Chocolate Love

By Sumaiya Rahim

            I chose to not attend the Wine Tasting excursion for religious reasons, and instead, decided to make chocolate mousse. Some may say that my obsession with chocolate is a little unhealthy. I then, would have to completely agree. I am obsessed. I love chocolate. Dark, white, and especially milk, the kind with the nuts in it (not the one with the fruit though), as long as its decadent, creamy, melt in your mouth chocolate, I am happy. My favorite however, would have to be chocolate mousse. When made right, it is airy and fluffy. It isn’t too heavy or overpowering and if you have it with coffee, maybe something bitter, or on top of a dark chocolate cake, I promise your mouth and taste buds will thank you.

            I was craving chocolate cake in Germany but was having so much difficulty finding the kind of chocolate cake I have back home. However, I did come across many places that served black forest cake, and also, chocolate mousse cake. I found that buying these German delicacies was becoming more and more expensive and as the euro to dollar rate is at a 52 week high of 1.38, I really could not afford to keep buying chocolates, and cakes!

            I made a much-needed trip to ReWe and bought a mix with instructions on how to make chocolate mousse! The directions were in German, but with a little help from google translate, asking the cashiers on the ingredients needed, and then with the help of some more goggle translate, I knew everything I needed to make “Mousse au Chocolat!” The directions when translated said, “Give 250ml of cold milk into a tall mixing vessel. Add the contents of the bag and mix well with an electric hand mixer on the lowest level. Then strike the highest level about three minutes.

Pour the cream into dessert glasses or a glass bowl and set at the minimum 1 hour in the refrigerator. It tastes best when the cream is very honored immediately afterwards. They should not be kept longer than a day in the fridge.” Though the translator definitely said things in a strange way, it was easy to understand.

            Simple right? Even I was shocked! I was sure that there would be more to it, but there wasn’t! I did have to make another trip to Lidl because on the tram back I realized that I hadn’t picked up milk while picking up the other groceries on my list! I came back to the ESC though and happily and whisked away until I thought I had the perfect mixture of Mousse mix and milk.

            After an hour in the fridge, I tasted it, and it was delicious. I was hoping for more of an “airy” texture, and my mousse turned out to be more pudding like than mousse like. I learned that I liked the “Ruf” brand, and I am very open to trying out the other brands of Mousse I saw at the market! Anja, Gerard and a few other people tasted my mousse and loved it. It was definitely the perfect after-dinner dessert that I can have over and over and over again. Chocolate wins again.