Chocolate + water = chocolate mousse. Yes, really.

[Soliloquy]

Forget all you know and watch Heston Blumenthal combine Water and Chocolate to create a stable mousse. It was invented by a French chemist named Dr. Herve This. The recipe is 270 ml. water to 350 grams chocolate. Be sure to use a high quality chocolate with at least 60% cocoa. Some of the YouTube comments give the proportions they used with different brands of chocolate, such as:

9.35 ounces (265 grams) bittersweet (%70 cocoa solids) chocolate, chopped (preferably Valrhona Guanaja)
1 cup (240 ml) water
4 tbsp sugar, optional

200g Green & Blacks dark chocolate
150ml water

 

[Becky]

Incredible, I had no idea you could do that!

I really like Heston Blumenthal, is he popular in the US too?

 

[Soliloquy]

To be honest, I don't think I'd heard of him before this video. (Or maybe I have, just never paid attention.)

Planning to try this with some chocolate my soldier brother sent from El Salvador!

 

[Becky]

Sounds good, let us know how it goes.

Heston Blumenthal is pretty well known over here for weird and wonderful recipes - when you see him making them it looks more like chemistry in a lab! Cooking / baking is all about chemistry though, so it's interesting to see his take on things.

 

[epliu]

This is fantastic! I got distracted watching the other Heston Blumenthal videos. The Fat Duck is in my bucket list!

 

[zlemune]

Huh, I hd no idea it was that simple.

 

[RomanAnthonysMama]

Thanks so much for sharing this! I would love to incorporate chocolate mousse in some of my pastry dishes this year for the holidays. This is definitely a way easier recipe than the ones that I've found, so I'm definitely going to give it a shot. I can't believe the ingredients list is so little! Thanks again for sharing!

 

[OhioTom76]

This is interesting. I make something similar in a double boiler with heavy cream and chocolate, but it comes out much thicker once it sets. It's technically called a ganache I believe, and is what is used as a filling for chocolate truffles. He mentions that this has more of a chocolate flavor since it's not using cream, but isn't the water diluting the chocolate just as the cream would? I will definitely have to give this a try.

 

[yellowbird]

This is amazing. It makes me really excited, I think I'm going to try this sometime soon! Just, wow...

 

[Josie]

This is great! I'll have to give it a try with the kids, thanks!

 

[Sophia]

Wow! I never knew making chocolate mousse can only require two ingredients!

 

[andrew172]

That's really all it is? wow I thought involved more... milk or cream than that... I wonder what would happen if you did use milk instead of water

 

[Kaylah]

Wow! Such a simple recipe. I will have to try making it this way. My boyfriend loves chocolate mousse, so this will be amazing news to him. Now that I saw a recipe that takes less ingredients, I can make it more often. I'm so glad I saw this post. Thank you for posting it.

 

[TheViper]

Where has this thread and video been?

I've watched the video and can't believe that this is actually that simple. Though, when I try it out it may turn out completely different!

 

[sweetkymom]

Wow! I never knew it was really this simple of a recipe to make mousse. I think I want to try it and see how it does. I could maybe even try milk instead of water. Either way, it sounds yummy.

 

[JessiFox]

Wow....forget everything you thought you knew is right...that's mindblowingly simple! Love it! I'm going to have to try this one out sometime...just awesome .

 

[Zyni]

This is interesting. I make something similar in a double boiler with heavy cream and chocolate, but it comes out much thicker once it sets. It's technically called a ganache I believe, and is what is used as a filling for chocolate truffles. He mentions that this has more of a chocolate flavor since it's not using cream, but isn't the water diluting the chocolate just as the cream would? I will definitely have to give this a try.

That's what I was thinking at first, that the dilution would be the same. The water doesn't have it's only flavor though, so maybe that's the difference. I still think the creamy version would be richer though. Either way, it's chocolate, so it's got to be good, right? So simple too.

Thanks for sharing this, Soliloquy. Very cool.

 

[DancingLady]

And I thought mousse was so complicated! I wonder what it is about the chocolate that gives it the ability to form mousse like that. It must work as you say, but it doesn't make sense to me.

 

[Trellum]

YUMMY! This sounds like a great way to create a light mousse, at least light than it would be if it were created with dairy products. I might never try it tho Sounds a bit risky and right now I don't have access to qualoity chocolate for this kind of recipes And even if I did... not sure I'd risk it.

 

[Shimus]

I always thought mousse was too hard to make myself, so I never even gave it a second thought. This revolutionizes that idea and makes it so simple a trained monkey could make it. I completely approve, and a very nice video

Educational and I learned something new today. Learning is indeed a powering feeling.