This Easy Chocolate Mousse recipe is so creamy and deliciously rich. You can eat it all by itself, or layer it in a trifle or a cake… whatever you do, just don’t skip this no bake mousse!
The pictures and tips and tricks within the post for this recipe were updated in 2021. The recipe remains the same!
Homemade Chocolate Mousse
If you’re a chocolate dessert lover, this Chocolate Mousse recipe is absolutely going to make your day. Or your week. Possibly your year? I guess that last part depends on if you’re super obsessed with chocolate like I am… have I ever mentioned that I’m addicted to this Chocolate Pudding too?
At any rate, this easy mousse recipe came to be because I have been trying to develop it for years. Up until this point, the mousse-making-process has always ended in spoon throwing and tears, but no more! Today I’m sharing all the steps on how to get a perfectly creamy, thick-but-not-too-thick mousse that you will LOVE!
This homemade chocolate mousse is sweet, full of rich chocolate flavor, and a decadent but simple dessert that you can prepare for guests, if you want. Decorate it with fruit, sprinkles, and whatever other sweet treats you like!
What is Mousse?
Mousse is a French dessert that is kind of like pudding, but there are some key differences between the two. For one thing, mousse is airier and fluffier than pudding is. When the eggs in the mousse mixture are whipped together, air is incorporated, which makes the texture lighter.
Keep in mind, mousse should be served chilled for the best tasting experience!
Recipe Ingredients
I forgot to mention one of the best parts about making chocolate mousse… you only need 4 ingredients! Let’s get right into this very short list of essential ingredients:
- Eggs: If you’re concerned about using raw eggs, consider using pasteurized eggs instead.
- Sugar: Regular old granulated sugar works best for this recipe!
- Cream: Heavy whipping cream, specifically, is what you’ll need. Make sure it’s nice and cold before you start!
- Chocolate: I always use semi-sweet chocolate chips to make this mousse, but you can play around with different kinds of chocolate (like milk chocolate chips) if you want to.
How to Make Chocolate Mousse
This recipe has a few steps to it, but trust me when I tell you that none of them are that hard. Plus, they’ll only take you about 20 minutes to complete, so the hardest part of making this chocolate mousse is waiting for it to chill!
Beat the Eggs & Sugar: Do this with your mixer for about 3 minutes.
Heat the Whipping Cream: Heat 1 cup of heavy whipping cream in a small saucepan until just hot, not boiling. With the mixer on low, pour the hot cream into the egg mixture slowly until combined.
Heat the Whole Mixture: Next, add the egg/cream mixture back into the saucepan and over low heat, stir for five minutes constantly until thickened. Do not boil.
Add Chocolate & Chill: Remove from heat and stir in chocolate until melted. Cover and refrigerate for 2 hours, until chilled, stirring occasionally.
Whisk the Remaining Whipping Cream: When the mixture is completely chilled and firm use your whisk attachment on your stand mixer to whip the remaining heavy cream until stiff peaks form.
Put Everything Together: Remove the chocolate mixture from fridge and, using the paddle attachment or a spoon, fold/stir the whipped cream into the chocolate until incorporated and smooth. Serve immediately as-is, or refrigerate until ready to use.
Tips for Success
Looks delicious, right? And, like I said at the beginning, this is a great recipe to use for a number of other desserts if you don’t want to eat the mousse by itself. For example, chocolate mousse is stable enough to layer between cakes. (Personally, I’ll never turn down a nice cold bowl of mousse, but no judgement.)
Here are a couple of tips on how to get the best results with your chocolate mousse, for however you decide to use it:
- What Setting Should I Whip the Mousse on if I Use a Stand Mixer? I found using the paddle attachment on a low speed worked best. That way none of the dessert is lost to the walls or the counter!
- Use Real Chocolate: Chocolate substitutions just don’t taste as rich and delicious in this mousse – stick to semi-sweet chocolate chips or grated bars of baking chocolate for the best results.
- Beating the Whipping Cream and Eggs: This occurs during the second step. You’ll want to fold the two mixtures together for the fluffiest results – beating longer results in a dense, thick mouse, and beating a little less results in a more creamy texture.
How to Store Mousse
Store this chocolate mousse in the refrigerator in a tightly-sealed container, or cover it with a couple layers of plastic wrap. Make sure to eat it within 2-3 days. I know, I know – what a difficult time constraint to deal with!
Enjoy!
Easy Chocolate Mousse
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Chill Time: 2 hours
- Total Time: 2 hours 15 minutes
- Yield: serves 8
- Category: Dessert
- Method: No Bake
- Cuisine: French
Description
This Easy Chocolate Mousse recipe is so creamy and deliciously rich. You can eat it all by itself, or layer it in a trifle or a cake… whatever you do, just don’t skip this no bake mousse!
Ingredients
- 2 eggs
- 1/4 cups granulated sugar
- 2 1/2 cups cold heavy whipping cream, divided
- 6 oz semi-sweet chocolate (about 1 cup semi-sweet chips)
Instructions
- Beat eggs and granulated sugar with your mixer for about 3 minutes.
- Meanwhile heat 1 cup heavy whipping cream in a small saucepan until just hot, not boiling. With mixer on low pour the hot cream into the egg mixture slowly until combined.
- Next, add the egg/cream mixture back into the saucepan and over low heat, stir for five minutes constantly until thickened. Do not boil.
