There is a kind of dessert that everyone needs in their arsenal. The kind that requires minimal muss and fuss and that you put together in advance of a dinner party. The kind that you can tailor according to circumstance and guests without undergoing any of that awful “will they or won’t they like it” anxiety. If you have ever had people over you know exactly what I am talking about. This Chocolate Mousse Tart hits all those boxes. The ‘Mousse’ is simply chocolate, coffee, and cream. The crust is Oreos and butter. What is there not to love?
(Am suddenly getting anxious and wondering if there is any left in the fridge…focus Sarah focus…)
This recipe is adapted from Flour, one of my favourite cookbooks of all time, and Joanne Chang calls it a Milky Way Tart. I enjoyed it as it was originally written but somehow couldn’t connect the flavours to a Milky Way & always think of it as a Chocolate Mousse Tart. Over time I have made some changes to suit my tastes like switching out the buttery crust for an Oreo one because well duh. I also find that milk chocolate alone is underwhelming and use a mix of milk and dark or whatever I have in the house. The instant coffee I never skip though, it adds both interest and depth and isn’t strong enough to put off the coffee-phobes.
You can always make this even simpler and use a store bought Oreo crust because let’s be real those are delicious and sometimes you don’t feel like pulverizing Oreos and pressing them into a pie plate or tart tin. Topping choices are infinite – I usually use the half of the chocolate bar that is left from the filling to make the curls. It is super simple – all you have to do is peel them right off with a vegetable peeler. That said you can always chop up candy bars from your kids Halloween loot, top with chocolate covered espresso beans for something more sophisticated, make a simple caramel drizzle or do what I do and thin out your store bought dulce de leche and drizzle it right over.
Quick Tip:
If you expect to leave it out at room temperature or are taking it somewhere then I recommend stabilizing it with some dissolved gelatin or whipping in some milk powder. Either way it is tastiest cold so try to keep it chilled!
- 25 Oreos + 4 Tbsp Butter
- OR
- 1 ½ cups Oreo Baking Crumbs and 5 tbsp of butter
- 150 g chocolate of your choice no chips please!
- 2 cups whipping/heavy cream
- 2 tsp coffee
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If using the whole cookie then pulverize them to a crumb, add in melted butter and press into your pie plate or tart tin.
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If using the Oreo crumbs then simply stir the ingredients together and press in.
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For a crunchy crust bake at 350 for 8 minutes, for a softer one leave as is. I do find that the soft one works on in a pie plate but not in a tart pan.
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Chop the chocolate into pieces.
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Heat the cream in a saucepan until its scalding hot.
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Take it off the heat and stir in the chocolate pieces and coffee until smooth.
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Transfer to a mixing bowl, cover and leave in the fridge for four hours or longer. It has to be cold to be able to whip up!
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Whip until soft peaks form. Taste – depending on the chocolate you use you may want to tweak it by adding vanilla extract, more sugar, etc.
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Pile it into the crust and refrigerate until set – overnight is best.
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Garnish with chocolate curls, a caramel drizzle, your favourite candies, fudge sauce etc.
Note: I usually buy 2 100gram bars of chocolate, 1.5 bar goes into the mousse and the remainder gets turned into chocolate curls by my trusty vegetable peeler.
I like using a combination of milk (100g) and dark (50g). If you use mostly dark then you will definitely need to sweeten it!
