Wednesday 28 January 2015

Chocolate Banana Mousse


This has got to be one of the easiest desserts ever. Easy in the sense that it is just a matter of mashing up some very ripe bananas and mixing the whole lot with melted chocolate and whipped cream. But assembling the dessert is another story. It does require a certain degree of finesse of which I have very little.



I attempted this dessert two years ago after seeing the recipe on Ann's blog. At that time, I did not blog about it because I made it in a hurry for a family dinner.

To make the chocolate mixture for the banana mouse, the recipe calls for boiling 60g of whipping cream from which only 40g is added to 60g of chocolate pieces. I do understand why it is done this way because it is not easy to measure and boil 40g of whipping cream.


But still, I find this rather tedious and I have taken the liberty of doing things a little differently. I did away with the 60g/40g thingy and made more chocolate ganache instead.

Then, I simply took about 100g of ganache to mix into the mashed bananas. That really simplified matters. Lazy me. LOL! Please excuse this long post because I am documenting what I did so that I can use it for future reference. I know that I am going to make this dessert again. Soon.

Break chocolate pieces by snapping them before you unwrap the bar.
 This keeps your hands clean and it is rather fun.
But not as enjoyable as popping bubble wrap.
Place chocolate into a measuring jug.
It makes it easier to pour into piping bag later.
Boil whipping cream.
Pour into chocolate. Leave for 5 minutes. Don't touch!
Stir. It looks diluted but keep stirring.
You'll end up with a thick smooth ganache. Eventually.
Mash the bananas until fine. Mine has lumps but who cares?
Whisk the whipping cream until soft peaks.
Pour into the mashed bananas. Yikes! I forgot to add chocolate ganache!
But it is OK as I could add at this point.
Fold until evenly blended. Aiyah! Forgot the vanilla extract!
Once you get to this part, put the banana mousse and the remaining chocolate ganache into individual piping bags. I tell you, my piping skills are next to non-existent and it was not an easy job. My layers were uneven and I made a mess. I'm not going to lie to you. Assembling this Chocolate Banana Mousse is not a breeze. In fact it was a freaking tornado. Before I arrived at this vision of loveliness :



This was what preceded :

The harsh reality of food blogging. And that's just the dining table.

Messy, messy, messy!!! Did you see the dessert resting on the printed copy of Ann's recipe? And the extra bananas in my colander? And oh, the solitary dessert cup that remained empty. Bah! I should have doubled the recipe. hee..hee.. It was just as well that I made extra ganache or else there wouldn't be enough to go around. My piping and layering is appalling.  LOL! This piping business is hard :( 

I had this for breakfast the next morning. I know. I'm bad.

Before I put on the finishing touches, I chilled the Chocolate Banana Mousse in the fridge for a few hours. While it was chilling, what else, I had to clean up the mess. This part of my hobby is no fun :(


Ann Low's bakes are works of art and I admire her so much. I love the way she puts things together and I can spend hours just gawking at her photos. And her influence is rubbing off on me. So this is my attempt at being artsy fartsy. 


When it was time to taste the fruits of my labour, ah! All that hard work was so worth it. Mmmmmppphhh!!! Yummmmeh!!! Look at that. Smooth melt-in-your mouth chocolate and banana heaven!


This recipe made me only 3 tumblers of dessert (volume approximately 250ml each). What you see here is all of it. Ann however, made 8-10 cups. Ann being Ann, she is artistry personified so you would expect her to make her desserts in elegant dainty cups and not in big tumblers like I did. I am such a pig. Oinks! heee...heee....


