A thick layer of homemade salted caramel topped with a delicious dark chocolate mousse. Aka: the best dessert ever! What’s more, you only need 6 ingredients to make this.
You guys, we need to talk. This recipe is so crazy delicious you’re going to want to make it every day of the week for the next three weeks. At the very least! I mean, homemade salted caramel ( which is obviously pretty perfect on its on) topped with dark chocolate mousse (dreamy!), enriched with that same delicious caramel. Yum. Yum. YUM!
Because of its obvious deliciousness, I thought it would make the perfect recipe to round off my caramel mini series. I’ve you missed my caramel mini series, make sure to check it out before you make this mousse. There’s a post about the difference between wet and dry caramel, a post on making wet caramel, and a post on how to make dry caramel. Especially handy if you’ve never made caramel in you life 😉
Anyway, mousse. Salted caramel chocolate mousse. My new obsession.
I didn’t come up with this recipe myself. I just adapted it a bit here and there. The mastermind behind this awesome salted caramel chocolate mousse is this awesome Youtube vlogger girl I recently discovered, Cupcake Jemma. Her videos not only make me want to bake perfect rainbow cakes and drink thick peanut butter milkshakes, they also inspired me to look up plane tickets to London, where she has her very own cupcake shop, Crumbs & Doilies.
If you watch Jemma’s video (and if you’re a caramel expert because you read through my caramel mini series!) you’ll notice that she uses the dry method to make the caramel. Personally, I don’t care much for the dry method, so I made the caramel the wet way. I also used more butter and less cream in my caramel, because her recipe calls for double cream and they don’t sell it here in the Netherlands. Oh, and I used darker chocolate than Jemma. I tried the mousse first with chocolate that has 58% cocoa solids but the chocolate flavor (though very much there) was a bit too ‘milk chocolate’ for my taste. So next time I made it, I went with dark chocolate with 63% cocoa solids. For me, it was definitely the way to go!
You see how much I adapted the recipe to my own personal taste? I encourage you to do the same! Use whatever caramel making method suits you best. Use the chocolate you like. Use more or less butter/cream/salt. It’s YOU who is going to have to eat it, after all 😉
Not that you can really go wrong here. This mousse is dreamy! The only downside for some people may be that it contains raw eggs. Yup: eggs. Raw. This does not bother me in the slightest. I live on the edge, you know! (<– not really)
In some supermarkets you can buy pasteurized eggs these days. So if using raw eggs totally weirds you out you can use those. Or maybe this mousse is the perfect excuse to get over your salmonella fear? I mean, look at those layers…
I served the mousse with cream and dark chocolate shavings. Very delicious, but the mousse certainly doesn’t need it, flavor-wise!
Anyway, that’s it. Scroll down for a long pin image if you want to pin this recipe, or click here if you want to subscribe to my blog and receive delicious recipes such as these directly in your inbox 😉
Enjoy!
- 100g (or ½ cup) granulated sugar
- 2 tablespoons of water
- 80g (or ⅓ cup + 1 teaspoon) unsalted butter, cubed
- 180ml (or ¾ cup) heavy cream
- a pinch of table salt
- 120g (or 4.2 ounces) dark chocolate*, chopped
- 3 large eggs (about 150g total, or 5.3 ounces), divided
- In a spotlessly clean, light-colored saucepan (with a capacity of at least 1.5L, or 6¼ cups) combine the sugar and water. Place over low heat, stirring with a metal spoon until the sugar has dissolved and the syrup has become clear. Stop stirring.
- Crank the heat up to medium and allow the syrup to come to a boil. If you want to, you can gently wash down the sides of the pan with a wet pastry brush, to prevent stray sugar crystals from caramelizing or burning on the sides of the pan, and to keep the syrup from crystallizing.
- After about 5 minutes of cooking, the syrup will start to color at the edges. Using a whisk, gently whisk the caramel occasionally while allowing the caramel to reach a dark amber color. If you're nervous about burning the caramel, you can crank the heat down a bit once the caramel starts to caramelize at the sides of the pan.
- Once you’re happy with the color of the caramel, add the cubed butter and whisk until incorporated, 1-2 minutes. The caramel will sizzle and bubble once you add the butter. This is normal.
- Crank the heat up to medium high and slowly drizzle in the cream, whisking continuously. Again, the caramel will bubble and sizzle, so be careful. Once all the cream has been added, whisk in the salt.
- Once the salt is incorporated, turn the heat down, stop whisking and allow the caramel to cook for 1 minute.
- Remove from the heat. Pour 120g (or 4.2 ounces) of the salted caramel in a small bowl and set aside. Pour the remaining caramel in a medium-sized heatproof bowl and add the chopped chocolate. Allow the mixture to sit undisturbed for a minute to let the chocolate melt, then whisk until smooth and shiny. Set aside to cool to room temperature.
- In the meantime, divide the reserved caramel over 6-8 serving glasses. Place the glasses in the fridge to allow the caramel to cool.
- Once the chocolate mixture has cooled to room temperature, whisk in the egg yolks.
- In another medium-sized bowl, beat the egg whites using a hand mixer fitted with the whisk attachments (or a whisk, if you’re bad ass) until they hold stiff peaks.
- Using a big metal spoon, gently fold one third of the egg whites into the chocolate mixture. Once the mixture looks smooth, fold in the remaining two third of egg white, taking care not to knock too much air out of the mousse.
- Divide the mousse over the prepared serving glasses. I used a piping bag for this, but you can use a couple of spoons if you want to.
- Chill in the fridge for at least two hours. The mousse is even better the next day, so if you have the time, make it the day before you want to serve it.
- Right before serving, top with (unsweetened) whipped cream and chocolate shavings.
- Mousse will keep in the fridge for two days. Make sure to cover the individual glasses tightly with plastic wrap.
** Or, if you prefer, start by making a dry caramel. Simply leave out the water for a dry caramel.
New favorite food quote:
This looks wonderful but I cannot find the number or amount of egg whites for this recipe? Am I missing it?
Hi Lulu, you need the whites and yolks from 3 eggs 😉
I am really excited to make this for a dinner party for 20. It looks like the glasses you used were about 4 0z each? Larger than shot glass but smaller than regular rocks glass? Thank you for the beautiful recipe!
Hi Jennings, the glasses I used were 8 oz. each! They were quite big, and my niece had difficulty finishing hers. I love the idea of serving this mousse is hot glasses! Especially after a big meal, it might be all you need 😉
Intrigued with your recipes