Sinful delight, handmade: Artisanal chocolates create a buzz

Pushpesh Pant

Can you imagine any joyous celebration without chocolates? The chocolate story starts with an elixir fit for gods that was consumed in a salty-spicy version called Xocatal by the Sun King Montezuma in Mexico before the Spaniards despoiled the great Aztec civilisation. As soon as the addictive coco beans reached Europe, other pleasurable foods and beverages were created with them.

Eggless chocolate mousse

Ingredients

• Dark chocolate 140 gm
• Light cream 1/4 cup
• Coffee powder 1 tsp
• Butter 1 tbsp
• Sugar (powdered) 2 tbsp
• Salt A pinch
• Vanilla extract A few drops

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Method

• Chop chocolate into very small, fine pieces with a sharp, heavy knife. This should resemble a coarse powder. You can use a food processor in short bursts if you prefer. Remember, powdered chocolate will melt more easily and not form messy lumps.
• Melt this chocolate using the double boiler method. Place the bowl containing the chocolate powder on the top of a sauce pan, or any pot containing boiling or simmering water. Do not melt chocolate by putting the pan of water on direct flame. Boil the water and then remove the pan of boiling water and place it on a counter-top.
• Put the bowl of chocolate powder on the top of the pan. The bowl should not be submerged in the pan or touch the boiling water directly. Use a spatula to mix and smoothen the chocolate and avoid lumps. Add the softened butter and mix again. The gentle heat should melt the chocolate. Take it off the steam and allow the mixture to cool down to the room temperature.
• In another chilled bowl, take cream, add powdered sugar, coffee powder, salt and vanilla extract and whip until soft peaks are formed. You can use a whisk or a handheld beater.
• Now add one-third of the melted chocolate to one-third of the whipped cream and lightly fold with a spatula for about a minute. Add the rest of the chocolate to this chocolate-cream mix and continue blending till a light fluffy constancy is obtained. The mousse is ready for plating.
• Spoon out the mousse in small glass bowls or stem glasses, cover with foil and refrigerate for at least four hours. Garnish with sliced fruits (strawberries are in season), walnut kernels or chocolate shavings before serving.

In India, when we were kids, chocolate meant Dairy Milk, sometimes enriched with fruits and nuts and tasting more like a khoya mithai with dark skin. Then came Amul with its chocolates, daring to take on the mighty multinationals Cadbury and Nestle. It took the milk cooperative a while to establish a noticeable footprint. Amul gave us a taste of the slightly bitter ‘real’ chocolate — dark and not cloyingly sweet. Till the 1960s, very few Indians except the very rich could afford foreign travel and buy or enjoy imported Swiss or Belgian chocolates, some of them filled with liquor with a whiff of sedative alcohol. For those with limited resources, even Indian chocolates were expensive. Chocolate-coated wafers or caramelised bars, crackles, chocolate-coated almonds, etc, masquerading as chocolate, were available for this segment.

It was only after the economic reforms and liberalisation that the age of plenty dawned and chocolates ceased to be aspirational and came within reach of commoners. Chocolate cakes and pastries in various avatars flooded the bakery counters even in small towns. But we digress.

What we are witnessing at the moment is a revival of interest in artisanal chocolates, positioned as a genuinely swadeshi product, and chocolate-based offerings. The beans procured from plantations in Kerala and elsewhere are converted straight into bars and/or handcrafted into bite-sized dark beauties that play around with a fusion of flavours. Some are making chocolates with camel milk, while others have spiked these with red chillies. We have come a long way from drooling over Willy Wonka’s chocolates in ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’ or remaining spellbound by fairy tales that talked about houses built of chocolate.

However, what we loved most as a child and later as an adult more than any other chocolate dish remains a chocolate mousse, lighter than air and a rich mouth-feel. We had been pining for such a delicacy for a long, long time till we found it in Pune recently. We are absolutely floored by the eggless chocolate mousse served at Cafe Goodluck near Ferguson College, made to perfection by a wunderkind encouraged by Ghasem Yakshi, owner of this legacy eatery.

Our thoughts returned to eggless chocolate mousse once again when we met Amritanshu Agrawal and Priyanka Gupta of Mozimo, Chandigarh, whose artisanal chocolates are creating waves. Their tantalising chocolate temptations range from textured barks to the buttery softness of pralines. Crafted in their state-of-the-art studio, we share with you the recipe for an eggless chocolate mousse, a perfect sweet touch to Navratra celebrations.

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