Mexican Chocolate Mousse

**I’ve Used Semi-sweet Morsels, Ibarra Drinking Chocolate, Really Good Chocolate Bars)

1. Melt the chocolate in a heavy saucepan over very low heat, stirring constantly. If you use the Ibarra chocolate, it needs liquid to melt smoothly, so I added the coffee, ginger liqueur and rum as it melted.

2. Beat the habenero liqueur, cinnamon, ginger, cayenne and vanilla into the melted chocolate. Remove from heat and let cool to room temperature.

3. Once cooled, beat in the 4 egg yolks, one at a time.

4. Whip the cream until thickened. Gradually add sugar, beating until stiff.

5. Beat the egg whites and salt until they form stiff peaks. Gently fold the egg whites into the whipped cream.

6. Stir about one third of the cream mixture into the chocolate mixture.

Then scrape the remaining cream mixture over the chocolate base and gently fold them together.

Pour the mousse into individual dessert cups or a serving bowl and refrigerate until set (2 hours).

We discussed serving methods last night, and I really like the idea of making meringue bowls and serving a scoop of the mousse, a scoop of ice cream and whipped cream in those.

The flavouring could easily be changed to meet tastes and what you have on hand. The original recipe calls for Grand Marnier rather than the liqueurs and spices I used. I have every intention of doing this with Chambord one of these days and serving it with raspberry sorbet. Yum.