The Reason Your Chocolate Mousse Is So Grainy

Creamy, soft, and rich, chocolate mousse is all about the texture. Dig your spoon into a chocolate mound, and you're left with a delightfully light and chocolatey bite. Yet because mousse is known for its signature smooth consistency, you have to be careful to keep the texture as such. Homemade mousse can easily turn grainy — the byproduct of over-whipping your heavy cream. 

At the simplest explanation, this textural conundrum occurs because over-whipping causes your heavy cream to separate into solids. Essentially, that cream breaks down into butter, disrupting the final texture of your mousse. After all, the dessert consists of just a couple of ingredients — eggs, sugar, cream, and chocolate, give or take a few additions — so the cream plays a significant role in its ultimate taste and texture. Keeping the cream together is therefore essential.

Luckily, resolving this setback is as easy as making the mistake in the first place. Over-whipping is the root of the problem, so simply scale back on your beating, and your mousse will be all the better.

At first bite, mousse is all about the chocolate, whether a combination of bittersweet and milk chocolate a la celebrity chef Ina Garten, or tried and true semi-sweet. However, the key to a spectacular mousse is really about the cream. To prevent your mousse from turning grainy, you'll therefore want to readjust the strength of your peaks at the whipping stage of your mousse-making endeavor.

To do so, beat your heavy cream with a few tablespoons of sugar until peaks just begin to stiffen. You'll know it's ready by your sight; look for just softened peaks forming on the end of your whisk, and then turn the mixer off. Generally, it's easiest to whip cream when it's cold, so you should chill your cream and even use a chilled bowl and whisk. If you don't have an automatic mixer, you can, alternatively, whip by hand. Fair warning, this will take longer — and thrust your arms into action. A good mousse, however, is worth working for. 

Granted, many mousse recipes bring air into the dessert via whipped egg whites, beaten until foamy. As such, you'll want to follow your favorite mousse recipe and take your beating one peak at a time.