Cinnamon Mocha Mousse

Base mousse recipes are fairly similar across the board, most contain chocolate, eggs, cream, and sugar. I've always loved chocolate mousse and pudding, and I made this recipe to mix it up and add some subtle cinnamon and coffee flavors. Keep in mind this is not a supremely sweet dessert.

Ingredients:
- a little more than half a cup of dark chocolate
- 1 spoon of butter
- 2 spoonfuls of espresso
- 1 cup really cold heavy cream
- 1 spoon cinnamon
- 3 egg whites
- 1/4 cup heavy cream (for the topping)
- 2 teaspoons vanilla (1 for the mousse, 1 for the topping)
- 1 spoon sugar

Steps:
1. In a double boiler (a glass bowl over a bowl of shallow boiling water) melt the chocolate, cinnamon, butter, 1 tsp vanilla, and espresso. Stir until the mixture is smooth. Make sure that you have a glove or pot holder in whichever hand you're holding the bowl with.
2. Once the chocolate mixture is melted, remove from the heat, and let rest until warm.
3. Whisk the egg whites until they become light. Fold the egg whites into the chocolate and mix until well blended.
4. In a blender or with a mixer, whip the cream until it is light and fluffy. Take note that heavy cream has to be used, light cream does not whip properly (more on the science behind this in a later post).
5. Gently fold in the whipped cream until the mousse is well blended.
6. Whip the cream, sugar, and vanilla set aside for the topping.
7. Spoon the mousse into serving glasses, and spoon whipped topping on top. Sprinkle a little bit of cinnamon on top and enjoy!