Recipe: Brush aside mid-week blues with this raspberry and dark chocolate mousse

Forget love, we’d rather fall in chocolate mousse and since we take our pleasures seriously, we decided to indulge in a recipe of raspberry and dark chocolate mousse. Desserts are like feel good songs and if they are packed with health benefits, they definitely make us dance like this recipe of raspberry and dark chocolate mousse which is undoubtedly the perfect Monday treat one could ask for.

Ingredients for chocolate brownie base:

Eggs 4 no

Castor sugar 300 gm

Flour 100 gm

Cocoa powder 50 gm

Butter unsalted (melted) 200 gm

Dark chocolate 320 gm

Raspberry jelly inserts

Raspberry puree 200 gm

Castor sugar 20 gm

Gelatin leaf 2 no

Ingredients for raspberry chocolate mousse:

Dark chocolate 300 gm

Caster sugar 150 gm

Whole eggs 1 no

Egg yolks 3 no

Gelatin leaf 14 gm

Raspberry puree 350 gm

Whipped cream 450 gm

Crunchy pearls 120 gm

Ingredients for red colour spray:

Cocoa butter 500 gm

White chocolate 500 gm

Red cocoa colour 50 ml

Method:

To make the brownie base. Melt butter and chocolate in a bowl and keep aside. Beat sugar with eggs till it dissolves and then mix in the melted chocolate and butter. Add flour and cocoa powder, bake at 170⁰C for 10 to 12 minutes.

To make the raspberry jelly inserts, soak the gelatin in cold water. In a saucepan, heat raspberry puree and sugar. Now mix the gelatin well and set it in a flat pan. To make the mousse, soak the gelatin in cold water.

In a heavy sauce pan heat raspberry puree and add the soaked gelatin in it, pour in the dark chocolate, mix it well and keep aside. In a kitchen aid mixing bowl take whole eggs and egg yolk, Cook sugar with 50 ml water until it reaches 116⁰C, start beating eggs and pour cooked sugar slowly to make pate bombe.

Now add the chocolate mix and the egg mixture together. Once done fold in the whipped cream. To assemble. Take a silicon berry shaped mould. Fill half of the berry mould with mousse then in the middle put the jelly, cover with mousse then put crunchy pearls and cover with mousse followed by the brownie base.

Set for at least 3 hours in the freezer and then de-mould the mousse. For the spray, mix melted butter and chocolate and add in the red colour. Put this mixture in the spray machine and spray it on the dessert. Garnish with a gold leaf.

Benefits:

Cocoa has the capacity to stimulate the brain to release endorphins that helps elevate one’s mood. The unsweetened cacao powder is a source of magnesium and other minerals and lacks the high-calorie cocoa butter or sugars found in garden-variety chocolate.

Apart from lifting up your mood in a jiffy or being a mood enhancer, chocolates’ reputation is rising for having antioxidant effects and reducing risk factors for heart disease courtesy its cocoa content. It has several other health benefits like being aphrodisiac and helping protect your skin against the sun by acting as a sunscreen.

Apart from being a very good source of fiber and high in antioxidants that help reduce oxidative stress, raspberries are low in calories but boast many nutrients. Their consumption helps reduce the risk of cancer, diabetes, heart disease and other illnesses due to their antioxidant content. They may positively impact blood sugar, improve arthritis, aid in weight loss and may also combat ageing.

Though raspberries are best to eat after purchasing, they can also be frozen and enjoyed at any time of year with same healthy option.