When making the parfait with lots of egg whites for New Year’s Eve, I had a lot of yolks left over. And as I really despise wasting food, we used  some in bearnaise sauce and my mother decided to make a chocolate mousse out to the remaining once.

There are several different ways of making chocolate mousse, and this is an easy version. You only need chocolate, egg yolks and whipped cream.

The most important thing when making chocolate mousse is to make sure the ingredients are similar in temperature. So after melting the chocolate, let it cool down a little before mixing it with the egg yolks, that need to be at room temperature, otherwise you end up with a scrambled chocolate and egg mixture, and frankly that’s a waste of a pudding!

The whipped cream doesn’t have to be at room temperature though, once the chocolate and eggs are combined the mixture is more stable. If the mixture would scramble slightly though, my best tip is to pour it through a sieve before letting it set in the fridge.

We served the chocolate mousse with honeycomb pieces, and it worked really well. I like to combine different textures and a fluffy and smooth mousse needs something crunchy and with more bite to make it interesting, I think.

Easy chocolate mousse, serves 4

200 ml whipping cream or double cream, I would actually prefer whipping cream as it gives the mousse a lighter texture, but double cream works too

2 egg yolks, at room temperature

150 g chocolate, we mixed some milk chocolate with a lot of dark 

Melt the chocolate in a bain marie. Leave to cool slightly. Whip the cream until soft peaks. Add one egg yolk at the time to the chocolate and stir to combine. Then fold in the whipped cream. Pour into glasses, cups or bowls and leave to set in the fridge.