Play With Your Food!

Play With Your Food!

I decided that since I love to cook and also take photos of the food I cook, I would start up a blog about it. Maybe at some point I will do a vlog (video blog)! 

Some history about me and why I like to cook! My name is Charli Hess and I am married to Josh Hess, and we have two lovely little boys that also like to help us cook! I remember when I was growing up that I really did not take to cooking or learning how to cook. My mom tried to make me learn but that only led to discomfort. After I struck out on my own, I was flipping through a cookbook and found a recipe. I remember my mom making Chicken Enchiladas. They were not the best Enchiladas  in the world as I recall so I made them my own and TA-DA I now have an amazing, tasty, and delicious recipe. From that point on I have wanted to lean more about cooking and the wonderful things that I could do with food. 

On a small side note.....okay large side note I cannot bake. I can make cookies, and cakes, and brownie batters but the moment it goes into the oven, it is game over! 

Now I am trying to learn new things and better my skills as an amateur chef. I would love someday to open up my own restaurant with my husband. Someday......someday....Hah!

So for my first post I wanted to do something amazing and yummy. Drum roll please.....

Chocolate Mousse with Shaved Almonds!

The Recipe:

3 large egg yolks

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/4 cup water

1 1/4 cup heavy cream* (chilled)

1 cup bittersweet chocolate
2 tbsp butter

*You can also substitute heavy cream for pre-whipped cream such as Cool Whip. It can

• Whisk egg yolks in a small bowl for 5 minutes and set aside.
• Do not whisk the egg yolks less than 5 minutes. Whisking more than 5 minutes, it is okay! 

• Take the water and pour it into a small pot and bring it to a simmer. Once the water is simmering, add in the sugar. Let the sugar-water mixture boil for 1 minute. After the mixture has boiled, slowly pour it into the egg yolks while stirring. 
• You want to keep stirring the egg yolks while you pour in the hot sugar-water or else the eggs will scramble. Scrambled eggs in a mousse are gross!

• Whip the heavy cream until you can form soft peaks and then set aside.
• In a pot, bring some water to simmer. Put the chocolate and butter in a bowl and place the bowl on to of pot the simmering water. Stir the chocolate and butter until it is melted completely.
• Take the egg-sugar mixture and pour it into the chocolate. Once the egg mix and chocolate is combined and cool to the touch, fold in the whipped cream.
• Before adding in the whipped cream, shave about 8 to 10 almonds (or your nut of choice) into the chocolate. If you do not like nuts, you do not have to add them
• Refrigerate for 1 hour.

Whisk whisk whisk!!

Chocolate!!

Getting ready to melt things down!

Melty melty!

Oh look....more whisking! Egg mixture and Chocolate.

Nothing better than chocolate and whipped cream.

Yum.

Shaved almonds going in.

Play With Your Food!

Ta-Da!!

Almond Chocolate Mousse.

When I made this I made the mistake of using Ghirardelli Milk Chocolate, not bittersweet chocolate and so it made it very,very, very sweet. Also I used the Cool Whip Extra Creamy whipped cream instead of whipping up my own because it was really late at night, and I was not about to whisk my arm off for my own whipped cream. Yes, I do have a Kitchen Aide Mixer but it has some gear problems. I need to get it fix...but I am broke! Hah!

Hopefully this recipe is an easy one that you will love to use! Play around with the recipe and make it your own.

Enjoy!