The 1-Ingredient Chocolate Mousse My Whole Family Can Enjoy in a Moment’s Notice

My kids love chocolate and fancy sweets, but I am lazy when it comes to making desserts during the week. I’m not interested in making a recipe if I can’t get it done between work, after-school activities, and homework.

That’s why I was so intrigued when I recently saw Epicurious share a recipe for a one-ingredient chocolate mousse. That’s not a typo—one ingredient is truly all you need: chocolate. (You'll need water and air too, but they're counting those as freebies.)

Traditional chocolate mousse uses fat, such as heavy cream, egg yolks, or butter, to emulsify it, helping the ingredients combine into a smooth and creamy texture. However, the technique Epicurious shared calls for nothing but water and air to make a fluffy and delicious chocolate mousse.

Epicurious credits French chemist Hervé This and the miraculous molecular gastronomy method to make what he calls Chantilly chocolate. (More about the method below.)

Since my kids adore chocolate desserts, I had to give this a shot. It sounded too easy to be true.

How To Make This One-Ingredient Chocolate Mousse

It is super simple to make this chocolate mousse. Place nine ounces of chocolate chips, chunks, or a chopped bar into a medium bowl. Boil 3/4 cup of water—I microwaved it in a glass measuring cup—and pour it over the chocolate. Quickly stir until the chocolate is melted.

Set the bowl with the melted chocolate inside a slightly larger bowl filled with ice water. Make sure the ice water does not overflow or splash into the chocolate. Working quickly, whisk the chocolate with a hand whisk until it is fluffy and light. That's it!

4 Tips For Making This One-Ingredient Chocolate Mousse

1. I found that if the bowl for the chocolate mousse is too big, the mousse chills and sets quickly, before it has a chance to get light and fluffy. A medium bowl for one batch is sufficient.
2. The moment you place the chocolate over the ice water, you have to whisk it quickly. Otherwise, it will stiffen up before you get a chance to aerate it. The first time I tried the recipe, I worked slowly and got something more like a thick ganache than a lighter mousse. You have to work fast!
3. If your chocolate happens to harden before it's fluffy enough or if it becomes grainy, pop it back in the microwave in 30-second intervals to soften. Then whisk it again.
4. The type of chocolate matters. Epicurious' recipe calls for chocolate that is at least 70 percent cacao, so use that as a baseline. I used Guittard’s dark chocolate, but you could use milk or semi-sweet to make it more palatable for pickier kids or even adults who aren’t into dark chocolate.

What My Family Thought of the Chocolate Mousse

One of my daughters really liked it, and the other left half of it uneaten because the dark chocolate was too intense for her. She suggested that the mousse needs something beyond the whipped cream and macerated strawberries I served it with to soften the intensity of the chocolate. (Next time I would glam it up with espresso instead of water and top with mascarpone and crushed toasted pistachios.)

I think this all boils down to what kind of chocolate is used and how you serve it. I found this to be a very rich dessert, and smaller portions are better than larger ones. This recipe can easily serve up to six, especially since I served it with toppings.

What I love the most is how I can make an allergy-friendly dessert using safe chocolate for my niece and nephew, who have life-threatening dairy and egg allergies. They love sweets, and this is an easy recipe I can make for everyone all at once. I could also easily tailor this to diabetic and heart-healthy diets ensuring no one gets left out.