Difficulty 2/5
This recipe is really good! I love the combination of chocolate and a really mild peanut butter. Also, there’s this chocolate sauce running through the center that is amazing and a crunchy peanut praline on the top that give a really nice finishing touch. Also, this is great because you can make it the day before your dinner and have it perfect for just sprinkling the praline on top. For the mousses we make one large batch of pastry cream. Using pastry cream as a starter of our mousse means that it’s going to be extra smooth and delicate. This you can even use on its own, with a bit of alcohol, fruits or tarts :).
Portions: 6 individual portions
Ingredients:
For the mousses:
– 375 ml milk
– 60g egg yolk
– 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
– 140g sugar
– 22g cornflour
– 22g flour
– 2 tsp powdered unflavoured gelatin
– 450ml whipping cream
– 75g smooth peanut butter (for the peanut butter mousse)
– 45g bitter chocolate couverture
For the chocolate sauce:
– 125g bitter chocolate couverture
– 75ml whipping cream
– 25g sugar
For the praline:
– 200g sugar
– 200g toasted peanuts
– pinch salt
Procedure:
1. Heat the milk until it steams with half the sugar and the full amount of vanilla extract. Whisk the rest of the sugar with the egg yolks until fully incorporated. Then add the cornflour and flour and whisk again.
2. Once the milk steams, add 1/4 of it to the egg yolk mix and whisk fast.
3. Then, add all of the milk and whisk until fully incorporated. Put everything back into a pot. You can pass it through a sieve if you have any lumps. Whisk on med heat until it firms up (here you have to whisk vigorously) and wait until it boils so the starch is completely cooked out. Our pastry cream is ready!
4. While hot, add the gelatin that has been previously bloomed with water (use instructions on the packet, I used 4 tbsp cold water for 10min at least) and stir until it dissolves fully off the heat.
5. Divide it in half and add the peanut butter (room temperature or even from the fridge is fine) to one half and to the other half add the chocolate that has been previously melted on a slowly simmering bain marie. Whisk fast as any difference in temperature (specially if your peanut butter comes from the fridge) can make the gelatin set. Wait for them to cool down to room temperature.
6. Make the chocolate sauce by heating on low heat the milk with the sugar and chocolate inside until they have fully melted. Let it cool down to room temperature.
7. Whip on full speed the whipping cream. The cream should be very cold for it to get really aerated, and ideally also the bowl and whisk. Whip only until it forms a medium-stiff peak like below. Any more will cause lumps.
8. Divide in half and first whisk into each mousse roughly 1/4 of the cream. Whisk fast so the gelatin doesn’t get to set.
9. Then add this to the rest of the cream and fold them together until very uniform.
10. Now fill the cups :)! You can either make small individual portions or a really large bowl of it 🙂 Start with whichever you like, I start with the peanut butter mousse and spread it with a spoon. Then into the fridge 5min just to set the top a bit.
11. Add the chocolate sauce and spread it just by tilting the cup or if it’s easier for you, use a spoon. (LOOK AT THAT SHINE!)
12. Fridge 5min to dry and then put on top the chocolate mousse. Spread it again. This needs to set in the fridge for at least 3 hours in individual cups, and 6 hours for the large version.
13. Finally, for the praline, we’re going to make a caramel first. For this, I like to spread first a bit of the sugar at the base of the pan first, at medium-low temperature. Once this starts to melt, I put some more on top (don’t use cutlery), always making sure that the layer of sugar is quite thin and spread out.
14. Once completely melted, pour it on top of a cleanly aligned set of peanuts on top of a silpat or silicon mat. As soon as you have finished pouring the caramel, sprinkle some salt on top. This will give it a really nice touch.
15. Finally, chop it up really small! This is also great for salads and cheeses 🙂 You can do it with any nut you like or even a mix of nuts. Keep it in an airtight container until you use it or the caramel will start to melt with the moisture in the fridge.
Voilá! That’s it! Enjoy this amazing mousse combo 🙂 It’s really much more easy than it looks, right? 😉