And allow me let you in on my dirty little secret. Immediately after assembling this batch of dessert, I went to Aeon and got me another 2 cartons of whipping cream. That took care of the remaining 8 ripe bananas (double recipe, yeah!). And nope, no more piping business for this batch. I just poured the mousse into individual air tight containers. They are now safely tucked in the freezer. That's my idea of a sound investment :D











Chocolate Banana Mousse
Recipe source : Adapted from Anncoo Journal

Ingredients :


Chocolate Ganache :

- 240g dark chocolate
- 200ml whipping cream

Banana Mousse :

- 200g very ripe bananas, mashed (about 4 medium sized bananas)
- 100g chocolate ganache (from above)
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 200g whipping cream, whipped to soft peaks

Method :

For chocolate ganache :
1. Break chocolate into small pieces and place in a big measuring jug (or any suitable container)
2. Boil the whipping cream and pour into the chocolate. Leave for 5 minutes without stirring.
3. Stir until you get a smooth chocolate mixture. Set aside to cool.

For the Banana Mousse :

1. Mix the mashed bananas with chocolate ganache and vanilla extract until well blended.
2. Fold in the whipped cream and mix until well blended.

To assemble :

1. Put chocolate ganache and banana mousse into individual piping bags.
2. Pipe equal amounts of chocolate mousse into each serving cup and top with a layer of chocolate ganache.
3. Repeat until you get a few layers.
4. Chill in the fridge for a few hours or overnight.
5. Garnish as desired and serve.

44 comments:

  1. Don't worry about your piping skills...as long as it tastes better than it looked...who cares! Anyway, it looks good enough...not having it evenly is even better...looks more rustic. By the way, I'm always amazed that you always have flowers, strawberries and chocolate balls ever ready in your household and include them in your pics. I think I need to learn from you to make my pics 'prettier' too :-)

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    1. You are right, Kris! I could have easily scooped the mousse into cups and dolloped the chocolate ganache hah..hah... but I wanted the dessert to look presentable so... About the flowers, well they come from my garden but there are no flowers everyday. I got lucky last weekend. And the chocolate balls? I got lucky again to be gifted with Godiva chocolates. They make good props hah..hah... As for the strawberries, I just couldn't resist buying them from Cold Storage :)

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  2. To a lazy person like me, not easy, hehe...

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    1. hah..hah...Sharon you always say you are lazy but sometimes we see you cook so many dishes :D

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  3. Haha I'm laughing at the picture with recipes, messy stuffs and all.. I thought you have ocd and will clear up everything before taking any pictures.. Yeah for the sake of blogging, posting and taking nice pictures, no choice have to arrange nice nice layer by layer hor.. Else, I would just mix everything together and *ngap* into my mouth with a spoon only.. I love your mousse la, I can eat 10 cups!

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    1. Louiz, that messy dining table actually made me feel very depressed. In fact if any part of my house is messy I get really upset hah..hah.. But just wanna take photo for you all to see that behind the nice photos, there's mess somewhere in the house. 10 cups? Small cups maybe lah but my cups, you probably can eat only 2 :D

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  4. ah.. who cares about the process, but we all just look at how amazing things turned out to be.. errr, i don't find you making a mess, instead everything was tidy and your tumblers of chocolate banana mousse look just nice!! must the layers be very even?? errr, not to me, being uneven also nice as if you are having a zebra pattern instead, agree?? and gosh, how nice with that strawberry and mint leaves you placed on top, that's indeed very appetising and pleasing to look at.. i cannot beat Princess Ribbon, but i think i can eat 3 cups lah~~ hahaha!!

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    1. SK, now that I go through the "process", I can sort of understand why restaurants charge such high prices for their desserts. It is not just for the cost of the ingredients but for the time and effort to put things beautifully into the serving cup or plate.

      The layers need not be even but it is a challenge if one can do it neatly. Takes a lot of practice this sort of thing. But no lah, next time I just plonk plonk everything into the cup, kautim!

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  5. Can you give me your home address? I need to stage a robbery for your containers! Else it is too much work for me! XD

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    1. RG, I don't think your mum would be too happy about you staging robbery hah..hah....

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  6. Hi Phong Hong, I always enjoyed reading your every new post and it never fails to put a smile on my face. Glad that you liked this chocolate mousse dessert and the the topping look awesome. :)

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    1. Thank you, Ann! It was your recipe that made me so hard working hah..hah... And many thanks to you for sharing this awesome dessert!

