Irish Coffee Chocolate Mousse is flavored with whole coffee beans, semisweet chocolate and Irish cream liqueur. It is light in texture but rich in flavor.

It’s week 2 of #Choctoberfest! Today I’m sharing a variation of my favorite chocolate mousse recipe. It is silky smooth, light in texture yet so incredibly rich. Don’t forget to enter the giveaway (the entry widget is just above the recipe) and scroll all the way down to the bottom of the post to see links to other #Choctoberfest recipes!

I received Sabertooth Roast whole coffee beans as well as a package of cacao butter from one of #Choctoberfest’s silver sponsor, Caveman Coffee Co., to use in today’s post. I used the coffee beans to flavor the heavy cream for the mousse.

I will be honest and say that this mousse uses a lot of mixing bowls. You need three. Having both a stand mixer and a hand mixer helps, otherwise you’re either washing mixing attachments, or whisking by hand. It’s a bit labor-intensive, but so very worth it.

I associate mousse with special occasions because I either eat it at restaurants, or make it at home to serve at a special occasion. I like to make mousse for special occasions particularly because it should be made ahead, ensuring I don’t need to worry about dessert the day of the holiday dinner or party.

I infused the cream with the flavor of the coffee through steeping. Steeping is combining the cream and the coffee beans in a saucepan and bringing it just to a scald — when tiny bubbles begin to form around the edge of the saucepan. Do NOT let the mixture boil, or else the cream will never whip.

Do this portion early in the day that you want to make the mousse, or even the night before, to ensure that the infused cream has adequate time to chill before being whipped. Don’t whip the chilled cream until you are ready to make the mousse. The whipped cream will deflate in the refrigerator, so you’d just need to rewhip anyway. You can do a “cold infusion,” if you have the time: combine the cream and coffee beans in an airtight container, and refrigerate for 8 to 12 hours. Strain out the beans and continue with the recipe.

I garnish simply with more homemade sweetened whipped cream, but you can get as elaborate as you like. Chocolate shavings, a sprig of fresh mint, or even a chocolate-covered espresso bean would all complement this dessert well.

One final tip for mousse success: measure all of your ingredients first, and have them all in place, including your serving dishes. This is called “mise en place” (French for “everything in its place”). While this recipe isn’t technically difficult, it is time sensitive when you’re dealing with whipped ingredients, as you need to combine the whipped yolks, whites and cream before they deflate.

Have you entered the giveaway yet? Check out my first Choctobefest 2016 post to read all about the prize package.

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Irish Coffee Chocolate Mousse

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This recipe uses a lot of mixing bowls, but it's so worthwhile.

Author: The Redhead Baker

Serves: 4 servings.

Ingredients

• 1¼ cup heavy cream, chilled
• ½ cup Caveman Coffee whole coffee beans
• 8 oz semisweet chocolate
• ¼ cup Irish cream liqueur
• 2 tbsp unsalted butter
• 4 egg yolks
• ¼ cup + 2 tbsp sugar, divided
• 3 egg whites
• Additional sweetened whipped cream, for garnish

Directions

1. Place the heavy cream and the coffee beans in a small saucepan set over medium-low heat. Bring the cream to scalding, then remove from the heat and cool to room temperature. Strain out the coffee beans, discard the beans, and chill the cream, as well as a large mixing bowl and the beaters of a mixer.
2. Once fully chilled, whip the heavy cream to soft peaks and keep chilled until ready to incorporate into the mousse.
3. Melt together the chocolate, Irish cream and butter over a double boiler. Stir until smooth, and cool to just warm to the touch. Keep the saucepan of simmering water on the stove.
4. Combine the egg yolks and the 2 tbsp of sugar in a mixing bowl. Set the bowl over the saucepan of simmering water and whisk continuously until the sugar dissolves.
5. Transfer the whipped egg yolk mixture to a stand mixer and use the whip attachment to beat the mixture at high speed until the yolks are pale yellow and 3 times their original volume.
6. When the yolks are close to finished whipping, use a hand mixer to whip the egg whites with the ¼ cup of sugar until the whites reach firm peaks.
7. Fold the warm chocolate into the egg yolk mixture. Whisk â…“ of the egg whites into egg yolk/chocolate mixture, then fold the remaining whites in. Fold in the whipped cream.
8. Spoon the mixture into a piping bag, filling it half full (you may not fit all the mixture into the bag). Pipe the mousse into 4 serving dishes and chill for at least four hours, up to 24 hours.
9. Just before serving, garnish with sweetened whipped cream.

3.5.3208

Recipe by The Redhead Baker

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