Chocolate & Rosemary Mousse

Recipe by Mat Follas

Using cream, allows us to infuse all sorts of flavours into the mousse, not just rosemary. Other alternatives could be ginger, citrus (use the zest and a little of the juice), basil, chilli etc.
We use this mousse as part of a trio of chocolates in the restaurant, along with a chocolate citrus sorbet and a white chocolate strawberry truffle ganache. Rosemary works well with the dark chocolate because, as with lamb dishes, the rosemary cuts through the richness that dark chocolate can bring. This recipe is all about the chocolate, so use a good quality dark chocolate; for an extra few pennies it’s worth investing in some Green & Blacks 72%

Chocolate & Rosemary Mousse

SERVES 4

3 Eggs
200ml/7fl oz double cream
100g 72%(or higher) dark chocolate broken into small pieces
1 tbsp chopped rosemary

.  .  .  .  .  .

Heat the cream and chopped rosemary in a saucepan until the
cream is just too hot to touch ... don’t boil it !

Leave the cream to cool and infuse with the rosemary flavour,
then place in fridge after 20min of cooling

When chilled, strain out the rosemary pieces and whip the double
cream until soft peaks form when the whisk is removed

Separate the eggs and whip the whites till hard peaks form when
the whisk is removed

Warm the chocolate in a bowl over a pan of simmering water,
take off the heat as soon as melted and combine with the yolks
(take care not to heat too much, or the chocolate will grain or
the yolks will cook) ... I know I’m making it sound difficult, but
it’s easier than it sounds

While the chocolate mixture is still melted fold in the cream until
well combined, then carefully fold in the whipped whites

Pour into serving dishes and chill for two hours or more. This
will leave you with a strong but light dark chocolate and
rosemary mousse ... delicious !