastering the Art of French Cooking recipes!
This is one of the best chocolate desserts I have ever eaten.
All chocolate lovers listen up. This is truly hands-down one of the best chocolate desserts I have ever eaten. It’s creamy. It’s airy. It’s chocolatey. It’s wonderful. If you already have the ingredients on hand, go make this mousse! You will not regret it.
Homemade Chocolate Mousse: Questions
✽ What is mousse?
Mousse in French translates to "foam". It is a soft dessert that has air bubbles incorporated into it to give it a light and airy texture.
There are both savory and sweet mousses. Sweet mousses are usually made with whipped egg whites, flavorings, and/or whipped cream. Common sweet mousse flavors include chocolate, coffee, caramel, and variety of fruits.
✽ What makes this chocolate mousse recipe special?
Instead of folding in whipped cream, this recipe calls for thickened egg yolks with sugar. Butter is also added into the mix. The egg yolks will give the mousse a creamy texture and add richness. Butter not only adds deliciousness, but it also adds in more fat than cream. This will make the chocolate mousse even creamier!
✽ What is the history of chocolate mousse?
Chocolate mousse originated in France after savory mousses were already a thing. The first recipe for chocolate mousse was writen down in 1750 in La science du maitre d'hotel coniseur [The science of a master confectioner] by Menon, a French writer.
Chocolate mousse became really popular in France in the late 1800s, for obvious reasons. It is delicious!
Looking for more Julia Child mousse recipes to read about?
→ Check out all of the dessert recipes that I've completed so far!
Fun Facts about Mousse
*Find these facts plus lots more on Just Fun Facts and Days of the Year.*
✽ What flavors can savory mousses be?
There are so many different savory mousses. Some of the most common include salmon, blue cheese, avocado, shellfish, chicken liver, and various vegetables.
✽ What is the largest chocolate mousse?
The largest chocolate mousse weighed a whopping 496 pounds! It was made by the Aventura Mall in Aventura, Florida in 2013.
✽ When did chocolate mousse come to the United States?
The first written record of chocolate mousse in the United States is from an exposition in New York City in 1892.
✽ Is there a white chocolate mousse?
Yes! It was created by a New York City chef named Michel Fitoussi. However, dark chocolate mousse continues to be by far the most popular mousse.
How to Make Chocolate Mousse
✽ Step 1: Beat Egg Yolks
Not only is this mousse delicious, but it is also pretty simple to make! The techniques are also quite similar to the Bavarian creams. If you want to learn dessert basics, work your way through this chapter. You will become a pro and build arm muscles from all the whipping! It’s a win-win. Speaking of whipping, that’s exactly how this recipe starts out.
Egg yolks and sugar are beaten together. This will form a pale yellow mixture. You know it’s beaten well when the mixture falls back upon itself forming a ribbon.
Orange liqueur is beaten in. Julia mentions that orange is delicious with chocolate.
The bowl is placed over almost simmering water and beaten for a few minutes. This mixture will become foamy at this point. Now it is beaten a few more minutes but this time over cold water to cool the mixture down. It should now be creamy and look like mayonnaise!
✽ Step 2: Add Melted Chocolate
Chocolate is then melted with coffee over hot water. Once melted, remove from heat and beat in butter. This will make a smooth cream.
The chocolate is then beaten (work those arm muscles!) into the egg mixture.
At this point, you can also beat in an optional glazed orange peel if you like. I omitted this step, but I’m sure it is delicious.
✽ Step 3: Beat Egg Whites
Next egg whites are beaten with salt and sugar to form stiff peaks. The egg whites will be folded into the egg yolk/chocolate mixture.
✽ Step 4: Chill
It is now ready to be refrigerated for at least two hours. You can put it in a big dish or individual serving cups.
✽ Step 5: Serve
Once the mousse is done, it is served with lightly whipped cream sweetened with powdered sugar. You could also whip up a crème anglaise to serve alongside the mousse as well.
Either way, you’re sure to have a winning dessert. Make sure you make a lot because everybody is going to want seconds!
Edit: These pictures are.. not great. I apologize. When making these early recipes I was working in an extrememly tiny kitchen that had pratically zero counter space and very poor lighting. My only saving grace was that somebody once had one of those pull-out cutting boards installed. What a life saver.
I was also in pharmacy school, getting minimal sleep, working for free, completely broke, didn't know the first thing about taking photos, and knew practically nothing about French cooking (or cooking in general for that matter).
I've debated taking these old posts down but decided to keep them up because they are all a part of my journey. These photos and my written struggles remind me how far I've come! I can make a pretty decent steak now with no problems!
You don't need fancy equipment or the finest ingredients to enjoy cooking and make good food. As one of my favorite cartoon characters, Ms. Frizzle, says, "Take chances, make mistakes, get messy!"
*This blog, Laura the Gastronaut, and this post were/are not endorsed or supported by Julia Child or The Julia Child Foundation.
Category: Julia Child, Desserts & Cakes Cuisine: French
Keywords: julia child chocolate mousse recipe, mousse au chocolat julia child, french chocolate mousse recipe, chocolate mousse julia child recipe
✽ Did you make this recipe too?
→ Let me know by leaving a comment below and sharing on Instagram. Tag @laurathegastronaut and hashtag it #laurathegastronaut.
More Dessert Recipes:
✽ Chocolate Bavarian Cream (a beautiful and delicious unmolded chocolate dessert)
✽ Chocolate Butter Icing (what's better than chocolate and butter combined?)
✽ Chocolate Cream (a simple dessert that is full of chocolate flavor)
→ Check out all of the completed Julia Child dessert recipes!
✽ You can find this recipe and all the other Julia Child recipes I make in Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Volume I (affiliate link).
→ Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Vol. I was written by Julia Child who co-authored with Simone Beck & Louisette Bertholle and was published by Alfred A. Knopf in 1961.
✽ Check out my Julia Child Recipe Checklist to see a list of all my completed and pending recipes from Mastering the Art of French Cooking!
Bon appétit!
April 27, 2020 by Laura Ehlers
*This Chocolate Mousse blog post may contain some Amazon affiliate links. These link to products that I personally use and recommend. If you purchase anything using my links, it will not cost you anything. It will though give laurathegastronaut.com some financial support which helps me keep this blog running. Thank you for reading my blogs and your continued support.