Chocolate custard mousse

Tamara West

For a change, you can replace the chocolate in these custard-based desserts with enough caramel to taste, and chill to set as butterscotch mousse. For a butterscotch recipe, click here. You won't need all the custard in the recipe given for this mousse. Save the rest for another dessert.

Mousse

200 g	Dark chocolate, we used 72 per cent Ghana (Main)
2 Tbsp	Cocoa powder
1 Tbsp	Butter
1 cup	Cream, and an extra dash to melt with the chocolate
1 cup	Custard, cooled, see recipe below (Main)

Custard (makes 3 cups)

1 ½ cups	Whole milk
⅓	Caster sugar
½	Vanilla beans, split
1	Lemon, zested, or use zest of half an orange
4	Free-range egg yolks (Main)
2 Tbsp	Cornflour
⅓ cup	Cream

Directions

1. First make the custard. In a saucepan, heat full cream milk, caster sugar, vanilla bean pod and the zest of 1 lemon (or ½ orange) until just about boiling.
2. Beat egg yolks, cornflour and ⅓ cup cream until smooth. Whisk the scalded milk on to the egg mix and return to the saucepan. Heat gently, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, until it thickens. Strain through a fine sieve. Cool.
3. To make the mousse, melt chocolate, cocoa powder, butter and a dash of cream, stirring until smooth. Gently fold chocolate into 1 cup of cooled custard then gently fold in 1 cup whipped cream. Spoon into small dishes or espresso cups and refrigerate until set. They will set firm. For a softer mousse add more custard to the mix.

Tip

Check out Ray McVinnie's video:How to make chocolate shards

More of Warren's custard-based recipes

• Butterscotch custard sauce
• Vegetable custards