Inspired by a recent Valrhona workshop with Valrhona Pacific and Sabato, I set off to create a mousse dessert with all my favourites. Here I used Valrhona Manjari, a single origin dark chocolate made from rare cocoa beans from Madagascar. This has a fresh, acidic, sharp bouquet with red fruit notes and pairs perfectly with a Raspberry Jelly made with Fresh As freeze dried raspberry powder.

These were offset with a whipped mascarpone cream, tempered chocolate discs and Valrhona Chocolate pearls.

As this mousse doesn’t have any raw eggs, it’s quite suitable for children and anyone who doesn’t like uncooked eggs.

Smooth chocolate mousse with a deep rich flavour, cut through with a tart raspberry jelly, this is a delicious and sophisticated summer dessert.

Ingredients

Manjari chocolate mousse

• 250g dark chocolate, Valrhona Manjari
• 150g mini marshmallows
• 60g butter
• 60ml hot water
• 330ml fresh cream

Fresh As Jellies

• 35g Fresh As Raspberry Powder
• 30g caster sugar
• 300ml water
• 4 leaves gelatine (silver grade), soaked in ice cold water

Mascarpone Whipped Cream

• 250g mascarpone
• 250g cream
• 30g sugar
• 5g (1/2 tsp) vanilla bean paste

Method

Manjari chocolate mousse

1. Put the chocolate, mini marshmallows, butter and water in a heavy-based saucepan.
2. Put the saucepan over gentle heat to melt the contents, stirring to make sure nothing sticks to the pan (the chocolate can stick very quickly). Remove from the heat to cool. You can put the pan in a larger vessel containing cold water to speed up the cooling process.
3. Meanwhile, whisk the cream until thick, and then fold into the cooling chocolate mixture until you have a smooth, cohesive mixture.
4. Pour into 12 small glasses or ramekins, and chill until set (takes only about 20 minutes for it to set).

Fresh As Jellies

1. Place water into a pot and add the sugar and Fresh As freeze dried Raspberry powder in, whisking to dissolve completely.
2. Bring to the boil, stirring continuously.
3. Remove from the heat and add drained gelatine leaves.
4. Pour into moulds and refrigerate for 3 hours till set.

Mascarpone Whipped Cream
In the bowl of a stand mixer, whip the mascarpone, cream, sugar, and vanilla bean paste to medium-stiff peaks, 3 minutes at the most. Fit a large French star tip to a piping bag, and transfer mascarpone whipped cream to it.

Assembly

Pipe a dollop of whipped mascarpone cream on top of set chocolate mousse. Add a tempered chocolate disc, a jelly disc and scatter over several Valrhona chocolate pearls.