Is A One-Ingredient Chocolate Mousse Too Good To Be True?
People across social media are swearing by the viral one-ingredient chocolate mousse recipe that involves blending chocolate with just water and refrigerating overnight. But is this food hack too good to be true? We've tried making it in the past and can tell you that yes, it is too good to be true. Unless you nail down the perfect ratio of chocolate to water, you end up with a bowl of foamy, grainy chocolate on top of brown water.
A TikTok user commented on the original video that their take on the recipe also didn't go as smoothly. "I did this and it didn't turn into mousse," they explained. "It turned into cold chocolate water 24 hours after refrigeration." Other commenters stated their mousse never set or they ended up with runny chocolate goop.
There are also many opinions online regarding whether or not this blend is truly mousse. By definition, it is a rich yet light dessert that should melt in the mouth like air. If this one-ingredient version sets correctly, then yes, we can consider it to be mousse. However, we can't help but be a little snobbish when it comes to this confection. After all, we've developed a dreamy decadent chocolate mousse cake recipe in the past and put a lot more thought and effort into making it than just processing chocolate with water.
The viral one-ingredient mousse recipe works, but with a lot more effort involved
Additionally, we've uncovered the rich secrets to Ina Garten's chocolate mousse, which involves whipping cream, eggs, sugar, and chocolate, and the inclusion of espresso or Kahlua even. We have also spent time explaining the top 10 tips you need for making perfect chocolate mousse and none of them involves blending chocolate with water.
Understandably, there's an appeal to this viral one-ingredient recipe which is dairy and egg-free, and a vegan dessert especially if you use vegan chocolate chips. However, a little more effort is needed than just blending chocolate with water to make this mousse. For one, the water must be hot enough to melt the chocolate as the mixture blends. Before refrigerating the mixture, you should also aerate it and you can do this with a hand mixer. It can aerate too if you blend the chocolate liquid long enough in a mixer.
Finally, don't use too much water. A good ratio would be about 1 cup of chocolate chips to no more than 2 cups of hot water. Let the mixture set overnight in the refrigerator. Try this and you be the judge of whether or not this one-ingredient chocolate mousse is too good to be true.