This salted butter caramel-chocolate mousse is rich and decadent. You would surely expect that from David Lebovitz’s My Paris Kitchen. I made half of the recipe. I lightened it up by substituting heavy cream, a major component of the mousse besides chocolate and the eggs, with half and half. It is a necessary adjustment since my stomach has been protesting vehemently to the rich food I attempted to cramp in there lately. The dessert is still rich and decadent, a bit on the heavy side. I don’t think the flavor is at all compromised by putting in less fat. I enjoyed it and my stomach was cool about it!
I’m curious to find out how far I could go with the heavy cream substitution. Whole milk or even yogurt or a combination of both? Please feel free to weigh in on that.
The best part of the mousse, in my opinion, is the salt. I did not use salted butter as the recipe calls for; I only have unsalted butter. I’d sprinkle even more flaky fleur de sel on the mousse next time since the sweet and savory flavor is such a winning combination. Salty caramel has such an exquisite balance of taste. Meanwhile, my husband ate his chocolate mousse with a big heap of mixed berries on top. He really enjoyed it and licked his glass clean.
To see how other cookthebookfridays bakers approached this sweet recipe, please check the blogroll here.
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| Substituted heavy cream with half and half |
Salted Butter Caramel-Chocolate Mousse
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup (100g) granulated sugar
- 3 tablespoons salted butter, cubed
- 3/4 cup (180ml) heavy cream
- 6 ounces (170g) bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, chopped
- 4 large eggs, separated
- 1/4 teaspoon flaky sea salt, preferably fleur de sel
Instructions
Spread the sugar evenly over the bottom of a wide saucepan. Heat the sugar over medium heat. As it begins to liquefy at the edges, use a heatproof spatula to very gently drag the liquefied sugar toward the center. Watch carefully, as once the edges start to darken, the sugar is in danger of burning. Continue to cook, stirring very gently, until all the sugar is melted and begins to caramelize.
When the caramel is a deep amber color and starts to smoke, wait for a moment for it to smell just slightly burnt, then remove it from the heat and quickly whisk the butter, stirring until melted. Gradually whisk in the cream and stir until the little bits of caramel are completely melted. (A few can be stubborn, so be patient. You can strain the mixture if they simply refuse to budge.)
Once smooth, add the chocolate, stirring gently until it's melted and smooth. Scrape the mixture into a large bowl and let it cool to room temperature. Once it's no longer warm, whisk in the egg yolks.
In a separate bowl, whip the egg whites until stiff. Fold one-third of the whipped whites into the chocolate mixture, sprinkling in the flaky salt. Fold in the remaining beaten egg whites just until no streaks of white remain. Divide the mousse into serving glasses, or transfer it to a decorative serving bowl, and chill for at least 8 hours. While it might be tempting to serve this with whipped cream, I prefer to serve it pure, straight up with just a spoon.
16 Comments
Nicole
May 6, 2016 at 10:25 amThis was delicious wasn't it? Good to know your sub worked out.
Nicole
May 6, 2016 at 10:26 amThis was delicious wasn't it? Good to know your sub worked out.
Mardi Michels
May 6, 2016 at 10:29 amHonestly? I wouldn't have thought to substitute milk for heavy cream – the fat content is completely different so the ingredients might not interact as they are supposed to – but someone recently told me they used evaporated milk in place of cream in a recipe like this and it was ok. It think it would somewhat change the flavour/ texture although yours looks good and it sounds like you didn't miss the cream at all. My trick for all the rich food is to give lots of it away or to make the serving sizes TINY LOL 😉
flour.ish.en
May 6, 2016 at 12:53 pmMardi, thanks for the detailed response. I use evaporated milk in making ice cream. It works except that the extra sugar would have make the mousse coyly sweet. I think Greek yogurt is worth a try.
Mary Hirsch
May 6, 2016 at 1:12 pmI usually tend to make a recipe as written by the author (especially the recipes we are using for a group project) and then experiment with my second or third attempts OR by reading ideas from other bloggers. I'm just not competent enough or willing to do that on a first try. This mousse is rich. I could only handle of few spoonfuls at a time (although I polished off 2 Weck jarfuls in a few days). So, since I will be making this often (this coming Friday night for a 70th birthday), I'll try your substitutions. Always happy to cut some calories also.
sanyaliving.com
May 6, 2016 at 1:37 pmThat mousse looks amazing! I am hoping to make it when everyone is back on track with health but good to hear that you can substitute a lighter cream and still have it taste good.
Natascha Beutner
May 6, 2016 at 9:14 pmIt looks fabulous! My husband loved it too!
Betsy
May 7, 2016 at 1:20 amI made this with the cream, but I'm glad to know it worked with half-and-half. That variation might mean I can make it more often.
EmilyC
May 7, 2016 at 3:45 amLove the color-combo for your post! And thanks for the idea of subs for the cream (and the evaporated milk tip – thanks Mardi!) sounds do-able too!
EmilyC
May 7, 2016 at 3:45 amLove the color-combo for your post! And thanks for the idea of subs for the cream (and the evaporated milk tip – thanks Mardi!) sounds do-able too!
Teresa
May 7, 2016 at 4:46 amI've actually cheated a lot with dairy products in recipes, if I have something on hand that needs to be used up. It's amazing how forgiving most recipes can be! Your lighter version looks wonderful.
KB from Prof Who Cooks
May 9, 2016 at 12:41 pmShirley, I had the same thought about lightening it up, though I'm like Mary in that I try to make the recipe as written the first time. Yes, Greek yogurt could work great and that sounds like a neat idea! I also could see using half and half, though I'm sure Mardi is right about it negatively affecting the texture. I'm also going to say that I love the photo(s) of the mousse, with the spotted plate underneath–too cute!
flour.ish.en
May 9, 2016 at 1:26 pmGreek yogurt will be in for a test drive next time I make this.
flour.ish.en
May 9, 2016 at 1:28 pmThere are always good ideas you can pick up from other bloggers.
flour.ish.en
May 9, 2016 at 1:31 pmThat is so true that there are always room to work out some alternative approaches to make the dish the way we want it.
Karen @ From Scratch
May 11, 2016 at 5:31 pmYour photos are beautiful! We loved this mousse too, and I am happy to hear it works with slightly lighter half-and-half.