The Only 2 Ingredients Alton Brown Uses For Luscious Chocolate Mousse

Ah, chocolate desserts. Rich, creamy, decadent, and so satisfying. Whether it's a fancy dessert like this flourless chocolate torte or a simple one like chocolate almond bark, if you're a chocolate lover, any kind of chocolate dessert will satisfy that undeniable craving.

There are some chocolate desserts that you might order in a restaurant because the idea of making them at home feels too daunting, and chocolate mousse can be one of them. The truth is that chocolate mousse only seems difficult to make because at first glance, determining how it's made isn't intuitive. It looks like a custard or a pudding, yet it's far lighter. It's fluffy, but it's also not a soufflé since it doesn't bake. So how the heck is it made? 

While basic chocolate mousse recipes have just a few ingredients in them, kitchen wizard Alton Brown has a recipe hack to make a decadent chocolate mousse with just two ingredients. That's right. Two ingredients.

According to Alton Brown, all you need to make a simple and decadent chocolate mousse is two ingredients: really good chocolate and really good eggs.

Brown's recipe begins by melting the chocolate in a double boiler on the stove and then, once the chocolate is melted, several egg yolks are whisked into the mix. Finally, the egg whites are whipped into a meringue and then folded into the chocolate mixture. Once the mousse is made, it's chilled until it begins to stiffen and then Brown recommends serving it in coupe champagne glasses.

Nervous about raw eggs? Livestrong does note that an uncooked meringue can have a small possibility of containing salmonella bacteria, while the uncooked egg yolks in this recipe have a higher likelihood of containing salmonella than the whites. But Brown has a solution for this if you're willing to add a third ingredient to the recipe. You can purchase pasteurized shell eggs, which have been heated enough to destroy bacteria (notes EggSafety.org), but Brown advises that pasteurized shell eggs won't whip up into a meringue without adding an acid like lemon juice or cream of tartar. Give this recipe a try next time you want to wow your dinner guests, or just prove to yourself that you can make something fancy at home.