Decadent yet elegant, a Classic French Chocolate Mousse is a must in your repertoire as a French host(ess), or just to treat yourself. This timeless dessert relies on only a few ingredients – chocolate, eggs, butter and sugar – to create a smooth, airy texture with intense chocolatey taste. It is a great make-ahead dessert to serve in individual cups.
What makes a Classic French Chocolate Mousse?
As per the French tradition, a Chocolate Mousse uses solely raw eggs to build the “mousse” texture – and no cream. A common American adaptation is to add whipped cream in the mixture to give a light and airy consistency. By skipping the whipped cream, a French-style chocolate mousse is denser and thus richer, both in texture and in taste. Withholding the cream allows the chocolate flavor to shine more and creates a more compact, slightly “chewy’ mouthfeel – which is personally what I love in a French-style chocolate mousse.
Tips for a Perfect Chocolate Mousse:
Making a Classic French Chocolate Mousse at home is an easy recipe that requires simple ingredients. However, there are a few tips to know in order to achieve a perfect texture and flavor.
- Gently melt the chocolate over a bain-marie, meaning over barely simmering water in a double boiler. If heated too rapidly, the chocolate risks to separate or break.
- Beat the eggs whites to a stiff peak. Not soft, not firm, but stiff: meaning peaks will stand straight up when the beaters are lifted.
- Use older eggs. For best results in getting stiff egg whites, choose eggs that aren’t too fresh (3 to 4 days), and make sure you take them out of the fridge 1 hour before to let them reach room temperature. When beating older egg whites at room temperature, their proteins will have more elasticity. It will stretch and welcome more air, rather than break if too fresh or cold.
- Use pristine equipment. When beating the egg whites, make sure you are using a bowl and beater that are perfectly clean. Egg whites tend to refuse to whip if they encounter any residual fat or even if there are tiny amounts of egg yolk.
- Use great-quality chocolate. With just a few ingredients in this recipe, the flavor and texture of the mousse relies a lot on the quality of your ingredients, and especially of the chocolate. I recommend splurging a bit for this recipe and buying top-quality chocolate – you won’t regret it. I have used Lindt 70% Cacao Dark Chocolate and Lindt Extra Creamy. The smart combination of dark and milk chocolates creates the perfect amount of creaminess, yet with slightly bitter notes.
- Let the chocolate cool. After melting the chocolate with the butter, allow it to cool at least 10-15 minutes before mixing it into the egg and sugar mixture. It should come to barely warm temperature so its gets incorporated perfectly with the eggs. If too warm, it will “cook” the eggs and form little hard chunks. If too cold, the chocolate could seize up.
- Fold, don’t stir. When folding the egg whites with the chocolate mixture, use a large rubber spatula and be gentle. The important thing is not to stir, but fold. In small additions, carefully place a portion of the egg whites on top of the chocolate mixture and fold it in by using a flipping motion. Stop when the mousse is just uniform – do not over mix.
More recipe notes:
- Important note: because this recipe has raw eggs, I don’t recommend serving it to pregnant women, young children, older people or people with compromised immune systems.
- This Chocolate mousse needs to set in the refrigerator for at least 3 hours before serving, so plan accordingly.
- This recipe is for 4 large servings or 6 smaller ones. Note that a Classic French Chocolate Mousse is richer and denser than its American cousin, so you only need a small serving to be satisfied.
- For serving, use individual cups, ramekins, or even stemmed glasses. If you are hosting a dinner, you can also place the whole mousse in a large serving bowl. Bring it to the table and serve it with a large spoon. In this case, it will need to be refrigerated a bit longer to set (at least 5 hours).
- For serving, a French-style chocolate mousse is most often enjoyed just plain– no toppings. But you can of course top each cup with whipped cream and/or a dusting of cocoa or chocolate shavings.
More Classic French Desserts you may like:
- Classic French Lemon Tart (Tarte au Citron)
- Classic French Fruit Tart (Tarte aux Fruits Frais)
- Classic French Chocolate Moelleux Cake
- Classic French Apple Tarte Tatin
- Classic French Crème Brûlée
- Riz Au Lait with Caramel Sauce
- How to Make an Any-Kind-Of-Fruit Galette
I hope you’ll love this Classic French Chocolate Mousse recipe as much as I do! If you have any questions, please feel free to leave a comment.
