If you’ve ever tried to make a smooth and creamy chocolate mousse, but it comes out all “bumpy” and weird, this post will answer the burning question “Why is my chocolate mousse grainy?” I’ll teach you why it gets grainy and also how to prevent it from happening in the future. On a related topic, you may also be interested in learning how to fix broken ganache without changing its texture. This post is part of my Fundamental Fridays series where I answer your baking and cooking questions. For ease of browsing, you can find all the posts in one place.
Not fluffy enough, not chocolatey enough, too sweet, grainy, etc etc. Many “easy” chocolate mousse recipes tend to use too much cream so the end result is more like custard, rather than aerated like real chocolate mousse should be.
Understanding Graininess Starts with Understanding Chocolate
Okay, so what do we know about chocolate?
Chocolate is an emulsion–wee dry particles of cocoa liqueur suspended in the bunch of different fats that make up cocoa butter.
You’ve heard of chocolate’s seizing, right?
It seizes, or gets thick and clumpy, because you’re accidentally introducing just a Tiny Amount of liquid into the now-melted emulsion. Do you think the liquid is going to mix with the dry particles or the fat?
The dry, you say?
You are correct! Water is hardly going to play nicely with the fat.
So How Does It Seize Up?
So now what has happened is that this Tiny Amount of water has stodged together the dry particles.
The only way to unstodge them is to add enough liquid that the particles can freely slide past each other as opposed to clumping up.
Ever added just a few drops of water to a big old pot of sugar, maybe in preparation for making caramel or something? The sugar just clumps up and gets stupid.
Keep adding water (or other liquid), though, and eventually, you’ll be able to stir it freely and the sugar will even dissolve. Lovely.
Same principle applies to chocolate.
How to make BETTER CHOCOLATE MOUSSE | Solving 2 problems | DallasChocolateClasses.com
FAQ
Why is my chocolate mousse not airy?
How do you fix flat chocolate mousse?
Why is my chocolate mousse so dense?
What are common mistakes when making mousse?