Colorado Trippin’ & Chocolate-Caramel Mousse with Poached Pears
At an altitude of 8000 ft air is pretty thin causing headaches and shortness of breath, i had to hold on to my Tylenol bottle on the first day. It’s all worth it when you see the view, the picture above was taken from my kitchen window.
I didn’t have much time for food photography on this trip but here’s something i made, Pierre Herme’s fantastic chocolate-caramel mousse. The trick here is to cook the caramel to a deep color between dark amber and light mahogany, darker would make it bitter. It’s then finished with salted butter and combined with chocolate and whipped cream, a celestial combination blended to cosmic perfection!
Pierre Herme serves this mousse with caramel pears, i went for the lighter option of simply poached pears. Enjoy!
Pierre Herme’s Chocolate-Caramel Mousse
(serves 4)
- 1 1/2 cups heavy cream
- 3 3/4 ounces bittersweet chocolate (preferably Valrhona gastronomie), coarsely chopped
- 1 cup sugar
- 2 1/2 tablespoons salted butter
Note: This recipe won’t work if you don’t respect the temperatures in the recipe. Working with caramel can be tricky.- Whip the cream until it holds medium peaks. Keep in the refrigerator until needed.
- Melt the chocolate in a bowl over simmering water. Set the chocolate to cool to 114’F.
- Rinse a bowl with warm water and keep in a warm place.
- In a large non-stick skillet over medium heat, sprinkle 2 tbs of sugar into the center of the pan. When it’s melted and caramelized, add 2 more tbs of sugar. Repeat until all the sugar has been used and the caramel is a deep amber color. Reduce the heat and add the salted butter and 1/2 cup whipped cream. Be careful, the mixture will bubble. Stir the mixture until smooth, bring to a boil again and turn it into the warm bowl to cool to 114’F.
- When the caramel an melted chocolate are both 114’F, stir the chocolate gently into the caramel. Fold the whipped cream into the mixture (starting with 1/4 of it so it doesn’t shock it).
- Spoon into individual cups, cover and refrigerate at least 2 hours. Serve with poached pears or caramelized pears.
My job is done here. I’m going home, baby!
Thursday, February 19th, 2009
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