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  7. You like popping bubble wraps too? Hahaha

    This sure makes me drool.

    And funnily enough, today I am working on translating something related to chocolates... ;)

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    1. Lina, if I see bubble wrap I just have to get them popping! Oh, translating something to do with chocolates? That is nice and I wonder if you would go eat chocolate after that hah..hah...

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  8. I need you to feed me into my mouth before I can praise it melts into my mouth and tasted banana heavens! It really looks very good and I normally only had chance to eat this at 5 Star hotel's buffet.
    I love your photography skills with the blurred and dreamy looks. So pandai!

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    1. Hi TM! Actually my photography is not that great. The blurry effect was achieved using Picasa soft focus.

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  9. Looks good la (though fattening la ;p), and kinda easy to do too!

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    1. Hayley, it is easy. Just don't do the piping hah..hah...

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  10. Hi Phong Hong, thanks for simplifying the method and still achieving satisfactory outcome. This is the way I like about cooking or baking. Simplicity is the key to my selection of what to bake or cook cos' there is so much to do and too little time to waste, hehehe! Sometimes when working in the kitchen, I thought 'why on earth did I start to cook this or bake this?' after all I'm not eating all of it. BTW, your banana mousse looks tempting.

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    1. Hi Kimmy! I like to simplify things wherever possible. As long as it does not impair the taste or quality of the end product, it should be OK. I too have attempted some recipes and half way through I regretted hah..hah... If you like mousse, you can give this one a try when you have very ripe bananas to spare.

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  11. No, thanks. Not a fan of mousse.

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    1. I remember you mentioned that somewhere in one of your posts :)

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  12. I see the word "easiet"...am interested liao. Simple is good. You know me la. cannot follow instruction one LOL. The more simple the better

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    1. Meow, this one is guaranteed simple provided if you don't do the piping. Only banana, melted chocolate and whipped cream. Just "kiau, kiau, kiau" (kacau, kacau, kacau) then campak in the fridge :)

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  13. Wow... mousse... I love! Oh dear, I seem to love all kinds of desserts but never really got down to make any.... Cleaning up is a chore, right? But your investment in the fridge is simply worth the washing...hahahaa...

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    1. Claire, better don't make. Can put on weight very easily hah..hah...

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  14. It must have been a good beginning of a day with such a breakfast!:)

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  15. Wow, what a delicious looking dessert! Wish I could dig into one! Piping skills!! I know how frustrating these can be, I'm lousy at piping! That is why I never decorate my cakes, safer to pour on the choc ganache! Haha!

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    1. Hi Joyce! No more! No more piping hah...hah...

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  16. Chocolate anything I like. I just love chocolate, once started difficult to stop...hahah.

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  17. I like to eat ice creams so I don't understand why I don't like to eat whipped cream and mousse. ???? really puzzling. Chocolate and banana go very well together so I will freeze your mousse and eat it, hehehe!

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    1. Mun, perhaps mousse is too soft? The texture is different from ice-cream. I haven't tested the ones I froze yet. Don't know why I am so well behaved hee.hee..

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  18. Hi Phong Hong,
    Oh I like popping bubble wrap too ^-^! I'm poor in piping too ... hee hee!
    End result. .. your hard work paid off as you've enjoyed the fruits of your labour ...Chocolate Banana Mousse ! Yummy! Love your pics too ^-^!

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    1. Thanks, Karen! I don't think I want to do anymore piping hah..hah...

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  19. Phong Hong, fret not on the piping part! Looks are secondary when the insides are packed with yumminess. I love how you present this dessert and it is surely gonna be good party sweets!!

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    1. Thanks, Janice! Next time I will just spoon the mousse into the cups hah..hah...

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  20. Hi Phong Hong, this chocolate mousse dessert definitely ngam my taste bud!!! More please.....:)

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  21. Hi Hi PH! I'm back again! Very "dreamy" pics... I feel like heaven! Love the mint and strawberry combination.

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    1. Alvin, this mousse puts me in a dreamy mood :)

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