32 comments
Cooked the Bordeaux style fish. Delicious. Will definitely make it again.
Great, thank you Lynda!
Is it ok to use pasteurized eggs?
Yes it is! Just keep it mind that raw eggs (being pasteurized or unpasteurized) are not recommended to be served to pregnant women or people with compromised immune system.
Hi, can this recipe be made in an 8” square dish instead of the individual serving cups?
Do you recommend any changes for that?
Hi! You could try, you would need to refrigerate the mousse longer before serving for it to firm up. Happy baking!
Thanks for sharing this amazing recipe,
I will definitely try this at home.
You’re very welcome. I’d love to hear back about what you think!
iHi Audrey. We made this yesterday and it was absolutely delicious. However, we were a bit confused when we were making the recipe. The ingredients said 3 large eggs, and 3 egg whites, and the instructions said mix the egg yolks with sugar and egg whites with salt, so we thought that meant that we just use just 3 large eggs and separate them. However, the mousse, whilst delicious, is quite dense. Did we do something wrong? Did we need to use 6 eggs in total? Also, when we added the chocolate butter mixture to the egg yolks and sugar mixture, it got a bit lumpy, but not in a scrambled eggs way. Does this mean the chocolate was the wrong temperature? It all smoothed out when we folded in the egg whites. Sorry for lots of questions – we love all your recipes, and we just got your book!
Hi John, and thank you for your feedback! Yes the recipe calls for 3 eggs (yolk/white separated) + 3 egg whites, which equals in total 3 yolks and 6 whites. I may re-phrase this part in the ingredients’ list so it is clearer. I’m glad to hear you still enjoyed the taste of this mousse! If you make it next time with 6 whites, you’ll see it isn’t so dense :). Also, for the egg yolks, it does sounds like the chocolate mixture was too warm when you poured it in, which created small lumps in the eggs. Next time, allow the chocolate mixture to cool a little more before adding it. I hope this helps, and enjoy the book too (thank you!!)
This was fantastic!! It was my first time making mousse and I already can’t wait to make more and to try other flavors 🙂 I struggled a bit with the eggs, but it was my own fault! I didn’t think it was going to turn out well, but thankfully it did. I used Lindt chocolate as well, and I really think that made all the difference haha
Amazing, thank you for your feedback Rachel!
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[…] a traditional French mousse uses eggs rather than whipped cream, and is FABULOUS, this recipe is the Americanized version with […]
This is such a simple recipe. Its rich with a smooth texture. My go to from now on. Served with fresh whipped cream and a sprinkling of cayenne. Thank you for the recipe and easy to follow instructions.
Love the sprinkle of cayenne, it’s really great in the cold(er) months I find. Glad you enjoyed the recipe and especially its simplicity!
I have made this recipe multiple times, both as written and with flavour changes. It came out amazing each time. When I made it as written I think you can definitely get 6-8 servings out of it. 4 servings are REALLY big.
I have also added cream to make it American style, added bourbon, added, peanut butter bourbon, added cinnamon and chili powder to do Mexican style, and added chai spices. Each time it was amazing.
Hello Tina. Thank you so much for your comment! I love that you found ways to make some changes that changed the taste to “Americanize it” and it still worked out. I especially like the idea of cinnamon and chili powder, to mix it up!
Hi! I love the taste of this chocolate mousse and I think that adding creme changes it a bit. However, I’d like to know if there´s anything I can do to avoid using the RAW yolks? Thanks a lot!
Hello, Patsy. Thank you for the compliment. As for your question, I unfortunately know of no way to avoid the raw yolks for the French style of mousse. Cooking them would make them unusable in this recipe and avoiding them will dramatically change the texture of the mousse. But if you truly wanted to avoid them, I’d suggest going only with the egg whites (at which point it’s a different dessert and the texture/taste will definitely be different as well). Sorry!
Would it be okay to replace the dark chocolate with just more of the milk chocolate?
