If you follow me on Instagram (or you’ve seen the photos in my feed on my blog) then you may already know that yesterday our new Kitchen Aid mixer was delivered! I can’t believe we actually got one, after so long saying ‘I’d LOVE one of those!’. We chose the pistachio colour in the end, as it will look so lovely with our new kitchen when we get it done in a couple of months. That’s another exciting project to tell you about, but that’s for another time!

We wanted to try out our new gadget today, so chose this chocolate mousse recipe because it meant that we could make the mousse and the shortbread in it! If you want to make it for a special occasion, you could easily make this a day ahead. I love the combination of flavours – the coffee and chocolate, the orange and ginger. Yum!

Ingredients (makes 6)

For the chocolate mousse

30g/1¼oz unsalted butter, chopped

100g/3½oz dark chocolate, broken into pieces

3 free-range eggs, separated

25g/1oz caster sugar

1 shot espresso

For the fiery ginger shortbread

100g/3½oz unsalted butter, softened until very soft, plus extra for greasing

80g/2¾oz plain flour

30g/1¼oz icing sugar

30g/1¼oz cornflour

drop of vanilla essence

50g/1¾oz fresh root ginger, washed, unpeeled, finely grated

2-3 pieces crystallised ginger, sliced

For the candied orange peel

1 large orange, peel only, white pith removed, sliced into 0.5cm/¼in strips

80g/2¾oz caster sugar

150g/5oz demerara sugar

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4.

2. For the chocolate mousse, bring a little water to the boil in a pan, then reduce the heat until the water is simmering. Suspend a heatproof bowl over the water (do not allow the base of the bowl to touch the water). Add the butter and dark chocolate and stir until melted, smooth and well combined. Remove from the heat and set aside to cool slightly.

3. Whisk the egg yolks and sugar in a bowl until nearly white and thick in consistency.

4. Gently stir the whisked yolks into the butter and chocolate, then add the coffee.

5. Whisk the egg whites until stiff peaks form when the whisk is removed, then gently fold them into the chocolate mixture, until just combined.

6. Transfer the mousse to small cups or ramekins and chill in the fridge for 1-2 hours, or overnight.

7. For the ginger shortbread, cream the butter until pale and fluffy in a bowl. Sift in the flour, icing sugar and cornflour and beat again until fully incorporated. Stir in the vanilla essence and grated root ginger.

8. Place walnut-sized balls of the mixture onto a greased baking tray, about 2cm/¾in apart (you should get about 18 from this mixture). Spread each ball of the biscuit mixture out slightly using the back of a spoon, until flattened into biscuit shapes. Top each ball with a slice of crystallised ginger, then transfer to the oven and bake for 12-15 minutes, or until the shortbread biscuits are pale golden-brown. Remove from the oven and set aside to cool for a few minutes, then carefully lift them off the tray and onto a wire rack, using a palette knife, and set aside to cool completely.

9. For the candied orange peel, fill a small saucepan with water and bring to the boil. Add the orange peel and bring to the boil again, then drain well.

10. Re-fill the pan with water, bring to the boil, return the orange peel to the pan, return the water to the boil, then drain again.

11. Re-fill the pan with 150ml/5fl oz of water, add the caster sugar and bring to the boil, stirring well. Add the orange peel, reduce the heat until the mixture is simmering and simmer for 15-20 minutes, or until the liquid resembles syrup, stirring occasionally.

12. Tip the demerara sugar into a shallow bowl. Once the syrup mixture has thickened, remove the orange peel and coat each piece in the demerara sugar. Shake the peel in the sugar until it is completely covered. (NB: Once cool, keep the candied orange peel uncovered until needed.)

13. To serve, place the ramekins of chocolate mousse onto serving plates. Place one or two shortbreads alongside each. Sprinkle the mousse with the candied orange peel.

Enjoy!

This recipe was taken from the BBC website.

The post Chocolate mousse with fiery ginger shortbread and candied orange peel appeared first on Hello! Hooray!.

Mississippi mud pie is a traditional American pudding and it is a real treat – definitely one for a special occasion! We made a smaller one for our day-after-Valentine’s meal that used just half of the amounts given here, which served 4 (so more for dessert tonight – yay!). This is another recipe from Gordon Ramsay’s ‘World Kitchen’.

Ingredients (serves 8)

Biscuit base:
200g digestive biscuits
60g lightly salted butter (we used unsalted)
60g good quality dark chocolate, chopped (we used Green & Black’s 70%)

Chocolate filling:
180g good quality dark chocolate, chopped
180g unsalted butter, diced
4 large eggs, lightly beaten
90g dark muscovado sugar
90g light muscovado sugar
200ml double cream

Topping:
100ml double cream, well chilled
2-3 tbsp icing sugar, to taste
chocolate shavings, to finish

Method

1. To make the base, crush the digestive biscuits in a resealable bag and, once evenly crushed, tip into a large bowl. Melt the butter and chocolate together in a heatproof bowl set over a saucepan of gently simmering water. Stir until smooth, then take off the heat and pour over the crushed biscuits. Mix until evenly combined.

2. Tip the crumb mixture into a 23cm cake tin with a removable base, and press it down using the back of a spoon. Make sure the base and sides are covered, and then put in the fridge to chill. Preheat the oven to 180C/160C fan/Gas mark 4.

3. To make the filling, melt the chocolate and butter together (as above) and then leave to cool slightly. In another large bowl, beat the eggs and muscovado sugars, using an electric whisk, until thick and doubled in volume. Whisk in the cream and then fold through the chocolate and butter.

4. Pour the mixture over the biscuit base and bake in the oven for about 45 minutes until just firm. Allow to cool completely before removing from the tin (I used a fluted tin here – would not do that again!).

5. For the topping, whip the cream with the icing sugar until it holds soft peaks. Spread this over the top of the cooled pie and finish it with a scattering of chocolate shavings.

6. Enjoy a big slice!

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