This is exactly what it sounds like: chocolate mousse flavored with spruce tip syrup. Just using spruce tips simmered a bit with water isn’t going to cut it though, for the flavor of spruce to overcome the chocolate you’ll either want to make a slow sun syrup using equal parts by volume of brown, natural sugar with spruce tips or another conifer product, like needles or pine cones.
To make the slow sun syrup, leave the sugar and spruce tips out on the counter for a few weeks until the sugars melt, then heat the mixture with a small amount of water, just to help melt the sugar, and simmer for 15 minutes, then strain and store.
For a quick syrup, that is a substitute for above method (the flavor is weaker, but passable) see my caramelized spruce tip syrup recipe here. You can also substitute maple syrup, cooked down by 25% and cooled.
Spruce Chocolate Mousse
Ingredients
- 5 ounces unsweetened chocolate chopped
- 1 ounce unsalted butter
- 3 large eggs separated
- 8 ounces heavy cream
- ¼ cup plus 2 tablespoons caramelized spruce syrup
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
Instructions
- Whisk the egg yolks and ¼ cup of the spruce syrup over a double boiler until doubled in volume, then reserve. Combine the whites with the 2 tablespoons of syrup and whisk in a double boiler until soft peaks form, then remove from the heat and whisk to full volume by hand.
- Whip the cream to soft peaks and reserve.
- Melt the chocolate and butter in a double boiler, then mix with the egg yolk mixture.
- Fold ¼ of the beaten egg whites into the egg yolk mixture until combined, then mix in the rest.
- Fold the chocolate-butter mixture into the egg mixture, then finally fold in the cream.
- Put the mixture into a piping bag with a fluted tip, then pipe into dishes and chill until ready to serve.
I want to try this when the syrup is ready, but I am wondering if leftovers can be frozen – or maybe the cream can go unwhipped and it can be churned into ice cream?