My daughter loves anything black forest. I’ve made black forest cheesecake, cookies, and cake in the past and liked them all. For her birthday I decided to try a layered black forest chocolate mousse.
This layered dessert is made of dark chocolate mousse, cherry jam, and whipped cream. I had a big jar of sour cherry jam my mom sends from Michigan, so I used that for the cherry layer. You could easily make a fresh cherry compote instead by combining pitted cherries, a touch of lemon juice, water, sugar and a little cornstarch in a pot on the stove and cooking until thickened. That would be super delicious in this. My cherry jam was quick and the perfect thing for this dessert though so I went with that.
The mousse I used in this recipe is made by creating a pâte à bombe. A pâte à bombe is similar to a meringue and is made by whipping whole eggs until fluffy and adding hot sugar syrup and whipping some more. Melted chocolate, gelatin, and whipped cream are then added to make a fluffy chocolate mousse. There are other ways to make mousse too and you can use any method. The mousse can also be eaten by itself or used in any other dessert.
Using piping bags for the mousse and whipped cream make layering this dessert much less messy. You could layer using just a spoon though if you don’t have piping bags. If you’d like to check out some of my other dessert recipes click here.
Black Forest Chocolate Mousse
Ingredients
For the mousse:
- 2 tbsp water
- 1/3 cup sugar
- 1 whole egg
- 1 egg yolk
- 3.5 g powdered gelatin half a 7 g envelope
- 1 3/4 cup heavy cream
- 170 g semisweet chocolate melted
For whipped cream:
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 4 tbsp powdered sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla
For the cherry jam: (or use jarred)
- 3 cups pitted cherries
- 1/2 cup water
- juice from 1/2 lemon
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1 tbsp cornstarch
- 1 tsp vanilla
Instructions
Make the jam:
- Combine everything but vanilla in a sauce pan and cook, stirring often, until boiling. Then simmer for about 10 minutes until thickened. Add a little more water as needed. Cool fully before using.
Make the mousse:
- Melt the chocolate and set aside to cool.
- In a small pan combine the sugar and water and stir. Heat over medium, watching the temp until it reaches 240. Watch it closely because the temp is important here.
- While the sugar is heating, whip the egg and yolk in stand mixer with whisk until it is lighter in color and fluffy. When the syrup is 240, slowly pour it at the edge of the bowl into the eggs and whisk until the mixture is cool to the touch and fluffy.
- Bloom the gelatin by combining with a small amount of water and once it is hydrated, microwave for 10 seconds to melt it.
- Once the egg mixture is cool to the touch, drizzle in the melted gelatin and mix until combined. Fold in the cooled melted chocolate. Whisk the cream to soft peaks and fold in to the chocolate mixture just until combined. Put into a piping bag and into the fridge to set up a little while you make the whipped cream.
Make the whipped cream:
- Combine the cream, sugar and vanilla in the stand mixer and whisk until soft peaks form. Put into a piping bag.
To assemble:
- Using a glass cup or bown, pipe a layer of mousse, cover with some cherry jam, then a layer of whipped cream. Repeat until you use all the ingredients.