A cinematic chocolate recipe

Do you remember the Woodhouses and the Castavets from “Rosemary’s Baby”? In my last post, I recounted all "chocolate films", since the early age of cinema. Now, I want to share a chocolate recipe with you. A famous cinematic chocolate recipe from Roman Polanski’s masterpiece “Rosemary’s Baby”.

Scene: Guy and Rosemary Woodhouse are enjoying a quiet meal at home with desserts provided by the friendly old couple next door, the Castavets. Do you remember the strange “chalky undertaste” in Rosemary’s “mouse” chocolate?

The recipe actually comes from Fergus O’ Sullivan’s book Pulp Kitchen, a book about the writer’s two greatest passions in life, food and cinema. If you are a foodie and want to make your own cinematic recipe at home from one of the 65 films and food recipes, included in this book, then I cannot think of a better gift to give yourself. This one of course is a chocolate recipe.

Chalky Mint Chocolate Mousse
120 g best quality bitter
chocolate (such as Valrhona)
2 tablespoons crème de menthe
2 tablespoons double cream
4 eggs
80 g icing sugar
2 spearmint Rennies (for that chalky undertaste, optional)
Pinch of salt
Fresh mint leaves to garnish

Execution
Break up the chocolate and put into a bowl. Rest this bowl over a pan of gently boiling water and melt. Stir in the crème de menthe and cream and leave to cool. Separate the eggs. Sieve the icing sugar into the yolks, beat this in firmly and then add to the chocolate. If using them, crush the Rennies in a mortar, then stir into the chocolate. Add the salt to the egg whites and whisk them until they are stiff. Fold the whites gently into the chocolate mixture, taking care not to deflate the mousse by stirring too hard.

Turn the mixture into four china ramekins (or similar small straight-sided china bowls) and leave in the fridge for a at least four hours before serving, garnished with the mint.