Chocolate After-Dinner Mint Parfaits

bluemoon downunder's Note:

A visually exquisite dessert, dinner party elegant, which is in the September 2005 issue of the Australian magazine 'Delicious'. This is not a recipe that can be divided simply into preparation and cooking times. Suffice it to say, it's NOT a recipe to make for the evening meal when you get home from work, but rather one to be made over several hours during the day. There are three stages where cooling time is needed. I have NOT factored cooling times into my guesstimates of preparation and cooking times below. That said, each stage in the making is quite quick. Please provide information on preparation and cooking times if you make and review this. This a recipe from Australian chef Curtis Stone. As he says of this recipe "I like my desserts to be quite intense but not too heavy; there's nothing worse than feeling so full you want to slide off your chair at the end of the night! Serve this in small glasses and you'll be satisfied but not overwhelmed." I have posted it here for the Zaar World Tour 2005.

• Total Time: 55 mins
• Prep Time: 35 mins
• Cook Time: 20 mins

Ingredients:

Serves: 8

Yield: 8.0 mousses

Chocolate Mousse

• 1 leaf gelatin (use gold-strength gelatine leaves from gourmet food shops)
• 150 g dark chocolate
• 2 eggs
• 1 1/2 tablespoons caster sugar
• 300 ml thickened cream, whipped

Mint Mousse

• 1 cup milk
• 1/3 cup caster sugar
• 1 bunch mint, leaves picked, plus extra leaves to garnish

Chocolate Ganache

• 150 ml light cream
• 150 g dark chocolate, grated

Directions:

1. Chocolate Mousse: Place the gelatine in cold water to soften and set aside; melt the chocolate in a bowl over a pan of simmering water, stir until smooth, then set aside to cool slightly. In an electric mixer, beat the eggs and sugar on a medium-high speed for 5 minutes or until thick and pale. Drain the softened gelatine and place in a pan over a very low heat. When melted, slowly add the liquid gelatine to the egg mixture, whisking constantly. Stir in the melted chocolate, then fold in the whipped cream. Divide the mousse among 8 3/4-cup (185ml) serving glasses. Chill for 30 minutes or until set.
2. Mint Mousse: Bring the milk and sugar to the boil in a pan, add the mint, then remove from the heat, cover with a tea towel and allow it to infuse for 15 minutes. Meanwhile soften and melt the gelatine as above, then add to the milk mixture. Strain the mixture, pressing down well the mint leaves. Cool completely, then fold in the whipped cream. Pour into the serving glasses on top of the chocolate mousse layer. Chill for 1-2 hours or until set.
3. Chocolate Ganache: Bring the cream to the boil in a pan. Place grated chocolate then pour the hot cream over it and stir until smooth. Allow to cool, then pour the ganache over the mint mousse and chill for a further 1-2 hours. Serve garnished with a fresh mint leaf.

Reviews

[kiwidutch]

Bluemoon.... I relied REALLY havily on Ellies review to help me make this, You are missing a quantity of water in the choc mousse section, water , galatin and cream in the mint mousse section and since this recipe got printed out on the shopping list, and I read the review *afterwards* I was scraping to have enough cream to get the recipe together. I too used galatin in sachets, 1 each for the mousse and or the mint mousse and niether was anywhere set. The mint mouse was actually still really liquid and the ganache, which I spooned carefully on top floated on it. I did make this in one large bowl, but did it the day before guests arrived so that it would have lots of extra setting time. What a total shame that the whole thing was like soup, it tasted great though and after guests had had a try and a laugh I took it to the kitchen, used the blended to mix the mint layer into the rest really well, and put it into the freezer as improvised icecream. I haven't tried that, but DH says it's good :) I guess what is most dissapointing of all is that Ellies review was made a while ago and you haven't managed to fix the recipe for us. I'd appreciate it if you could becuase it's got a great taste, but the making of it is so totally frustating that at the moment it completely puts me off making this again. Thanks for a recipe with potential :)

[ellie_]

Very good, but I made some minor changes due to unfamiliar/unavailable ingredients and some ommissions of the ingredients in step 2 (mint mousse). I used one envelope of unfavored gelatin (instead of the leaf) in one cup of water in step one. I also used milk chocolate because I bought the wrong chocolate (but it worked out great). In step 2 (mint mousse) the directions call for the gelatin again (used the envelope with 1/ 2 cup water) and the directions mentioned whipped cream - I used one cup heavy cream - whipped. For the light cream in step 3 I used half-and-half. Also instead of using individual glasses, I made this in a big glass bowl (however it takes longer to set)--delicious! With my slight changes we enjoyed this dessert a lot and will be making this again!