Recipe for "mousse-choc-3"

NAME

     MOUSSE-CHOC-3 - Extremely quick and easy chocolate mousse
     This is an adaptation of a very easy chocolate mousse recipe
     from Sandra Boynton's hilarious book, Chocolate, the Consum-
     ing Passion.  It requires none of the laborious  preparation
     that  most French mousse recipes call for, and really optim-
     izes the effort needed to consume the chocolate,  which  is,
     after all, what this is all about.

INGREDIENTS (Serves one to six people)

     125 g     semisweet chocolate
     60 g      bittersweet chocolate
     500 ml    heavy cream, well chilled. Whipping cream will  do
               nicely.
     5 ml      almond extract (optional)

PROCEDURE

          (1)  Melt the chocolate together in the top of a double
               boiler.   Be  careful to do this slowly, so as not
               to burn the chocolate, and to  keep  all  moisture
               away  from  the  pot.   Let the chocolate cool for
               five minutes.
          (2)  While the chocolate  cools,  whip  the  cream  and
               almond extract together until very stiff.
          (3)  Gently fold the cooled chocolate into the  whipped
               cream.  There  will be many flecks of chocolate in
               the mixture.
          (4)  If you're not going to eat it all yourself,  spoon
               into six large wine glasses. Chill one hour.

NOTES

     If you're careful, you can also  melt  the  chocolate  in  a
     microwave  oven,  in  its wrapper. If you try this, be espe-
     cially mindful of the  semisweet  chocolate,  as  the  sugar
     therein  caramelizes  very quickly, leading to an awful mess
     (and ruined chocolate).

RATING

     Difficulty: easy to moderate.  Time: 20 minutes preparation,
     1 hour chilling.  Precision: measure the ingredients.

CONTRIBUTOR

     Chris Kent
     Digital Equipment Corp., Western Research Lab, Palo Alto, Calif., USA
     kent@decwrl.dec.com decwrl!kent