Chocolate Mocha Mousse Cups... with a kick!

Should I bake a cake, make some cookies, try my luck on the macaroons again, or maybe I should try something easy... Something which doesn't require baking. With such a condition laid, only two items popped into my mind - cheesecake or mousse. Without blinking, the list of ingredients in my store room and refrigerator started checking themselves against the two competitors. I wasn't surprised when competitor mousse won the nomination since I lacked the most basic ingredient needed for a cheesecake - cheese!

When I went through the blogs and food recipes, I was extremely delighted to find a Gordon Ramsay mousse recipe which needed mascarpone as the base ingredient. With at least 3 tubs of mascarpone stored in my refrigerator, not that I am complaining since I enjoy the fluffy and light texture of mascarpone very much myself. But I had to use them somewhere before the expiry date or they would end up in the 'big mouth' (My personal nick-name for the dustbin).

It was a fuss-free recipe and within half an hour, everything was whipped up, combined, cupped and set in the fridge. All I had to do was wait... which was really tough on me since I was really excited how the mousse would turn out using mascarpone as the base and the new addition of expresso into it. After several hours, there it was...

It was dense and creamy, heavy on the palate but surprising very smooth. Each spoonful was devoured with the aromatic scent of coffee. In a short matter of time, my cup of mousse was empty and I wonder why... =)

Chocolate Mocha Mousse Cups (From Gordon Ramsay)

Makes 4

100g dark chocolate (70% cocoa)

125g mascarpone

2 tbsp icing sugar

4 tbsp strong expresso, cooled (I used coffee, it turned out well too)

150ml double cream

1. Melt dark chocolate in a heatproof bowl over a pan of barely simmering water. Leave to cool.

2. Whisk mascarpone and icing sugar together until smooth, add in expresso and chocolate to combine. Leave aside.

3. Whip double cream till soft peaks form and fold it into the mascarpone mixture, make sure they are well-combined.

4. Spoon mixture into small cups and chill for a few hours or overnight.

5. Serve with whipped cream or crushed amaretti.

Well, I found out that amaretti biscuits wasn't to my liking, so it's a no no for me...