Chocolate mousse – an extremely easy dessert to make with only two ingredients! It’s quick, easy and tastes divine.

It is one of the most popular desserts in France which was made around Renaissance period. There are a lot of variants on this recipe, some recipes include butter or cream and some add a dash of liquor (Cointreau or Grand marnier for example) so it means that you can be creative 🙂

Ingredients :

• 200g good quality dark chocolate (the better the chocolate the better the mousse obviously!)
• 6 fresh free-range eggs (they won’t be cooked)

Method :

1. Melt the chocolate using a bain-marie*
2. Separate the egg yolks from the egg whites
3. Beat the egg whites (with a pinch of salt until stiff)
4. Slowly add the melted chocolate to the egg yolks beating all the time
5. Gently fold the egg whites into the chocolate
6. Pour into a bowl or preferably, individual ramequin dishes and place in the fridge for at least 2 hours

*A bain-marie a sort of double-boiler used to melt ingredients for cooking. Here it means placing the bowl with the chocolate into a second bigger recipient containing water over heat to melt it.

Chocolate and pears go so well together, the dark chocolate and sweet moist pears make a lovely combination. I have already posted a pear and chocolate loaf , ideal with afternoon tea, this is more of a dessert which is perfect served with a scoop of ice-cream.

At this time of the year you can use fresh pears, making sure they are nice and ripe. You can always use a tin of pears too though!

Ingredients :

• 200 g dark chocolat (70%)
• 150 g butter
• 120 g sugar
• 3 eggs
• 130 g self-raising flour
• 4 pears

Method :

1. Pre-heat oven to 180°C
2. Melt the butter and chocolat together in a bain-marie (put ingredients in bowl and place bowl in saucepan of water over a low heat)
3. Mix in the sugar
4. Separate the eggs into whites and yolks and add the yolks to the mixture
5. Fold in the flour
6. Beat the egg whites (with a pinch of salt) until stiff and gently fold them into the rest of the ingredients
7. Peel and core pears and slice in half
8. Grease and flour tin, place the pear halves on the bottom and cover with chocolate cake mixture
9. Bake in oven at 180°C for 40 minutes
10. Remove from tin immediately and place on rack to cool

Chocolate Pear Cake

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This is another traditional french cake that is very popular at goûter time and is a real favourite with french kids.

Ingredients :

• 125g butter
• 200g self-raising flour
• 3 eggs
• 6 tablespoons of milk
• 200g sugar
• Vanilla essence
• 25g cocoa powder

Method :

1. Pre-heat oven to 180°C
2. Cream the butter and the sugar together
3. Add the eggs, milk and flour and mix well
4. Separate the mixture in two halves
5. Add a few drops of vanilla essence to one half
6. Add the 25g of drinking chocolate to the other
7. Grease and flour your loaf tin
8. Pour in some of the vanilla mixture, followed by the chocolate mixture and repeat
9. Bake in pre-heated oven for 40 minutes

No recipe for todays baking because it came straight from the Odlums.ie website. I chose the recipe for chocolate chip cookies because it had everything I needed to make them – the only difference is that my muffins are a lot less impressive and a lot less chocolate-y looking than the image on the Odlum’s site. No idea why!! 🙂

Here is the link to the recipe for the Odlums Chocolate Chip Muffins

Yes you’ve guessed it right – a delicious, rich, chocolate-y chocolate cake. Perfect for dessert served with a crème anglaise or some ice-cream or even as a particularly yummy gouter (afternoon snack). This is my three kids favourite cake and it takes only 5 minutes to prepare and 13 minutes to cook!

Ingredients :

• 200g good dark chocolate (I use 70%)
• 100g butter
• 125g caster sugar
• 3 eggs
• 50g flour

Method :

1. Pre-heat the oven to 200°
2. Melt the butter and chocolate together in a bain marie*
3. Beat the eggs with the sugar until it is light and fluffy
4. Add the melted chocolate and butter to the mixture
5. Add the flour
6. Grease a round tin and cook for 13-15 minutes at 200°C (I prefer nice and gooey in the middle so 13 minutes is enough, 15 mins is perfect if you want it cooked through but not dry)