, and I hear she's working on a second book now. Just like the blog, the book is full of beautiful photos and delectable and varied food. This green chocolate mousse is from the "sweet and irresistible" chapter where I've just marked the coffee power, coffee-topped panna cotta, to try next. The green part of the mousse is obviously the green fruit that crowns the top, but there's also a secret green ingredient hidden in the mousse itself that adds a subtle uniqueness. Extra virgin olive oil is the secret, and you would probably never guess that that's what gives the mousse a little special touch. One more element of the dessert which added sweetness and texture was chopped pieces of pine nut brittle that were sprinkled over the fruit.I used a bar of El Rey chocolate with about 70 percent cacao, and it was chopped into chunks and melted in a double boiler. Once melted, the olive oil was stirred into the chocolate. The brittle was a simple affair of caramelized sugar to which pine nuts were added and that was poured into a flat layer and left to cool. The mousse was finished in the traditional way by adding egg yolks that had been whisked with sugar although it was raw cane sugar in this case. The egg whites were beaten until stiff with regular granulated sugar. And, last, cream was whipped. That does require three small mixing bowls, but you can use a hand mixer for the egg whites and then move it directly into the cream. You don't want to go the other way because any fat from the cream will prevent the egg whites from reaching their full volume. With everything whipped and ready, the egg yolks were added to the chocolate first, then the egg whites were folded in, and that was followed by folding in the whipped cream. The mousse was portioned into individual cups and refrigerated, and just before serving, a green apple, pear, a kiwi, and some grapes were chopped to go on top followed by broken bits of brittle. 
Ok, I have one last item from the Austin food blogger hatch chile potluck to share. The bread was an experiment so I also made risotto balls, and just for the fun of it, I wanted to take something sweet as well. Several weeks ago, I sampled some chocolate dipped peanut brittle at Big Top Candy Shop on south Congress in Austin, and as soon as I tasted it I knew I had to try to recreate it. I used pecans instead of peanuts to give the confection a little local flair. Despite the fact that this was a hatch chile potluck, I didn’t think the chiles would actually improve the flavor of this dish, but I wanted to stick with the theme in some way. When I found green chile salt, I imagined that might work as a finishing touch on the chocolate.
The basic brittle recipe I use is one from a 1996 issue of Living magazine. I’ve made it many times with peanuts, with a mix of nuts, and with pecans. It’s very easy to prepare, but a candy thermometer is needed, and you need to take some precautions while working with the molten liquid candy. You’ll want to prepare your baking sheets and have all the ingredients prepped and at hand before you begin to cook the brittle. Then, just stir, watch the thermometer, and add ingredients at the appropriate times. I let the brittle sit overnight and then broke it into pieces the next day. I dipped the pieces into melted milk chocolate and placed them on parchment-lined baking sheets. Before the chocolate set, I sprinkled a few grains of green chile salt on each piece.
I happen to be a big fan of nut brittles and toffees of all kinds, and I make these candies every year during the holidays. In the past, pecan toffee topped with milk chocolate was always my favorite. It’s slightly softer in texture than brittle, and I have a guarded recipe with a secret ingredient or two. I never would have thought it could slip from the number one spot of homemade candies in my mind, but this salted chocolate dipped pecan brittle was a surprisingly serious contender. Kurt isn’t even as into homemade candies as I am, and he was wowed by this one. When he first tasted it, he claimed the salt really worked well and quickly reached for a second, then third piece.
I’ve stated right up top on this site that if I make something and it’s terrible, I forget it ever happened. Well, this wasn’t terrible, but I don’t feel like it turned out right either. I’m presenting it because 1. it was delicious, 2. hopefully someone can tell me what went wrong, and 3. the brittle topping was an amazing little garnish. So, I read the March issue of Food and Wine with those 20 best healthy recipes ever. This creamy caramel pudding was supposedly healthy because it’s made with two percent milk instead of cream. Someone must have overlooked the two cups of sugar in the pudding plus the nut brittle topping. But, the important thing is that is looked absolutely, insanely good in the photo in the magazine, and I wanted to make it immediately whether anyone thought it was healthy or not.
I followed the instructions for cooking the sugar and water for about eight minutes until it was a deep amber. Then, I gradually added the milk, and let it simmer for ten minutes during which time it was supposed to deepen in color. It didn’t. I let it go another 10 minutes. Still no deepening. I utterly failed to achieve that incredibly, caramelly-rich color as seen in the magazine. Check that link above and compare their color to mine. Mine is taupe at best. Did I buy milk with a bleaching agent? Was my deep amber caramelized sugar to have been closer to tar in hue? No idea.
Now, the good news: It tasted great, and the texture was just right. It wasn’t too dense like a certain butterscotch pudding I tried a few months ago, and it wasn’t too thin. It tasted like caramel. The pecan brittle topping was just a lovely accent. I followed a simple brittle recipe from After Dinner which is one of my favorite books. It requires only sugar, water, nuts, and salt. You can use a combination of nuts or all of one type. I used all pecans for this. I like to sprinkle on the salt just after spreading the brittle on a baking sheet to cool. This time, I used some espresso salt that I stumbled upon the last time I was grocery shopping. The pecans with the espresso salt did an excellent job of balancing the sweetness of the pudding. I recommend this recipe for everything but the look of the pudding and would love to hear about your results if you try it and why mine was so wrong in color.
