Chocolate Mousse

As Laura noted in her post on Monday (holy moly, did you check out that bread pudding?) we’re hitting Valentine’s Day a little early here on SPC. I was a bit surprised to see the pages of Pinterest turn from green (Healthy January Dinners!) to brown (chocolate, chocolate, chocolate!) last week so we decided we’d better get it together. Yes, I do live my life according to Pinterest, don’t you? Just as well, I’m going to need the extra time to work with Esme on the 27 Valentine’s we’ll be needing to send to school. That’s the deal, right? Every kid has to get one? Does it need to include some kind of declaration of love and/or affection? I’m really asking. The complexities of senior kindergarten relationships boggle me. To think I worried about health issues when I was pregnant with Esme! What I needed to be reading up on was what it means when Eleanor would rather play with Allegra or how does one stop sitting next to Sophie on the school bus when she will not stop bragging about her iPad?

Regardless of what we end up including in the school-bound Valentines, I’ll be saving the real love for home.  I’ll be whipping up a batch of this endorphin-cueing chocolate mousse. This is one of those recipes you think is overly complicated so you don’t bother when really, it’s only a teensy bit complicated and the payoff is just so freaking worth it. The batch I brought home from this photo shoot was met with oohs and ahhs and then silence as everyone tucked in. The recipe comes from the latest issue of Bon Appetit, along with the adorable story of how this recipe helped editor, Andrew Knowlton win over his then girlfriend, now wife. It’s a pretty compelling mousse. Full disclosure, I altered the amount of whipping cream by accident and the results were still quite spectacular. Whether you’re loving up your family or trying to impress someone new, this is the ticket.

photos by Maya Visnyei