Home Cooking Column - By Barbara Collins

I adore Nigella Lawson’s recipes and this one for easy chocolate mousse always hits the spot. It’s really rich, so you don’t need to serve an awful lot per person. Ramekin dishes are the perfect size. You can go really kitsch and sprinkle them with edible glitter. 

Ingredients

150 grams mini marshmallows
50 grams soft butter 
250 grams good dark chocolate (minimum 70% cocoa solids) chopped into small pieces
285 ml hot water (from a recently boiled kettle) 
284 ml double cream 
1 teaspoon vanilla extract 

Method

Put the marshmallows, butter, chocolate and water in a heavy-based saucepan. Put the saucepan on the hob, over heat, though keep it fairly gentle, to melt the contents, stirring every now and again. Remove from the heat.

Meanwhile, whip the cream with the vanilla extract until thick, and then fold into the cooling chocolate mixture until you have a smooth, cohesive mixture.

Pour or scrape into 4 glasses or ramekins, about 175ml / ¾ cup each in capacity, or 6 smaller (125ml / ½ cup) ones, and chill until you want to eat. The sooner the better!

Tip

I used Faverger drinking chocolate in this recipe instead of chopped chocolate. It’s quite chunky, excellent quality and comes in an adorable tin. Price £7.49. Order online at  www.chocolatiers.co.uk.

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