Skip The Chocolate And Just Add Coffee For A Decadent Mousse

Light and airy yet decadent and creamy, chocolate mousse is just the thing to satisfy your sweet tooth after a rich meal. But there's a twist on this treat that you didn't know you needed, and it's inspired by the ultimate European post-meal offering: coffee. Ditch the chocolate altogether and serve coffee mousse at your next dinner party to kill two birds with one stone — dessert and café noir.

To make coffee mousse yourself, you have many options in terms of method. Some use just cream, others mix in cream cheese, and traditionalists use separated eggs. You could use a cup of whipped cream and fold a mixture of espresso, powdered sugar, and milk into it to achieve the moussey texture, or try a more involved coffee custard that is then folded into whipped cream. The second is closer to the traditional technique to make chocolate mousse, but we won't blame you for taking the shortcut.

As for the technique, all the best tips you know about making chocolate mousse will come in handy if you choose to go with the traditional technique that uses eggs for making coffee mousse. One of the most important of these is not to overwhip your heavy whipping cream; that's the reason your mousse can turn out grainy. 

Serve the dessert as is — it can be fun to serve it in coffee or espresso cups topped with cream and dusted with cocoa, to look like a cappuccino. But you can also use the mousse anywhere you'd use its chocolate cousin. For the best of both worlds (and textures) place it between layers of chocolate sponge cake for a dreamy, decadent chocolate coffee mousse cake. The combo of coffee and chocolate is just so good that we can't help thinking chocolate sauce or shaved chocolate on top of coffee mousse would be a match made in heaven. One of our favorite Starbucks secret menu hacks is to add chocolate mousse onto cold brew — but a coffee mousse? That would take an iced coffee to a whole other level. Just like with chocolate mousse, store leftovers in the fridge or freezer in an airtight container.