2007-11-08 08:16:52 · 6 answers · asked by Anonymous in Food & Drink ➔ Cooking & Recipes
No. Any decent chocolate mousse will have both a meringue and whipped cream in it. The reason mousse is so good is because of the fat content, and if you remove the whipped cream, most of the fat is gone. Adding the meringue is adding sugar and the basic egg structure to the mousse. Also, egg white is not the only thing in a meringue. And a stable meringue is not something that is easy to make. If you don't know what you're doing it's very easy to screw up. As for the Italian meringue- it's probably one of my favorite things to make besides creme brulee, but I don't recommend it for the novice-I've seen too many scrambled egg whites from a beginning cook.
I've also seen some mousses that have had improperly beaten egg whites added to them, and the resulting dessert has a disgusting almost grainy texture.
Lets put it this way, no chef would do that in his restaurant and still call it a chocolate mousse. I'm sure there is some chemical structure to it as well, and if you feel like looking that up, I recommend Harold McGee's "On Food and Cooking". Ah, and I just thought of something, without the cream, the fat in the chocolate is going to deflate your meringue faster than you can mix it in.
Go to the store and buy some heavy cream. It's worth it.
2007-11-08 08:45:27 · answer #1 · answered by Freke 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋
I am a former chef and you can but you will need to make and Italian meringue, what you will need to do is make a suage syrup with 1 cup of sugar and 1/2 cup of water, bring it to the boil and let it boil for 7 minutes, cool it for 5 minutes, start beating the whites, and slowly add the syrup, and then add then to the base, you should cook the egg yolks, vanilla and less sugar over a double boiler, it will be custard like, and then add your chocolate and let it cool for 30 minute before using the meringue mixture, I put a bit in beat it in and then fold in the rest.
The one fellow said "no" and technically he is right, but if you use this method it mimics the use of whipped cream, but even a tub of cool whip will do or I have used the dry packaged mix called Dream Whip made by Kraft, I make it with light cream, it is more stable than real whipped cream, but this up to you, there are alot of alternatives.
2007-11-08 08:30:13 · answer #2 · answered by The Unknown Chef 7 · 1⤊ 1⤋
If you add beaten egg whites to a chocolate mousse base you should stick it the oven... you have made a chocolate souffle.
2007-11-08 10:24:30 · answer #3 · answered by mason pearson 5 · 0⤊ 1⤋
No - it will have a foamy, dry mouthfeel. Whipped cream has fat which will melt on the tongue & give the mousse a pleasant taste & texture.
2007-11-08 08:20:59 · answer #4 · answered by Treadstone 7 · 1⤊ 1⤋
Theoretically, I suppose you could. The egg whites will comes to a relatively fluffy consitency with folding. However, I always mixed the cream with the whites then folded and whipped.
2007-11-08 08:24:41 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 3⤋
Yes you can, just be careful when folding in the other ingredients to not break down the egg whites.
2007-11-08 08:20:34 · answer #6 · answered by Amy 6 · 0⤊ 2⤋