Here's What To Do If Your Chocolate Mousse Is Too Runny
The secret that elevates a good chocolate mousse to an excellent one lies in its texture. You want your dessert to be firm enough to hold its shape on the spoon, but smooth and light enough to melt in your mouth. With only a handful of core ingredients — eggs, chocolate, butter, cream, and sugar — chocolate mousse is fairly straightforward to make but it does take skill when it comes to beating the eggs, whipping the cream, and folding everything together in a way that produces that airy, fluffy bite.
There are different schools of thought when it comes to getting that signature fluffy texture. Julia Child famously relied on eggs alone, while others focused on the whipped cream for that signature softness. Anyone who has made a chocolate mousse or two knows that things can go wrong fairly quickly, leaving you with a runny mess. We spoke with Victoria Johnson, head chocolatier at Temper Chocolates inside Denver Central Market, to get her expert opinion on how to salvage a liquid-y chocolate mousse.
"To fix a runny chocolate mousse, start by adding more whipped egg whites or heavy cream and gently folding it into the mixture," Johnson advises. "You can also add a bit more thickening agent and let the mousse set in the fridge. If the mousse is slightly loose, simply refrigerating it might help it firm up."
Things to keep in mind when making chocolate mousse
Like with any time-tested recipe, there have been many iterations, tips, and tricks shared throughout its lifespan. We even have a piece outlining 10 tips for making the perfect chocolate mousse including everything from foam tips to flavor adds. Victoria Johnson mentioned adding a thickening agent if your mousse comes out runny, there are a few that'll do the trick. One of the most effective ways to thicken up a mousse is using a liaison — a mixture of eggs and cream. To make a liaison use 1 part yolk to 3 tablespoons of heavy cream if you have more than 2 cups of mousse that needs thickening, make more if you have more mousse. Gently mix the two together while stirring to avoid clumping. Once the yolks and cream are thoroughly mixed, let your mixture cool, then whip the two together and add them to your mousse. The great thing about liaison is it simultaneously thickens while adding an even richer flavor.
Another option is to use a cornstarch slurry. Just be very careful and use a double broiler to reheat your mousse while adding the slurry. Mix in the 1:1 cornstarch to cold milk slurry slowly over heat, and stir for about 5 to 7 minutes to get thicker, more lush mousse. Ultimately, eggs (especially the egg whites you use in your recipe) are the best thickening agent because of the protein they contribute. Once your egg mixture thickens your mousse, no amount of temperature change will undo that.