Recipe Swap: Chocolate Mousse

Im sharing a chocolate mousse recipe that made seriously the best at home mousse ever. The recipe is actually from Alton Brown of Food Network. 

A friend and I made this, and while the recipe said "easy", i think were a little kitchen challenged so it was a tad bit harder for us.

Theres a section that refers to "blooming" gelatin....we could not figure this out for the life of us! Needless to say, it doesnt seem to be an essential part of the recipe, but if you know how to do this please share!

Anyway here it is:

Ingredients

• 1 3/4 cups whipping cream
• 12 ounces quality semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 3 ounces espresso or strong coffee
• 1 tablespoon dark rum
• 4 tablespoons butter
• 1 teaspoon flavorless, granulated gelatin

Directions

Chill 1 1/2 cups whipping cream in refrigerator. Chill metal mixing bowl and mixer beaters in freezer.

In top of a double boiler, combine chocolate chips, coffee, rum and butter. Melt over barely simmering water, stirring constantly. Remove from heat while a couple of chunks are still visible. Cool, stirring occasionally to just above body temperature.

Pour remaining 1/4 cup whipping cream into a metal measuring cup and sprinkle in the gelatin. Allow gelatin to "bloom" for 10 minutes. Then carefully heat by swirling the measuring cup over a low gas flame or candle. Do not boil or gelatin will be damaged. Stir mixture into the cooled chocolate and set aside.

In the chilled mixing bowl, beat cream to medium peaks. Stir 1/4 of the whipped cream into the chocolate mixture to lighten it. Fold in the remaining whipped cream in two doses. There may be streaks of whipped cream in the chocolate and that is fine. Do not over work the mousse.

 chill for at least 1 hour.

we made a quick raspberry sauce (raspberries, sugar, water in a sauce pan) to eat with ours.....it was soooo good!