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Award-winning chef, author and forager Alan Bergo. Food is all around you.

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Spruce Chocolate Mousse

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Chocolate-Spruce Mousse

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.

Chocolate-Spruce Mousse
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Spruce Chocolate Mousse

Tastes like chocolate mousse, and spruce.
Prep Time30 mins
Cook Time25 mins
Course: Dessert
Cuisine: American
Keyword: Chocolate Mousse, Spruce Tips
Servings: 8

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.
  • In a separate bowl, 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-chocolate mixture until combined, then mix in the rest.
  • Finally, gently fold in the cream until just incorporated.
  • Put the mixture into a piping bag with a fluted tip, then pipe into dishes and chill until ready to serve. It can also be scooped with a disher or scoon dipped in hot water.

Notes

Yield: roughly 4 cups, enough to serve 8-10 people a small scoop. This is rich stuff. 

More 

Spruce Tips: Harvesting, Cooking and Recipes

 

 

Related

Previous Post: « Wild Rice Polenta
Next Post: Wild Caraway »

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Barbara

    June 8, 2020 at 6:16 pm

    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?

    Reply
  2. Amy

    May 19, 2021 at 11:54 am

    Is there a typo in this recipe? It says to whip the cream but it never says later when to fold it in. And it says to fold eggs with chocolate twice.

    Reply
    • Alan Bergo

      May 19, 2021 at 7:12 pm

      It does says when to add the cream. I did have a typo of mixing the chocolate with the eggs though so I reworked it a bit for clarity, thanks for catching that.

      Reply
      • Amy

        May 22, 2021 at 8:23 pm

        Awesome, thanks! Looking forward to trying the recipe soon!

        Reply

Trackbacks

  1. Caramelized Spruce Tip Syrup says:
    December 15, 2019 at 5:05 pm

    […] You can use the spruce syrup like honey or maple, but how does it work with other things? I’ve come up with a couple different ideas, but my favorite happened when I noticed a large, unused block of bitter, unsweetened chocolate at the restaurant. Since the spruce syrup is sweet, you need to add it in place of sugar in a dessert. Chocolate-spruce mousse turned out really good, just make sure to use unsweetened chocolate. See that recipe here.  […]

    Reply

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Alan Bergo
Oeufs de Gaulle is a classic morel recipe Jacques Oeufs de Gaulle is a classic morel recipe Jacques Pepin used to make for French president Charles de Gaulle. 

You bake eggs in a ramekin with shrimp topped with creamy morel sauce and eat with toast points. 

Makes for a really special brunch or breakfast. Recipe’s on my site, but it’s even better to watch Jacques make it on you tube. 

#jacquespepin #morels #shrimp #morilles #brunchtime
Morels: the only wild mushroom I count by the each Morels: the only wild mushroom I count by the each instead of the pound. 

Good day today, although my Twin Cities spots seem a full two weeks behind from the late spring. 2 hours south they were almost all mature. 

76 for me and 152 for the group. Check your spots, and good luck! 

#morels #murkels #mollymoochers #drylandfish #spongemushroom #theprecious
The first time I’ve seen fungal guttation-a natu The first time I’ve seen fungal guttation-a natural secretion of water I typically see with plants. 

I understand it as an indicator that the mushrooms are growing rapidly, and a byproduct of their metabolism speeding up. If you have some clarifications, chime in. 

Most people know it from Hydnellum 
peckii-another polypore. I’ve never seen it on pheasant backs before.

Morels are coming soon too. Mine were 1 inch tall yesterday in the Twin Cities. 

#guttation #mushroomhunting #cerioporussquamosus #pheasantback #naturesbeauty
Rain and heat turned the flood plain forest into a Rain and heat turned the flood plain forest into a grocery store. 

#groceryshopping #sochan #rudbeckialaciniata #foraging
Italian wild food traditions are some of my favori Italian wild food traditions are some of my favorite. 

Case in point: preboggion, a mixture of wild plants, that, depending on the reference, should be made with 5-23 individual plants. 

Here’s a few mixtures I’ve made this spring, along with a reference from the Oxford companion to Italian food. 

The mixture should include some bitter greens (typically assorted asters) but the most important plant is probably borage. 

Making your own version is a good excercise. Here they’re wilted with garlic and oil, but there’s a bunch of traditional recipes the mixture is used in. 

Can you believe this got cut from my book?!

#preboggion #preboggiun #foraging #traditionalfoods
Oh the things I get in the mail. This is my kind Oh the things I get in the mail. 

This is my kind of tip though: a handmade buckskin bag with a note and a handful of bleached snapping turtle claws. 😁😂 

Sent in by Leslie, a reader. 

Smells like woodsmoke and the cat quickly claimed it as her new bed. 

#buckskin #mailsurprise #turtleclaws #thisimylife #cathouse
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