Earlier last year DonQui visited Bakewell. While there Duchess treated him to a day long Chocolate making course at Harrington’s School of Food and Drink.

Apart from making some rather delicious treats, DonQui learned quite a lot about chocolate and how to use it.

Generally speaking DonQui tends to concentrate on savoury courses, often going without dessert, having cheese instead or simply making a fresh fruit salad. Now, despite a slightly expanded Christmas waistline, he decides to put his chocolate skills to the test and try his hand at making a chocolate mousse.

With apologies for DonQui’s usual lack of precision measurements, his recipe is as follows:

Ingredients
good quality dark chocolate broken up into bits (about 2/3 of a bar)
a knob of unsalted butter
3 egg whites
2 egg yolks
a splash of whipping cream (or liquid double cream)
a scoop of caster or icing sugar

Method

Gently melt the chocolate and butter in a bain-marie (in a bowl over warm water)

Whip up the egg whites until they form stiff peaks then gradually add in the sugar, continuing to beat it all together.

Beat the egg yolks and set aside

Warm up the cream until just short of boiling

Take the melted chocolate and butter mixture off the head and gradually add the warm cream, stirring it gently until well mixed. Then add the beaten egg yolk and do the same.

Gently fold the chocolate mixture into the stiff sugared egg whites. Mix it all together but not too vigorously as that will collapse the egg whites.

Spoon into serving dishes, sprinkle with a bit of unsweetened cocoa powder on top and put in the fridge for at least 6 hours.