Chocolate & Orange Mousse

Serves 6

A rich dessert, based on a ‘jaffa cake’, that can be made in advance.

Ingredients:

For the mousse:
200g dark chocolate
3 eggs – separated
20cl cream
1 tbsp caster sugar

For the orange layer:
500ml orange juice
125g sugar
1tsp orange Flower water

For the top:
50g dark chocolate

Method:

For the mousse base:
Melt the chocolate in a bowl over hot water.
Whisk the egg whites to soft peaks, then add the sugar and whisk in.
When the chocolate has melted add the cream and mix. Then add the egg yolks one at a time and mix well. Mix in the chilli. Then fold in the egg white sugar mixture.
Place into serving dishes and refrigerate for at least 2 hours before serving.

To make the orange layer:
Put the sugar and orange juice into a pan and place over a medium heat, whilst stirring, to dissolve the sugar. Once the sugar has dissolved increase the heat and bring to the boil, stirring ocaisionally to prevent it from burning.
Continue to heat until a medium consitancy syrup has formed, add the orange flower water and allow to cool. As the syrup cools it will thicken, when cold the consistency should be that of Golden Syrup. If it is too thin, simply reheat and reduce the liquid a little more. Too thick, just stir in a little more orange juice.
Pour the cold syrup over the chocolate mousse and return the dishes to the fridge.

For the chocolate topping:
Place the additional chocolate in a bowl over a pan of simmering water as before and melt it, when it has properly melted pour a little over each of the chocolate mousses and allow it to form a chocolate cover for the orange syrup. Return to the fridge to allow the chocolate to set.

A more complicated method for the chocolate cover is to melt and then temper the chocolate and the cut out the chocolate to create lids for the orange layer. The advantage of doing this is that you get an even layer of crisp chocolate that will “snap” when you put a spoon into it.