My nephew is trying to find information regarding the history of Chocolate Mousse (French for "foamy chocolate") but everything he tries turns out to be a dead end (Wikipedia, Google, etc.) or a website that has recipes on how to make it. Does anybody here know where info on "foamy chocolate" can be found? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!
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History of Chocolate Mousse?
Authored by: cgrotke on Monday, May 18 2009 @ 07:25 PM GMT+4
I don't have any immediate mousse tips, but I've been going through
a similar process with buttercream.
I've been searching out recipes, then practicing them. This weekend it
all came together for me and I made the buttercream I had been
searching for. It's been years in the making.
It's a merengue buttercream, and it is mousse-y. You start by
whipping up 5 egg whites until foamy, then add some cream of tartar
to help it hold together and whip it until hard peaks.
A hot sugar syrup gets added slowly and mixed in.
Then comes the hard part: slowly adding 4 sticks of unsalted butter, a
tablespoon or so at a time. The trick is to add each little bit, then mix
it slowly until it is fully incorporated, then move on to the next piece.
It took me about 45 minutes to add the butter. Add it too fast and the
whole things comes apart into a runny, globby mess. (Trust me -
early versions of this recipe resulted in tasty clumps of buttery sugar
sitting in a pool of ...?)
When you get it right, the whole things stays together until the final
bits of butter, in which case turning up the mixer and whipping it will
finish it nicely.
What you end up with is a very light, delicate, fluffy, mousse-like
frosting that is just the kind of buttercream you want for spreading on
cakes. And eating. It can be flavored or colored, and is heavenly.
So, my questions are just beginning. This took almost an hour of
steady mixing. Did they have buttercream before electricity? Who was
the poor bakery assistant who had to do this by hand?
Authored by: annikee on Monday, May 18 2009 @ 08:46 PM GMT+4
I heard in restaurant school days that mousse and bavarian cremes all came out in the 1700s. The French laid claim to it, but Escoffier himself said they probably came from Prussia originally.
It also depends on what mousse tradition you're talking about. The cream and butter mousse came before the cream and gelatin one, which became popular in the late 1800s because they were quicker to make.
From my experience it was probably invented by an unknown cook and stolen by a popular chef. :)
Here's one recipe, but I wouldn't bother with a sieve unless it has visible lumps. It consists almost entirely of whipping cream. Not for the diseased of heart.
a similar process with buttercream.
I've been searching out recipes, then practicing them. This weekend it
all came together for me and I made the buttercream I had been
searching for. It's been years in the making.
It's a merengue buttercream, and it is mousse-y. You start by
whipping up 5 egg whites until foamy, then add some cream of tartar
to help it hold together and whip it until hard peaks.
A hot sugar syrup gets added slowly and mixed in.
Then comes the hard part: slowly adding 4 sticks of unsalted butter, a
tablespoon or so at a time. The trick is to add each little bit, then mix
it slowly until it is fully incorporated, then move on to the next piece.
It took me about 45 minutes to add the butter. Add it too fast and the
whole things comes apart into a runny, globby mess. (Trust me -
early versions of this recipe resulted in tasty clumps of buttery sugar
sitting in a pool of ...?)
When you get it right, the whole things stays together until the final
bits of butter, in which case turning up the mixer and whipping it will
finish it nicely.
What you end up with is a very light, delicate, fluffy, mousse-like
frosting that is just the kind of buttercream you want for spreading on
cakes. And eating. It can be flavored or colored, and is heavenly.
So, my questions are just beginning. This took almost an hour of
steady mixing. Did they have buttercream before electricity? Who was
the poor bakery assistant who had to do this by hand?