Celebrity Chefs

Nigella’s Magic Mousse recipe

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Forget the gingerbread house. Your holiday dessert should be simple to prepare, so you can spend more time with your family (that is what Christmas is about, right?). Here’s a quick chocoalte mousse recipe from Nigella Lawson’s cookbook, Nigella Express: 130 Recipes for Good Food, Fast.

Nigella says that most mousses need to be made the day before, to allow the egg yolk to set. Here’s her “instant” alternative. She does away with eggs, which not only saves time but allows you to safely feed it to young children.

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups mini marshmallows
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) soft butter
9 oz best-quality semisweet chocolate, chopped into small pieces
1/4 cup hot water from a recently boiled kettle
1 cup heavy cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Pour the marshmallows, butter, chocolate, and water in a heavy-bottomed saucepan.
2. Melt over gentle heat, stirring occassionally. Remove from heat and let cool.
3 Whip the cream with the vanilla until it’s got a thick consistency. Fold it into the cooled chocolate mixture.
4. Pour into individual dishes or cups and chill until ready to serve.

Watch Nigella’s regular TV show, Nigella Express on the BBC Channel for more recipes and tips.

Nigella shares Childhood Recipe

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We love Nigella’s simple but elegant desserts — very doable for even ordinary cooks (though we’d never look half as good in an apron). Here she shares a recipe from her childhood. Get more from her website or her numerous cookbooks.

Ingredients

350g dark chocolate
3 Metric Cups (750ml) Cream
5 Dessert spoons Honey

Combine the chocolate, broken into pieces, the honey and 3/4 cup of cream over a barely simmering water bath. Stir until chocolate has just melted and combined with the cream and honey. Set aside to cool. While the mixture is cooling, whip the remaining 2 1/4 cups of cream to not quite firm, but a little more than soft peaks (this is exactly what I have written in my book). Gradually fold in the whipped cream to the now cooled chocolate mixture. Pour into one serving bowl or individual bowls if preferred (this makes a generous amount) and refrigerate. If using one large serving bowl, the mousse will probably take a good 3 hours to set.