- Remove from heat and stir in chocolate until melted. Cover and refrigerate for 2 hours, until chilled, stirring occasionally.
- When the mixture is completely chilled and firm use your whisk attachment on your stand mixer to whip the remaining heavy cream until stiff peaks form. Remove chocolate from fridge and using the paddle attachment or a spoon fold/stir the whipped cream into the chocolate until incorporated and smooth. I found using the paddle attachment on low speed worked best.
- Serve immediately as-is, or refrigerate until ready to use.
Notes
This mousse is perfect when served alone, or as a cake filling, a cupcake topping, or a layered dessert filling.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1/2 cup
- Calories: 401
- Sugar: 20.6 g
- Sodium: 37.9 mg
- Fat: 34.1 g
- Carbohydrates: 22 g
- Protein: 5.2 g
- Cholesterol: 130.5 mg
Want To Save This Recipe?
Find more recipes like this:
More Chocolate Desserts to Try
Looking for more easy chocolate dessert ideas? You’re in the right place:
- Chocolate Poke Cake
- Chocolate Covered Cherries
- Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Chocolate Sugar Cookies
- Chocolate Pound Cake
This mousse is deliscious & easy to make. IVE made 3 batches in the last week & had no problems with it firming up in the refrigerator. Be sure to only add one cup of cream to the egg/sugar mixture. The remaining cream gets whipped & then folded in. Note: the mousse came out looking nothing like the picture (lighter in color & not as firm) but it was soooo good. My guests were scraping their bowls. I think they would have used their fingers to get every little bit out of the dish but were in a room full of women at a bridal shower. 🙂
I’m making it again for Easter dinner. Glad I found this on Pinterest.
Only use egg whites and not a whole egg! I know in the recipe it says two eggs and nothing about seperating them but do only use the whites. If you use the whole egg the mixture won’t firm up.
i use the whole egg 🙂
Probably a dumb question, but what is the eggs role in the recipe? I want to make this but am allergic to egg whites. ?
they assist with stabilization of the mousse.
Making this for pre-valentines day! Looks delicious!!
how long does the fluffiness of the mousse last?? or how long will the mousse last in the refrigerator??
I saw in the comment feed that you said it could be made a day ahead of eating. Do you think it would hold up 2 or 3 days ahead?
Yes!
Hello! I wanted to make a chocolate pie and I was wondering, can your mousse recipe be used as a pie filling? Will it set up and hold when sliced into? Thanks!
Yes, absolutely! When chilled it is absolutely firm enough!
Hi Shelly, I love your blog and already tried a lot of your recipes and I’m always very happy with the outcome, so I’m confident this mousse will be great. I do have one questions though: I’m planning on making a chocolate cake and spread two kinds of mousse on top, semi-sweet and white chocolate. First I thought I’d try a ganache filling because it seemed easier, but now I’m considering this mousse… Any idea on how do adapt it for white chocolate? My gut says to use more, like almost double the amount of chocolate, but I’d be happy to hear your ideas.
I might start with adding 1/2 more and go from there. I have never tried a white chocolate mousse, but am super interested to seeing how it comes out! Please report back!
So, this is me reporting back… I don’t even know where to start telling you how awesome this mousse is! I love it, both the dark and white chocolate version. So, from the start: Some people seemed to have problems getting the cream/egg mixture to thicken. I think I might know why. In the beginning I experienced the same difficulty because I just set the heat to low on my non-gas stove and mindlessly stirred while checking the timer. But when nothing noteworthy happened, I got thinking. Basically, I’m cooking a classic cream pudding for the base and whip it up with more cream later. So to get the mix to thicken, it needs to get really hot, almost to the point of boiling. Even if it starts boiling a little, that’s not a problem. Just really keep stirring and remove from heat before it really gets going. You’ll definitely see the effect and know when you’re done! I also doubled the recipe with no problems at all. Just because it took Shelly about five minutes, doesn’t mean you can stop after five minutes and then complain when it didn’t work out. Eggs in cream WILL thicken if heated properly, there’s just no other possible outcome. It’s a concept that is frequently used in cooking more delicate sauces, etc., I just don’t know the English name for it.
For the white mousse I did end up doubling the amount of chocolate, like I thought. But I gotta tell you, it’s freaking awesome!!!
So good to know! Thanks for your feedback… I need to try the white chocolate version!
THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THIS EXPLANATION!! It helped me SO MUCH!! When I looked at it like it was pudding I was trying to thicken it made perfect sense to me. So here’s what I did. I was making 2 recipes because I’m bringing it to a potluck dinner tonight. I did this last night. First I made one batch and it didn’t thicken like I thought it should or would but put it in the fridge to chill. Next made the second batch and put in fridge even though it didn’t thicken like it should I thought. So when the 2 hrs were up I took the 2nd one out and put it back on the stove to try to thicken again and let it boil a bit. Then put in freezer to really thicken. Made first batch and came out perfect. Even let the whipping cream get a little too whipped but came out perfect. Took out batch from freezer and stayed in fridge all night. Was pretty thick in the AM but added some cold HWC to it and softened up a bit to perfect consistency. Whipped the cream and folded in the pudding and was perfect. GOT THIS NOW!!
I doubled the recipe and followed the steps to the letter but the chocolate mixture did not thicken. I certainly don’t want to waste it. Can I put it back in the stove to thicken?
Made this last night. Came out perfect! Tastes amazing ? Thanks for the great receipe!!!! Five star