Mousse au chocolat is a chocolate lover’s dream come true. It’s light and airy with a rich and decadent chocolate flavor. The best part? It’s super simple to make, so you can whip up a batch anytime you need a chocolate fix.
Whether you’re looking for an impressive dessert to end a dinner party on a high note, a sweet treat for your family, or a no-bake dessert for those hot, summer days when you can’t be bothered to bake anything, this mousse au chocolat using the traditional French method is one of the easiest desserts you can make. Seriously, if you have a hand mixer and a spatula, you can make this recipe. The hardest part will be waiting for it to set a whole four hours before digging in!
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- The ingredients for this recipe are every-day pantry items or are readily available at the grocery store, especially if you use dark chocolate chips or semi-sweet chocolate chips.
- This is a classic chocolate mousse made the French way. No heavy whipping cream here. And it’s as gourmet as it is easy to make!
- This is a simple yet elegant no-bake dessert, perfect any time of year, but especially for summer entertaining.
Ingredients
- Eggs: Egg yolks create a creamy base while egg whites whipped to soft peaks create the dessert’s signature light and airy texture. Chocolate mousse is made with raw eggs, so if that’s a concern, use pasteurized eggs, which are uncooked eggs that have been gently heated to kill any potential bacteria.
- Chocolate: I’ve made this with dark chocolate chips from Aldi’s and gourmet chocolate bars made using 70% cacao. You can try swapping with semi-sweet chocolate for this recipe, but if you want to make it with milk or white chocolate, you’ll likely want to experiment with the quantity of sugar used.
- Butter: Butter, being a fat, adds a luxurious, creamy element to the mousse, making it taste richer and more decadent. But it’s also there for a little safety insurance since it will prevent seizing, which can happen when you overheat chocolate.
- Sugar: Just a little sweetness. It is dessert after all.
- Vanilla: While optional, vanilla helps enhance the chocolatiness.
- Salt: Yes, even in a sweet dessert like this! Just a pinch of salt helps bring out the rich, chocolatey flavor.
What Type of Chocolate to Use in Mousse au Chocolat
Chocolate Chips: Pros – Readily available and offered in milk, semi-sweet, and dark varieties. Cons – Contain stabilizers that help maintain their shape but can slightly affect melting.
Chocolate Bars: Pros – Typically higher in cocoa content, providing a purer chocolate flavor with fewer stabilizers for smoother, easier melting. Also, you can use bars to create chocolate shavings for the topping! Cons – Often more expensive than chocolate chips.
- Milk Chocolate (30–40% cocoa solids): Best for a sweeter, milder mousse. You may not need powdered sugar if using milk chocolate.
- Semi-Sweet Chocolate (50–60% cocoa solids): A balanced choice, offering both sweetness and rich cocoa flavor—ideal for chocolate mousse.
- Dark Chocolate (60–75% cocoa solids): Delivers a deeper, more intense chocolate flavor. Choose this for a bold, rich mousse with velvety rich dark chocolate flavor.
Should I use chocolate chips or chocolate bars?
Typically, I recommend using a good quality chocolate bar such as Lindt 70% cocoa chocolate bar for this recipe, but to be honest, if I’m making this for my family on a whim, sometimes I’ll just use dark chocolate chocolate chips or bittersweet chocolate chips. The addition of the butter, even just a tablespoon, helps ensure the chocolate chips melt smoothly, which is one of the main reasons to use chocolate in bar form.
What type of chocolate is in Mousse au Chocolat?
For the best flavor, use dark chocolate or bittersweet chocolate, anywhere between 60% and 75% cocoa. This will ensure your chocolate mousse is rich, but not too sweet. While you are free to experiment with the types of chocolate you use, I don’t suggest using milk or white chocolate in this recipe as it would be sickly sweet. Milk chocolate and white chocolate also won’t provide the rich chocolate flavor you want in a classic chocolate mousse.
How to Make Mousse au Chocolat
- Separate the eggs and add the egg yolks to a large bowl.
- Using a handheld mixer or a stand mixer with a whisk attachment, beat the egg whites until soft peaks form in a separate bowl (or the bowl of an electric mixer if using a stand mixer).
- Beat the egg yolks and the sugar. Whisk in salt and vanilla.
- Then melt the chocolate and butter in a bain marie or double boiler.
- Remove from heat, let cool to slightly so it doesn’t cook the egg yolks, but not so long as to harden. Then combine the chocolate and the egg yolks and stir to combine.
- Take ¼ of the egg white mixture and whisk into the chocolate egg yolk mixture.
- Fold in the rest of the whipped egg whites with a rubber spatula until you have a homogenous chocolate mousse.
- You can spoon the mousse into single serve ramekins or you can add the mousse to a pastry piping bag and fill, which helps avoid making a mess. Cover each ramekin with plastic wrap.
- Set in the fridge for at least 4 hours but ideally overnight. Optionally, you can top with homemade whipped cream and shave some chocolate over each portion before serving and dig in!
Tips & Tricks
Separate your eggs in advance. Why? Because egg whites separate easier when cold, but they whip up easier when they’re at room temperature.
Make sure there is no liquid in your bowl or on the whisks you’ll use to whip the egg whites. Any contact with liquid will prevent your egg whites from forming peaks.
Let the chocolate sit for a few minutes before adding in the yolks, which will give you a mousse that isn’t too heavy.
Don’t let the melted chocolate cool for too long either and harden, which will give you lumpy mousse. You don’t need to use a thermometer, but if wondering minds want to know: Let the chocolate cool to approximately 140 degrees F.
Storage
Chocolate mousse lasts 2 to 3 days stored in the fridge but may deflate a bit as the air whipped into the mousse deflates. Loosely cover the mousse to avoid forming a skin. If you prefer your mousse to be slightly softer, leave it on the counter for 10 to 15 minutes before serving.
More Delicious Desserts
- If chocolate is your thing, try these French Chocolate Madeleines.
- But if you’re looking for another easy, no-bake dessert fit for a dinner party, this Dirty Chai Tiramisu is crowd favorite.
- And finally, I scream, you scream, we’ll all scream for this Fudge Swirl Ice Cream.
📖 Recipe
Mousse au Chocolat
Ingredients
- ½ cup or 3.5 ounces dark chocolate
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 3 eggs separated
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- ½ teaspoon vanilla
- ¼ teaspoon salt
Instructions
- Separate the eggs and add the egg yolks to a large bowl.
- Using a handheld mixer or a stand mixer with a whisk attachment, beat the egg whites until soft peaks form in a separate bowl (or the bowl of an electric mixer if using a stand mixer).
- Beat the egg yolks and the sugar. Whisk in salt and vanilla.
- Then melt the chocolate and butter in a bain marie or double boiler.
- Remove from heat, let cool to slightly so it doesn’t cook the egg yolks, but not so long as to harden. Then combine the chocolate and the egg yolks and stir to combine.
- Take ¼ of the egg white mixture and whisk into the chocolate egg yolk mixture.
- Fold in the rest of the whipped egg whites with a rubber spatula until you have a homogenous chocolate mousse.
- You can spoon the mousse into single serve ramekins or you can add the mousse to a pastry piping bag and fill, which helps avoid making a mess. Cover each ramekin with plastic wrap.
- Set in the fridge for at least 4 hours but ideally overnight. Optionally, you can top with homemade whipped cream and shave some chocolate over each portion before serving and dig in!
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