Directions
Today’s recipe is a delicious chocolate and raspberry mousse, but it is not the usual dessert to offer to friends for dinner. No, today we want to present you an incredible recipe by a talented young chef, Augusto Valzelli, soul and patron of the La Porta Antica restaurant in Brescia. But why did we go to ask chef Valzelli for the recipe for what looks like a simple mousse?
Because we want to tell you about a professional who was the youngest chef in Europe to get a Michelin star, a really nice achievement. Deserved then, since Augusto Valzelli is not only a hard worker, but he is also a careful researcher of local raw materials, first of all, the cheeses of Brianza. His creativity allows him every day to experiment and rework great classics with a fresh and innovative approach, but without ever losing sight of the more pragmatic aspect of the kitchen.
And what’s better than testing a talented chef with a deceptive and apparently simple dessert like banal chocolate and raspberry mousse? Read on and find out how to make the perfect mousse. And if you pass by Brescia, make a stop at the Porta Antica, Augusto Valzelli’s cuisine deserves much more than a visit.
Ingredients and doses to make the chocolate and raspberry mousse
4 servings
- 100 grams of egg yolk
- 100 grams of eggs
- 150 grams of white cane sugar
- 30 grams of water
- 350 grams of extra dark chocolate
- 500 ml of cream
- 350 grams of raspberries
- 200 grams of puff pastry
How to make the perfect chocolate and raspberry mousse
As a first step, we will prepare the sugar syrup: heat the sugar in a saucepan, adding the water and stir. Take a thermometer and check the temperature: when the sugar syrup reaches 110 degrees centigrade, turn off the stove.
Now we melt the chocolate in a bain-marie, putting it in a saucepan, which in turn will be placed in a larger saucepan full of water. Also, in this case, do not boil the water violently, the chocolate must melt slowly.
Ok, now that we have all the preparations set up let’s move on to creating the mousse. Whip the eggs and yolks with a whisk until the mixture is frothy and puffy, to which you will need to add the sugar syrup. Keep stirring until the syrup is blended, then add the melted chocolate as well. Stir for a couple of minutes and then let it cool.
Let’s move on to the fresh cream: put it in a planetary mixer and whip it until it becomes soft, then when the chocolate has cooled add the two compounds and mix gently, so as not to dismantle the cream. Pour the mousse into a piping bag and put it in the refrigerator.
Meanwhile, let’s prepare the other ingredients for the final composition of the chocolate and raspberry mousse. Blend the 3/4 raspberries and refrigerate them in a sealed container. The rest will be used to decorate the final dish.
Turn on the oven and set a temperature of 200 degrees centigrade, then cook the puff pastry until golden, it shouldn’t take more than ten minutes.
Well, we are almost there: now the final phase, the most delicate, the serving. Take the raspberry sauce and form some arabesques on the plate, gently crush the sac a poche to create small doses of chocolate mousse and decorate with pieces of puff pastry, sinking them inside and maybe crumbling them on the plate.
As you can see, preparing a great gourmet dessert is not difficult, just prepare all the ingredients in advance, especially the chocolate mousse, which must rest in the refrigerator. You can indulge yourself with the variations, flavoring the raspberry sauce with a dash of rum or sprinkling with vanilla or flavoring the mousse itself with a few drops of Cognac.
