What if I told you that all you needed to make a delicious mousse was chocolate, ice, and water?
I bet you wouldn’t believe me.
Well, you better believe it, because I just fucking did it ten minutes ago.
This technique was created by French chemist Hervé This, who also famously unboiled an egg. Clearly the man was a genius. He somehow managed to figure out how to thicken chocolate using just water. And chocolate and water are usually not a good combination so that makes this even more amazing.
All you do is melt some chocolate in water, put the melted chocolate on top of water and ice, whisk it vigorously for a few minutes, and voila! Chocolate mousse!
But I still managed to fuck it up a little bit, of course. You know me by now.
The first thing I did wrong was to not add water to the chocolate as I was melting it. My eyes just kind of skimmed over the recipe and I missed the bit where I was supposed to add a cup of water. But it didn’t really seem to matter, though, because my mousse still came out great.
I poured the melted chocolate into a medium mixing bowl placed atop a slightly smaller bowl filled with ice and water, and whisked and whisked and whisked and… nothing was happening.
The problem was, I think, that I was whisking it in a circular motion, because when I started doing it up and down…
Wow! It actually worked! Look at this shit! All just using water and ice and stirring!
SCIENCE!
I used Ghirdaelli 72% cacao baking chips because it was all I had on hand, but you can use any kind of chocolate you want for this. You can even add extra stuff too, if you want, like a liqueur or what have you. Experiment! Have fun! I know I’ll probably be making this a lot, just because it’s so easy and quick.
I just have to figure out how to get mousse in fancy cups so it doesn’t look like a sloppy mess. Oh, well. I might someday. Probably not, though.
Hervé This’s 5 Minute Chocolate Mousse (from Cafe Fernando)
9.35 ounces of your favorite dark chocolate (60% or more)
1 cup of water
4 tbsp of sugar (optional, if you feel your chocolate is too rich by itself)
Ice
Place a medium mixing bowl on top of a slightly smaller one that is filled with ice and water. The bottom of the medium mixing bowl should touch the ice. Melt the water and chocolate, plus any other ingredients you may want to add, then pour into the mixing bowl on top. Stir vigorously in an up-and-down motion with a whisk until thick. Watch the texture! If you whisk too much and it becomes grainy, reheat until half is melted, then pour it back into the mixing bowl and start over.
Divide into four cups and serve immediately.
Jackie Ruins The Cake 
First of all, that is a FREAKING AWESOME SUIT OF FREAKING ARMOR OR WHATEVER THE CRAP IT IS ON THE WALL. :O SO COOL.
Secondly, that’s awesome. I love mousse, but it’s RIDICULOUS to try to make. =/ I’ll have to try this!
Third, UNboil an egg?! D: As in, it was boiled, and then he made it not boiled anymore?! D: WHAT. HOW IS THAT EVEN POSSIBLE.
YES AND IT HAS CHUCKIE FROM RUGRATS INSIDE IT BECAUSE MY FAMILY IS AWESOME AND WE DECIDED THAT WOULD BE AWESOME.
Yes, please make this! It is so easy, if you don’t mind a bit of an arm workout.
IDEK!!! I still have to look that up.
Here is, apparently, how it’s done:
“He explains that when an egg is cooked, the protein molecules unroll themselves, link up and enclose the water molecules. In order to ‘uncook’ the egg, you need to detach the protein molecules from each other. By adding a product like sodium borohydride, the egg becomes liquid within three hours. For those who want to try it at home, vitamin C also does the trick.”
That is weird. D: Clearly a genius, and as is the case with most geniuses, clearly a weirdo. Who would DO that?! XD Who looks at a hard-boiled egg and thinks “Huh. I could un-do that”?! Crazy dude. XD