Hi.  My name is Mark and this is my cooking blog.

I get asked a lot for my recipes, so I decided to start this cooking blog.  What you’ll find here will be my recipes and my variations on others’ recipes, my cooking tips and who knows what else. 

I should say up front that I’m lactose intolerant (check out my lactose intolerance site www.nowhey.org) and I also try to live a low-carb lifestyle.  So the recipes you’ll find here will generally be devoid of milk and milk products and try, wherever possible, to be low in carbs.

I hope you enjoy the site and the recipes.

Mark

This recipe makes a very rich tasting but light textured chocolate mousse that is almost sin free.  People can’t believe it’s zero carb, has no milk products, zero cholesterol and very low in fat (about 10 grams per serving).  This recipe was adapted from several of Alice Medritch’s excellent chocolate mousse recipes. If you’re a fan of chocolate desserts, you need to get her books Bittersweet and Chocolate and the Art of Low Fat Desserts. I combined the basic mousse recipes from Bittersweet with some of the low fat ideas from the other book. I modified the basic mousse recipes to make them easier to make and to eliminate the carbs (they were already lactose-free).

Ingredients:

1 Bar (3.6 ozs) Carb Safe Dark Chocolate (from Trader Joe’s)
4 squares (2 ozs) of Trader Joe’s 100% Belgian Baking Chocolate
¼ cup Splenda (or sugar)
1 tsp Instant Espresso powder
4 pasteurized eggs or 8 ozs of liquid egg substitute (see notes)
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 tsp plain unflavored gelatin
1/3 cup of cold water

Put the cold water in a pyrex measuring cup or similar heat-proof container. Gently sprinkle the gelatin over the water and let sit for 4 minutes. Do not stir. Place the cup in the microwave and heat for 1 minute on 50% power. Stir the gelatin and check to see if it is fully dissolved – check carefully. If not, heat the water for 30 seconds at time on 50% power and stir and check again. Repeat until it is dissolved but it’s important not to overheat or boil the gelatin. Once the gelatin is dissolved, stir in the espresso powder until dissolved and the vanilla. Set aside.

Put the chocolate into a large pyrex or similar heatproof bowl. I use the large pyrex mixing or batter bowl since I will use the spout later. Heat in the microwave for about three minutes at 50% power – the chocolate will start to soften considerably. Add the gelatin mix to the chocolate and heat for one more minute on 50% power. (You may have to adjust these times based on your microwave.) The idea is to get the chocolate pretty well melted without overheating it. Stir with a spatula until you have a nice, homogeneous mixture – this is critical – there can’t be any small lumps of chocolate.

While you are heating the chocolate, put the eggs and Splenda into the bowl of your stand mixer with a whisk attachment and beat on high until medium firm peaks form. This usually takes two to three minutes.

Take the spatula from the chocolate and lightly draw it across the top of the eggs. Look at the eggs and see if the chocolate looks grainy or lumpy – we’re not taking huge bits but small ones about 1/4 the size of a grain of rice.  If it does, heat the chocolate some more. If all is OK, take about 1/3 of the eggs and fold them into the bowl with chocolate. Again, check for the appearance of tiny lumps or grains. Fold in the rest of the eggs until you have a nice even color.

Pour the mixture into six 6 oz ramekins or any other dessert containers you wish. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for about 4 hours.

These will last about 4-5 days in the fridge.

With judicious overlapping of the steps, I can make this dessert from start to cleanup in about 20 minutes.

Notes:

Alice’s recipes call for using real eggs, but you have to slowly bring them up to 160 degrees (in order to pasteurize them) while constantly stirring to keep the eggs from scrambling. This was too much effort. First I discovered that you can buy pasteurized eggs, but they are very expensive. I used to use egg substitute as it’s much cheaper (at least when you get it at Costco), it’s already pasteurized and it’s fat and cholesterol free.  Important:  Egg Beaters brand doesn’t whip up (at least not without adding 1-2 tsp of xanthan gum).  You’ll have to try various brands until you find one that whips – the Costco brand whips up like a champ!  Note as of 11/8/11:  Costco must have changed suppliers as their brand doesn’t whip any more without adding xanthan gum.  Now that I have  Sous Vide Supreme I pasteurize my own eggs – 75 minutes at 135F.

Variations:

I like the taste of peanuts with chocolate so I have made this with 1 bar of the Carb Safe chocolate and 1/4 cup of creamy peanut butter eliminating the baking chocolate. I also like to add in 1/2 tsp of banana flavor for a chocolate-peanut butter-banana mousse – yummy! I’ve also experimented with adding about 1/2 tsp of Chinese 5 Spice Powder or 1/2 tsp of cardamom powder – also tasty. I’ve also substituted bourbon for the vanilla.

Alice’s recipes also use real chocolate – which I would recommend if you are not on a diet.  (However, if I don’t tell people, they never suspect there’s no sugar in this.) You can play with the amount of chocolate vs. sugar – what you end up with depends on what percent cacao you buy and how sweet you like your dessert. Personally I’ve made this with about 7 ozs of 74% cacao content chocolate and not added any extra sweetener (or used the baking chocolate). Some people think that’s too intense, but not me.  I used the 100% chocolate to intensify the chocolate flavor (and to lower the fat content).