This week’s Tuesdays with Dorie recipe brought back sweet memories for me. When I was little, my mum used to make a dessert called “Chocolate Catastrophe”. It was a very rich frozen chocolate mousse and I think the catastrophe part was to do with what happens to your waist-line if you eat too much because it certainly was a winner taste-wise. The other “catastrophe” piece was the fact that our mousse never came out of the mould. As in: At. All. So my mum, sister and I sat around eating it out of the giant mould with spoons. Kind of like the way my sister devours chocolate coeur à la crème. This week’s Tuesdays with Dorie made me realise I totally need to hunt down that recipe. If I find it, I’ll post it. In the meantime, I offer you this.
When I read the recipe for Marquise au Chocolat (p 357 in Baking Chez Moi), I immediately thought of “Chocolate Catastrophe”. Except that the photo accompanying the recipe was elegant and refined. Nothing like the three spoons digging into a frozen mixture that won’t come out of the mould. But the ingredients and the description of the texture sounded a lot like my mum’s dessert.
The technique for this mousse has you whipping cream, melting butter and chocolate and blending egg yolks into the melted chocolate (much like Dorie’s Top Secret Chocolate Mousse) then mixing it all together, pouring in a loaf tin and freezing it for 6 hours. A few people over on the Problems and Questions on the Tuesdays with Dorie site questioned the “uncooked egg” factor – something I had not actually considered since I lick bowls and beaters all the time with uncooked egg on them (and Dorie’s mousse is my “go to” for the classes I teach!) but as I was serving this at a party, I thought I should perhaps investigate a way to “cook” the eggs before they were blended into the chocolate.
What I ended up doing (adapted from this recipe over on Serious Eats) was bringing a saucepan of water to a boil, lowering it to a low simmer and placing the glass bowl of egg yolks and sugar over the top, beating with an electric beater until it reached 160˚F. That took a LONG time. The mixture was lovely and silky by the time I was done (beware the edges of the mix will cook slightly so don’t scrape those into the mousse!).
As I was mixing the eggs into the slightly cooled chocolate, I realised I had forgotten the butter (!) so I put the whole lot – eggs, sugar and chocolate (which by now had hardened into a paste) over a bain marie with the butter and let it all melt together again. The mix was smooth and only slightly grainy but by the time I had it in the whipped cream, it was fine. A lovely silky smooth mix.
After 6 hours in the fridge it was fully frozen (I had enough for a 9×5″ loaf tin as well as three 6oz ramekins) though I had some trouble getting this out of the tin – next time I would place a strip of parchment underneath the plastic wrap lining the tin to make it easier to pull the mousse out. I was worried that it might melt if I dipped it in warm water too long. It was fairly easy to slice for this photo but later on I took it to a party (hence the cooking of the eggs – wasn’t sure who would be eating it!) and it was a little tricky to cut neat slices. Oh well, it tasted GREAT. SO happy I have two ramekins sitting in my fridge still! And yes, I’ll be making this again.
Get Dorie Greenspan’s recipe for Marquise au Chocolat here and read all about it here or on page 227 of Baking Chez Moi.
Tuesdays with Dorie participants don’t publish the recipes on our blogs, so you’re encouraged to purchase Baking Chez Moi for yourself which you can do on Amazon or Amazon Canada or for free worldwide shipping, buy from The Book Depository. Then join us, baking our way through the book!
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Wow, your unmolding job went well…it looks perfect. I was all worried about those little lines from the plastic wrap but I see that a lot of people had those so maybe that’s just the way it goes with this. Mine came out easily, but maybe that is because I had a small tiny loaf pan it was in. Berries are a really good idea with this, aren’t they?
Yeah I don’t know what to do about the lines from the plastic wrap… I used a small-ish loaf pan too.
Yours is styled perfectly! Great tip about home pasteurizing AND the parchment strip (which I desperately needed!). Well done, Mardi!
Thanks – the parchment strip trick is really a stroke of genius – if I do say so myself!
Wow! That’s a great idea about adding a strip of parchment paper to line the pan. You did a nice job unmoulding your marquise!
Yes it’s the best trick ever!
So fun discovering other foodies (hopped over here from Jamie @ Life’s A Feast). This mousse would be a spectacular finish to a Valentine dinner! Look forward to checking out more here 😉
Thanks for stopping by 🙂 This was a wonderful dessert and would be perfect for St Valentine’s Day!
I love the memories of “Chocolate Catastrophe”. Sounds like a really fun way to eat. I do read your recommendations and follow them. A hot knife did the trick for perfect slices for me. Have a great week.
Sadly a hot knife wasn’t an option on a dessert buffet table!
I love that you eat your kitchen catastrophes with a spoon right out of the dish. That’s the way we do it at our house too!
Well we wouldn’t have wanted to waste it, right?
Now luckily Mardi made a supremely minified one as well (as she would, of course) – which we shared for a nice rich dessert.
Shades of her sister and mum there – it was so good, we were carefully watching each other’s spoon-digging-scoop sizes. 😉
An absolute winner.
Totally!
Your Marquise au Chocolat looks fabulous! I also used the Serious Eats post to prepare my eggs. I feel as you do…I eat raw cookie dough, and lick spoons, but I didn’t want to serve it to someone else who might get sick! Happy Tuesday, Mardi!
Right? At home I won’t be heating the eggs but serving it to others I felt a bit more leery!
Mardi, I never gave eggs a thought. When Tricia and her brother were young, and the grandkids came along, I did a lot baking with them. But, for some reason, after reading about the raw eggs, I just stopped short. Maybe it’s silly, but who knows. This was a fantastic dessert,
an definite keeper.
Yeah I don’t know I would bother heating the eggs again either…
Oooh, your slices look perfect! And I love the line about it being a catastrophe to your waistline — if I ate it all, it definitely would be! (but so tasty!)
Yes thankfully I took this to a party!
Your marquise looks beautiful and has a lovely texture…maybe heating and beating those egg yolks is the way to go even if you don’t have concerns about the raw yolks (I don’t and used them raw).
I don’t know I would bother actually but it was good to learn!
Yes, I remember Chocolate Catastrophy. Send me the recipe, I am determined to master it after all this time. I’ll try Dorie’s as well because yours looks stunning.
I made it last night and it was FAB 🙂 Sending you the recipe 🙂
Beautiful job on your Marquise au chocolat 😉
I kept thinking of the Marquis de Sade for some strange reason, I would of rather thought about spooning into a giant tin of heavenly chocolate!
Thanks so much!
“Chocolate Catastrophe’. It was a very rich frozen chocolate mousse and I think the catastrophe part was to do with what happens to your waist-line if you eat too much” made me giggle… this must be what happen to me since my baggy pants don’t seem to be too baggy after last weekend!
This WAS more-ish wasn’t it?
LOL – this would be fun to eat out of the mould with spoons. Glad you enjoyed this treat.
Thanks – in the ramekins it worked well too!
I can just picture you all eating out of the mold with big spoons! Sounds quite fun actually. Your mousse looks beautiful!
Yes it was fun! AND THANKS!
looks velvety and delicious!
It was indeed!
Yours looks great! I had some plastic wrap lines too, but I think they give it character. 🙂 I started to heat the eggs over water and gave up and just went with it. I don’t generally like egg over easy, but yes, all my life I have tasted raw egg “batter” of one kind or another.
And we’ve survived to tell the tale!