My Darlings! I have two recipes! Both have eggs though. I saw a recipe on Huey's Cooking show last year that made a brilliant one sans egg, but I never wrote it down. Yes, I kicked myself over that!

Chocolate Mousse (More like Mocha Mousse) Serves 4-6

185g chocolate, roughly chopped
2 tblsp black coffee
4 eggs, separated
2 tbsp rum
1 1/2 cream, whipped

Place the chocolate and coffee in the top of a double boiler over simmering water. Cook, stirring continuously over a medium gas flame until the chocolate has melted. Remove from the heat and allow to cool slightly.
Gradually add the egg yolks and beat well.
Stir in the rum and cream.
Beat the egg whites until stiff but not dry. Gently fold the egg whites into the chocolate mixture.
Spoon into serving dishes and refrigerate until set.
Decorate with whipped cream and grated chocolate and serve.

(I made this for the first time a few weeks ago- my first foray into making my own chocolate mousse as usually my Mum makes it for me , and used dry instant coffee. Not the best idea, as it didn't dissolve completely! So, I would recommend dissolving in a little hot water and adding to the melted chocolate. And I made it with milk cooking chocolate, so it wasn't too rich. Next time, I will probably make it with half milk half dark or all dark.... I got seven ramekins worth, oh and I didn't have any rum to put in, but it was still yum! From Gas Cookery Service.)


Chocolate Mousse Serves 4

125g dark chocolate, chopped roughly
1 tblsp brandy
4 eggs, separated
1 cup cream

Put chocolate into top of double saucepan; stir over hot water until melted. Remove from heat, cool slightly, gradually add brandy and egg yolks. Beat until mixture is thick and smooth.
Whip cream. Do not over whip or the cream will be difficult to fold in; cream should be just nicely thickened. Fold into chocolate mixture.
Beat egg whites until soft peaks form. Here again, do not over beat the whites or they will not fold easily into the chocolate mixture.
Fold half the egg whites into the chocolate mixture, then fold in the remaining half. (Its much easier to incorporate egg whites when you fold them into the mixture in two portions than if you add them all at once). Spoon mixture into four individual dishes or one large dish. Refrigerate until firm.
To serve, top with whipped cream and grated chocolate. (Use a vegetable peeler to grate chocolate, it gives nice, chunky pieces.)

(Haven't made this one yet, I think its from a AWW book, but not sure)


Decoration Ideas:

*Paint melted chocolate onto the under side of fresh mint leaves. Carefully peel off the leaves once set.
*Roughly grate a peppermint crisp bar on your cheese grater, then sprinkle onto mousse.
*Pipe whipped cream florets.
*Instead of putting brandy into mousse recipe, make brandy cream (or bourbon cream): 1 cup cream, 1 tblsp icing sugar, 2 tsp bourbon or brandy. Place the cream and icing sugar into a small bowl. Using electric beater, whip until soft peaks form. Add the brandy (or bourbon) and fold through with a metal spoon until it is just combined with the cream. Refrigerate until ready to use. A good idea if you want children to have the mousse but not the alcohol, and a treat for the adults!
*Grated toblerone chocolate, or broken pieces of flake chocolate.
*Broken up pieces of after dinner mints (you know, the really flat square ones, red tulip brand?)
*Broken pieces of toffee glass, or sugar strands, or broken pieces of chocolate that has been melted, poured into a sheet and left to cool (like the toffee glass).
*Dust lightly, or cover part of the mousse with a stencil or curved piece of paper, with cocoa powder or drinking chocolate, or icing sugar. Or, cover half and dust one half with the chocolate powder, and then the other half with icing sugar.

Is that enough to get you started?