Chocolate-Gingerbread Mousse with Orange Sauce, my dessert for a festive Christmas dinner. You can easily prepare the chocolate mousse and the orange sauce a day ahead. Just cutting the orange segments, that’s something I’d do on the day of serving. Enjoy your Christmas dinner!
Chocolate-Gingerbread Mousse
Serves 8
For the chocolate-gingerbread mousse:
½ lb (250g) dark chocolate (70% cocoa content)
½ cup (125 ml) double cream
3 egg yolks
½ cup (100 g) sugar
½ teaspoon gingerbread spice mix
2 tablespoons orange juice
1 cup whipping cream
3 egg whites
For the orange sauce:
2 oranges
1 ¼ cup (300 ml) orange juice
2 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoons corn starch
Break the chocolate in smaller chunks and slowly melt it together with the cream. Stir constantly and as soon as the chocolate has melted remove it from the heat. Beat the egg yolks and the sugar until very creamy. Add the gingerbread spice mix and the orange juice (2 tablespoons). Fold in the melted chocolate. Beat the whipping cream until stiff. Do the same with the egg whites. Carefully fold the beaten egg whites and the whipped cream into the chocolate mixture. Put into the fridge for at least 4 hours, best overnight.
For the orange sauce, put the orange juice, the sugar and the cornstarch into a pot and stir until the cornstarch does not form any lumps anymore. Slowly bring to the boil and cook for about a minute, stirring constantly to prevent burning. Remove from the heat, pour the sauce into a bowl and allow to cool completely. Cut off the top and the bottom of the oranges and peel them with a very sharp knife by cutting off the peel. You must cut off all of the white pith. Then segment the orange by inserting the knife right beside each small membrane and cut out all the orange segments. In the end you should have orange segments with no white membrane on them. Set aside for serving.
Use a tablespoon or an ice cream scoop to form egg shaped or round portions of the chocolate mousse and put them onto a plate. Serve with the orange sauce and the orange segments.
Note: You can also divide the chocolate mousse between beautiful glasses or tea cups before cooling. Before serving, just put the orange sauce and the orange segments on top.
Note: For an extra orangey flavor, add a dash of Cointreau (orange-flavored liqueur) to the orange sauce.
In case, you can’t get some ready mixed gingerbread spices, here is the recipe for the spice mix:
Gingerbread spice mix
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons ground ginger
2 teaspoons allspice
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon ground cloves
½ teaspoon Cardamom
½ teaspoon star aniseed
a pinch of pepper
Mix all the spices in a bowl and put into an airtight jar.
You can use this spice mix for biscuits, gingerbread men, cakes, hot punch, etc.
For the last chapter of my Christmas sequence I dug out my Mum’s very old Christmas tree decoration and photographed it for you. It’s the balls and bells and pine cones that decorated our Christmas tree in the early 70ies, when I was a child. Along with them, my mum also hung a lot of sweets, wrapped into bright, fringed paper, on the tree. For me, it was a kind of wonder. When I asked my mum a few years ago if I could have her old decoration she gladly gave it to me. On looking through it (and on walking down memory lane *gg*) I actually found one of the old sweets, wrapped in yellow paper. Forgotten among all the old bells and balls!
I believe that most of these balls and bells are hand-painted. I fell for one ball in particular. It is the one with the blue-red-golden angel who is looking so devoutly (or sadly?). Isn’t it beautiful? I could look at it for hours on end.
I don’t want to write a lot today. I just want to show you the photos of my mum’s old Christmas tree decoration and wish you a very merry Christmas with your beloved ones.
Merry Christmas!
My Christmas Dinner:
* * *
Beef-Filet with Chocolate Gravy
or
Turkey Breast with Ginger and Vanilla
* * *
Chocolate-Gingerbread Mousse with Orange Sauce
Here is the recipe for printing:
- [b]For the chocolate-gingerbread mousse:[/b]
- ½ lb (250g) dark chocolate (70% cocoa content)
- ½ cup (125 ml) double cream
- 3 egg yolks
- ½ cup (100 g) sugar
- ½ teaspoon gingerbread spice mix
- 2 tablespoons orange juice
- 1 cup whipping cream
- 3 egg whites
- [br]
- [b]For the orange sauce:[/b]
- 2 oranges
- 1 ¼ cup (300 ml) orange juice
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- 1 tablespoons corn starch
- Break the chocolate in smaller chunks and slowly melt it together with the cream. Stir constantly and as soon as the chocolate has melted remove it from the heat. Beat the egg yolks and the sugar until very creamy. Add the gingerbread spice mix and the orange juice (2 tablespoons). Fold in the melted chocolate. Beat the whipping cream until stiff. Do the same with the egg whites. Carefully fold the beaten egg whites and the whipped cream into the chocolate mixture. Put into the fridge for at least 4 hours, best overnight.
- For the orange sauce, put the orange juice, the sugar and the cornstarch into a pot and stir until the cornstarch does not form any lumps anymore. Slowly bring to the boil and cook for about a minute, stirring constantly to prevent burning. Remove from the heat, pour the sauce into a bowl and allow to cool completely. Cut off the top and the bottom of the oranges and peel them with a very sharp knife by cutting off the peel. You must cut off all of the white pith. Then segment the orange by inserting the knife right beside each small membrane and cut out all the orange segments. In the end you should have orange segments with no white membrane on them. Set aside for serving.
- Use a tablespoon or an ice cream scoop to form egg shaped or round portions of the chocolate mousse and put them onto a plate. Serve with the orange sauce and the orange segments.
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 2 teaspoons ground ginger
- 2 teaspoons allspice
- 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1 teaspoon ground cloves
- ½ teaspoon Cardamom
- ½ teaspoon star aniseed
- a pinch of pepper
- Mix all the spices in a bowl and put into an airtight jar.
- You can use this spice mix for biscuits, gingerbread men, cakes, hot punch, etc.
