This chocolate mousse recipe is rich and deeply chocolate, swirled with an easy cherry sauce. So smooth and light that it melts in your mouth, and it’s made in 30 minutes with just 4 ingredients! An unsweetened whipped cream tops it off for the perfect finish!
Make the black cherry sauce by combining cherries (and their juices), sugar, citric acid and almond extract in a small saucepan. Cook on medium until the sauce holds a line on a spatula.
Pour into a bowl and cool completely. If it isn’t cool when you put it in the mousse, it will deflate it.
Make the mousse & assemble:
Either by hand or in the bowl of a stand mixer with the whisk attachment, whip heavy cream to medium peaks and place in the refrigerator.
Melt chocolate either in a bain-marie (in a bowl over simmering water) or in the microwave in 30 second intervals. Once melted, allow to cool to just above body temperature. It should feel warm to the touch.
In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat yolks and sugar until tripled in volume and pale yellow. Add chocolate and beat well. This will thicken considerably. Move quickly to ensure it doesn’t continue to thicken. Scrape down the sides with a rubber spatula to allow for uniform blending.
Sacrifice some whipped cream by adding a small amount of whipped cream to the chocolate mixture. Fold aggressively to incorporate. Quickly fold the chocolate into the rest of the whipped cream. Spoon immediately into containers.
Dollop a bit of the cherry sauce into the center of the mousse. You could also stir the cold cherry sauce into the mousse. Spread a bit of the unsweetened whipped cream on top. Refrigerate before serving.
Video
Notes
Technique - If you are good with a kitchen scale, you can whip both the cream for the mousse and the topping together and then divide it afterwards by weight.Variations - You could replace the almond extract with ⅛ teaspoon vanilla extract. You could also replace the kirsch with some cherry extract, or even brandy!Storage - Store chocolate mousse in the refrigerator covered with plastic wrap for up to a week, or 2 months frozen. If freezing, I would suggest adding the whipped cream topping just before serving.