Last weekend Tom and I had some friends over for dinner, and I decided to do something I don't get to do very often -- make a frozen dessert. I've literally been eyeing Marcel Desaulnier's "Frozen Chocolate Oh-Honey So-Fluffy Mousse Bombe" for some time, as there is a photo of this dessert on the front cover of his cookbook Celebrate with Chocolate. The bombe is described as "drop-dead gorgeous; the half a cannonball-like shape enrobed with a honey enhanced chocolate glaze... keeps the secret of the frozen chocolate and pecan mousse interior positioned on the densest chocolate truffle cake imaginable."
There are four components to the bombe: chocolate truffle cake, two kinds of chocolate so-fluffy mousse, and chocolate oh-honey glaze (I didn't make up these names, they're straight from the cookbook!).
The chocolate truffle cake is flourless; it's made with butter, semisweet and unsweetened chocolate, eggs and an egg yolk, and a little sugar. You whip the eggs and egg yolk with the sugar until the mixture is light and thickened, and then fold in the melted butter and chocolates. After you bake the batter in a springform pan, you cool it to room temperature and set it aside until you assemble the bombe.
You make the chocolate so-fluffy mousse by whipping egg whites and then adding in a hot syrup of honey, water, and sugar that has been heated to 240 degrees. You whip the mixture until it's thickened, stir in melted semisweet chocolate, and then fold in heavy cream that has been beat to stiff peaks. You then take a portion of this chocolate honey mousse and mix in more melted chocolate and some pecans to make a chocolate honey pecan mousse.
To assemble the bombe, you spray a bowl that is the same diameter as your truffle cake with some nonstick spray and line it with plastic wrap. Then you put in the chocolate honey mousse, followed by the chocolate honey pecan mousse, followed by the truffle cake layer. You freeze the bombe for at least 6 hours, unmold it, and then cover it with the oh-honey glaze -- which is essentially a ganache made by heating honey, cream, and butter until they come to a boil, pouring them over chopped semisweet chocolate, and stirring until smooth.
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After we finished eating dinner and cleared the dishes, I took the bombe out of the freezer and brought it to the dining room, so that I could cut and serve it in front of our guests. The bombe was frozen solid. It required tremendous effort to cut slices, even using a large chef's knife I had run under hot water and wiped dry. After I had passed out slices of bombe, the only sound that could be heard was the ear-piercing clangor of flatware thwacking against china as everyone was using all their might to cut off bites of bombe to eat. The force of my spoon caused a chunk of truffle cake to ricochet off my plate and straight into my lap. For several minutes, our dinner conversation continued to be interrupted by the sustained cacophony. It was both hilarious and horrifying.
The good news is that the bombe was delicious. I used Scharffen Berger 62% chocolate instead of semisweet for the cake, mousse, and glaze, because that's what I had on hand. As a result, the bombe was barely sweet, and deeply chocolate-y. Notwithstanding their frozen state, the mousses were much lighter than ice cream and melted in my mouth, with the pecans adding a nice bit of texture and flavor. The truffle cake didn't really seem like cake at all. It had a texture that is difficult to describe, resembling a mix between a dense brownie and crumbly chocolate bar, like a Cadbury Flake. I didn't particularly care for the honey glaze, because its pliable texture seemed a little clumsy and I don't think it melded well with the other components -- but it still had a nice bittersweet chocolate-honey flavor.
To me, the best thing about this dessert is that all of the flavors were straightforward and pure, and the bombe presented the same chocolate-honey combination in layers of varying textures. The overall ingredient list is short and simple (10 tablespoons butter, 22 ounces semisweet chocolate, 2 ounces unsweetened chocolate, 3 eggs and 2 egg whites, 5 tablespoons sugar, 1/2 cup honey, 2 1/2 cups heavy cream, and 1 1/2 cups pecans), but this recipe lets the ingredients shine through.
Recipe: "Frozen Chocolate Oh-Honey So-Fluffy Mousse Bombe," from Celebrate with Chocolate: Totally Over-the-Top Recipes, by Marcel Desaulniers.
There are four components to the bombe: chocolate truffle cake, two kinds of chocolate so-fluffy mousse, and chocolate oh-honey glaze (I didn't make up these names, they're straight from the cookbook!).
The chocolate truffle cake is flourless; it's made with butter, semisweet and unsweetened chocolate, eggs and an egg yolk, and a little sugar. You whip the eggs and egg yolk with the sugar until the mixture is light and thickened, and then fold in the melted butter and chocolates. After you bake the batter in a springform pan, you cool it to room temperature and set it aside until you assemble the bombe.
You make the chocolate so-fluffy mousse by whipping egg whites and then adding in a hot syrup of honey, water, and sugar that has been heated to 240 degrees. You whip the mixture until it's thickened, stir in melted semisweet chocolate, and then fold in heavy cream that has been beat to stiff peaks. You then take a portion of this chocolate honey mousse and mix in more melted chocolate and some pecans to make a chocolate honey pecan mousse.
To assemble the bombe, you spray a bowl that is the same diameter as your truffle cake with some nonstick spray and line it with plastic wrap. Then you put in the chocolate honey mousse, followed by the chocolate honey pecan mousse, followed by the truffle cake layer. You freeze the bombe for at least 6 hours, unmold it, and then cover it with the oh-honey glaze -- which is essentially a ganache made by heating honey, cream, and butter until they come to a boil, pouring them over chopped semisweet chocolate, and stirring until smooth.
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I had some issues applying the glaze. The bombe pictured in the cookbook is covered in a flawless and even layer of glaze. But when I poured the warm glaze on the frozen mousse, the glaze hardened almost instantly, making it impossible to get a smooth finish. I actually ended up making a second batch of glaze to see if I could smooth the exterior a bit, but the result in the photo above was the best I could manage. You keep the bombe in the freezer until serving.
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The good news is that the bombe was delicious. I used Scharffen Berger 62% chocolate instead of semisweet for the cake, mousse, and glaze, because that's what I had on hand. As a result, the bombe was barely sweet, and deeply chocolate-y. Notwithstanding their frozen state, the mousses were much lighter than ice cream and melted in my mouth, with the pecans adding a nice bit of texture and flavor. The truffle cake didn't really seem like cake at all. It had a texture that is difficult to describe, resembling a mix between a dense brownie and crumbly chocolate bar, like a Cadbury Flake. I didn't particularly care for the honey glaze, because its pliable texture seemed a little clumsy and I don't think it melded well with the other components -- but it still had a nice bittersweet chocolate-honey flavor.
To me, the best thing about this dessert is that all of the flavors were straightforward and pure, and the bombe presented the same chocolate-honey combination in layers of varying textures. The overall ingredient list is short and simple (10 tablespoons butter, 22 ounces semisweet chocolate, 2 ounces unsweetened chocolate, 3 eggs and 2 egg whites, 5 tablespoons sugar, 1/2 cup honey, 2 1/2 cups heavy cream, and 1 1/2 cups pecans), but this recipe lets the ingredients shine through.
Recipe: "Frozen Chocolate Oh-Honey So-Fluffy Mousse Bombe," from Celebrate with Chocolate: Totally Over-the-Top Recipes, by Marcel Desaulniers.
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