Chocolate Mousse, revisited

I invited my dad, brother, sister and my sister's boyfriend over for dinner last night, so I needed a dessert to impress. I have to outdo myself every time I'm on dessert duty - which, let's face it, is every time I see them.

I have made chocolate mousse in the past using this recipe, but I needed a recipe that would yield more mousse than my previous attempt. I was low on cream and, being rather lazy, I didn't want to (a) go and buy more cream and (b) try and multiply the old recipe by 1.5.

I trawled the net and found this recipe over at Taste. It had good reviews so I thought I'd give it a whirl.

I cheated and melted the chocolate in the microwave (though if you're not confident at melting chocolate I would stick to the double boiler method as it is harder to burn the chocolate). I also added a teaspoon of vanilla extract to give more depth to the flavour.

I garnished each portion with some piped whipped cream and a chocolate embellishment. I made these by piping melted chocolate on to non-stick baking paper and allowing them to set in the fridge.

This mousse was incredibly rich but absolutely divine. All of my dinner guests finished every last mouthful, and that, to me, is the best compliment of all.