Hello Natalie. I don’t think there should be much of an issue in doing this, aside from the taste, obviously. Dark chocolate really lends a deep and robust taste to the dessert, but I understand that taste isn’t for everyone.
First time making chocolate mousse. It was very good. Definitely needs whip cream with it. And a nice dessert wine.
Thank you so much, Therese! Absolutely NOTHING wrong with adding some whipped cream and dessert wine to this. Sounds wonderful, and glad it was enjoyed.
I love this recipe. I usually use all dark chocolate but this time I used half dark half light. I always debate if i should whisk the egg yolks over hot water to cook them, for safety, although I know the whites are raw So far Ive just beat the yolks until pale and light. Thoughts on that?
I only use about four egg whites. I also like it better without the addition of whip cream, and just use the whip cream as a topping. I also put in one large bowl to chill. Then scoop out however much I want. Bistro style.
Love your recipes!
Rita. A tricky question, and one that came up plenty when I was living in Canada. Eggs. In France, we never seem to give more, or any thought to the use of raw eggs in recipes such as these. I had never once in my life considered it until I was asked about it a lot by Americans/Canadians. I can understand the hesistancy some may have, but I believe if you use good quality products, you run the same risk as any other product being “tainted”. These days, it seems like every type of food, whether fresh, cooked, packaged or canned seems to be at risk – so like I said, I try and opt for the best quality ingredients I can afford, and go from there.
I am very happy that you enjoy the recipe and tweak it to your liking. I also love the idea of using only half dark chocolate, I may try this for my husband, as he prefers milk chocolate to dark.
And lastly, bistro style… I give you kudos, because I would not be able to portion control whatsoever!
Well, the eggs turned out scrambled. Thanks for your great instructions.
Sorry to hear that, Robert. This recipe is very popular and has had a lot of success with many who have tried it. What would cause the eggs to scramble would be to add the chocolate when it is too hot. The chocolate needs to cool for 10-15min prior to adding to the eggs, as the recipe states – “it (melted chocolate) should come to barely warm temperature… If too warm, it will “cook” the eggs “. It happens sometimes to us all, but I assure you, if the temperature is just warm, it can’t cook the eggs and the recipe will be a success!
Hi Audrey, your recipe caught my attention because I was really looking for the traditional mousse. But I also want to explore with other flavors using your recipe. Is there a way to add some other flavor to this recipe? Like coffee, matcha, etc. I’ve searched every other recipes but they really include heavy cream (which is what I tried to avoid since we don’t have heavy cream here from where I live). If this is possible, what ingredient will I replace to insert the other flavors? I’m really hoping to hear from you soon. Thank you!
Hello, Anamae! Great questions, but very difficult ones to answer. I have never personally added any flavorings to this mousse, and I have one major worry, especially if using extracts, is that I don’t know how they would react with the melted chocolates. Some liquids can and will “seize” the chocolate, making a disaster for you.
What I would suggest trying, is perhaps taking a SMALL amount of your melted chocolate and adding a bit of instant espresso powder to it, and mix. See if there are any adverse reactions to the chocolate (there shouldn’t be since it’s a powder) and how it tastes as well. I hope you’re able to find instant espresso powder (it’s not regulasr espresso grounds), and is made by famous brands such as Nescafe. You can try the same thing with matcha, which also SHOULDN’T have adverse reactions, but try with a small amount of melted chocolate first.
Would love to hear back!
This was so easy, and so delicious. I used Lindt 70% dark chocolate, and a 26% milk chocolate. Half the egg whiites were ones I had previously frozen. I made the mousse the day before, and served it plain, no topping. We loved the intense taste, and great texture/structure. Next time I might try a light dusting of chilli powder mixed with cocoa powder, flaky sea salt, or even sumac.
Thank you for another great recipe.
Thank you so much Michele, I am thrilled you enjoyed it. For the egg whites, how long did they take to thaw, and how long were they frozen for? Never frozen them myself, but great way to preserve an excess after another recipe.
As for adding some “spice” to the mousse, I absolutely urge you to do so – it’s amazing. Even a pinch of cayenne can really bring a totally different experience.