Santa’s brought me a book, a super posh, velvet covered book with recipes from Laduree. I’ve been to Laduree once, back in the times when I thought that making macarons requires a PhD in pastry and nobody as amateur as myself will ever be able to make them.  That was a good 4-5 years ago, with Moka, who took us there and treated us to some superb pieces of patisserie   I’d love to do that tour again, now that I’m so much more confident. Might need someone to restrain me from licking the shop windows though.

I’ve marked a couple of must- do recipes from that book. Last night I asked Lisa if they fancied a pizza and beer sort of evening with Andy, they did, so obviously we needed a dessert.  Chocolate mousse was made, easy, delicious and quick.  If all the recipes work the way the mousse did, £17 well spent by Santa.

150 g of good quality dark chocolate was chopped and melted with 40 g of butter, then cooled to room temperature. 4 eggs separated, the whites whipped with 40 g of sugar, the yolks gently beaten. That was a new and different thing to do for me- beaten yolks went in bit by bit to the whipped whites, then  about 1/4 of those went into the chocolate and butter mixture to loosen it. Having done that all of the chocolate got chucked into the whites, gently incorporated  with a whisk. Then into the pipping bag with a star tip, 30 mins on the fridge and then ready to pipe into the serving dishes. It’s been enjoyed. And will be made again. 🙂