As Howard and I say, we’re “dessert incompatible”.  I’m far from a chocoholic.  I’ll eat chocolate, but it’s never my first choice.  On the other hand, for Howard, it’s chocolate all the way.  When I try making a new dessert usually only one of us loves it.  It’s tough…

Now that we’re cooking through David Lebovitz’s My Paris Kitchen, I’m discovering new twists on familiar and new recipes.  Take this week’s choice, for example.  Chocolate Mousse is something that I always forget about.  I’ve made it a few times before, and it’s always a crowd pleaser.  However, it’s not something that comes to mind when I’m deciding what to make for dessert.

Discovering this week’s recipe Salted Butter Caramel-Chocolate Mousse takes things over the top.  The name says it all.  It’s not just chocolate mousse. It’s chocolate mousse that starts with a salted caramel.  I used to be terrified of molten sugar, but the more I make it, the more comfortable I get.  Melt sugar, whisk in butter and cream, and you’ve got caramel.  Stir in chopped dark chocolate until it melts and you have chocolate caramel.

Once it cools to room temperature (we don’t want scrambled eggs in our caramel, do we?), you whisk in egg yolks.  Finally, fold in stiff egg whites with some fleur de sel, and you have salted butter caramel-chocolate mousse.  Spoon the mousse into glasses.  Voilà!  Who would think that something so good would be relatively easy to make?  The hard part is waiting at least 8 hours for it to chill.

The mousse is packed with flavor.  Both the chocolate and the caramel flavors come through.  It’s sweet, but not too sweet.  It’s light, so not too filling a dessert.  The small juice glasses I used are the perfect size for a little treat after dinner.

So far Cook the Book Fridays’ new book choice hasn’t disappointed.  I will have to remember to serve this mousse to company so it’s deliciousness can be shared.

If you want to try it at home, you can find the recipe on page 258 of My Paris Kitchen.  The recipe has also been published on Epicurious.  To see what my friends thought of the mousse, check their links here.

The core of Cook the Book Fridays are bloggers who met through French Fridays with Dorie, have remained friends, and enjoy cooking together (virtually anyway). All are welcome to join us as we continue the journey through another French cookbook, David Lebovitz’s My Paris Kitchen.