Chocolate, kirsch& cherry mousse with toasted almonds

This recipe is my first entry into Maison Cupcake’s  “Forever Nigella” monthly recipe competition.  The idea is that you pick a Nigella recipe, which have different monthly themes, and adapt it slightly to suit your tastes, then enter it into a monthly recipe challenge. This month the Forever Nigella challenge is titled ” Iced dreams “.

The chocolate, kirsch and cherry mousse recipe that I chose to adapt came from the Nigella website. For some reason, I found myself veering towards her chocolate recipes this time and it was a toss up between either a white, or a dark chocolate mousse. What swung it for me was the cherry season. I adore cherries, and thought that a kind of  retro reference to the black forest gateau would work very well in mousse form. I wanted to combine my new love of boozy fruit l that was used in an amazing patisserie recently discovered in Zurich. It was used in a pastry called “Amaretto”.  Misleading, in the sense that it actually contained a mixture of almond amaretti biscuits and kirsch and not Amaretto the almond flavoured Italian liquer.

The combination was totally divine, so I wanted to be able to use  elements of this sweet treat but also put my own spin on it. That is what I have done here, in this adaptation of the “Instant chocolate mousse”. Nigella’s recipe is for a very quick and easy mousse recipe, no eggs involved. What I have done is add some Kirsch soaked cherries along woth toasted almonds for crunch. As much as I love this mousse recipe, I feel the need to texture, which both the cherries and the crunchy almonds provide.
The alcohol in this recipe is not essential. You could leave it out or replace it with Amaretto liquer, even some good brandy.
All I can say is that it’s a match made in heaven!

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Chocolate cherry & kirschmousse

A dark, rich chocolate lover's heaven of a dessert made even better by adding sweet ripe cherries and kirsch.

Course Dessert

Cuisine Mediterranean

Keyword kirsch mousse

Prep Time 30 minutes

Total Time 30 minutes

Servings 6

Author Laura Scott

Ingredients

• 150 g mini marshmallows
• 50 g butter
• 250 g dark chocolate broken into small pieces
• 300 ml double cream
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 200 g pitted cherries fresh or frozen
• 4 tbsp kirsch
• 2 tbsp flaked almonds toasted, for garnish

Instructions

1. Melt the mini mallows, butter, chocolate and hot water in a pan over a low heat until the mixture has combined into a liquid mass
2. Whip the cream with the vanilla into soft peaks
3. While the chocolate mix cools, chop in half the cherries and de- stone them
4.  Put the cherries in a dish with the Kirsch and leave the flavours to mingle
5. When the chocolate has cooled, fold in the whipped cream until combined
6. Put the marinated cherries into the bottom of your chosen glass, ramekins or bowl
7.  Top with the chocolate mousse mix
8.  Put into the fridge to chill until required
9.  Before serving, garnish with the flakes almonds

As the mousse is incredibly rich, you may want to divide it into smaller portions, depending on your choice of main course. Chocolate lovers I hope you like it.