Chocolate and pistachio mousse cake

• 3 hours to prepare • 15 minutes to cook • Serves 12

Eat happy, burn healthy

Today's dessert - the Chocolate and pistachio mousse cake - is another marvellous recipe by the master chocolatier Ernst Knam.

It consists of 2 layers of mousse: a dark chocolate, and a pistachio mousse on a base of cocoa marquise.
The marquise is a pastry similar to a sponge cake already presented here.
The mousse has an inherent light and fluffy texture. The name itself means foam in French! Depending on the recipe, additional ingredients are added to change the taste and texture of the dessert...for the sake of investigation, we have tried many versions here already, ha-ha!

The preparation of this dessert involves many simple steps. Trust me when I tell you that I prepared both the marquise disk and the 2 mousses in one hour, and then I assembled the cake - later on - in few minutes.
Finally, this light and fluffy mousse recipe will be a party for your mouth and a decadent, creamy ending for any occasion. We need to fuel properly before a run, don't we?

Here are ingredients for a 12-serving recipe (20-cm diameter baking pan):

For the cocoa marquise

100 g potato starch
160 g powdered sugar
3 eggs
2 egg whites
60 g cocoa powder
sugar
25 g candied orange peel


For the dark chocolate mousse

100 g dark chocolate
200 ml fresh cream


For the pistachio mousse

200 g pistachio cream
2.5 g gelatine sheets
200 ml fresh cream
2 egg whites
25 g sugar
20 ml Cointreau liquor

1. Preheat oven to 200°C
2. Beat eggs yolks with powdered sugar until stiff for about 5 minutes
3. Little by little, add the potato starch and the cocoa powder - both sifted - and keep whisking until the mixture is smooth and free of lumps
4. In another bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff
5. Add the egg whites to the egg mixture and stir gently with a spoon to mix well
6. Pour the mixture on a baking tray covered by baking paper. Level it with a spoon so that it is 2-3 mm thick
7. Bake the marquise at 200° for 15 minutes. Leave the marquise to cool a bit in the oven with the door open, then out of the oven. Sprinkle its surface with sugar
8. Meanwhile, start preparing the dark chocolate mousse by melting the dark chocolate in a bain-marie and let it cool down until it reaches a temperature between 45 and 55 C
9. Pour the fresh cream into a bowl. Use a whisk to whip the cream with wide strokes and continue to whip until soft peaks form
10. Gradually add melted dark chocolate to the whipped cream. Stir gently with a spoon to mix well
11. Cut the marquise into a round shape with the same diameter as your spring-release tin. Cover the bottom of the tin with some baking paper and lay the marquise disk over it
12. Distribute candied orange peel over the marquise surface
13. Spoon the dark chocolate mousse into the pan and level it. Place the tin in the freezer for 20 minutes
14. Now, prepare the pistachio mousse: pour 1/2 cup of water in a medium bowl and dunk the gelatine sheets in it. Let them soften about 5 minutes
15. Drain the gelatine sheets and place them in a small pan with Cointreau liquor.  Melt them over low heat and keep aside
16. Beat eggs whites with powdered sugar until stiff 
17. Pour the fresh cream into another bowl. Use a whisk to whip the cream with wide strokes and continue to whip until soft peaks form
18. In another bowl, place the melted gelatine and the pistachio cream. Add the egg whites and the whipped cream and stir gently with a spoon to mix well
19. When the mousse is ready, take the tin out of the fridge. Pour the pistachio mousse over the dark chocolate layer and level it. Decorate with some chopped pistachios - if you like - and place the tin back in the fridge to rest for at least 3 hours

Nutrition Facts are detailed in the table below. Data is provided per serving.

If you are afraid of butter, use cream.
(Julia Child)