milk chocolate hazelnut mousses with plums & hazelnut cookies

Hello-lo as my sister would say! I’m tapping away, about to go and ‘put my face on’ and head off to mother-in-law’s sister’s wedding (as you do), and thought I should get this ready to post. Look at these lovely, luscious beauties!!! This is just my kind of dessert – creamy, smooth, milky Frangelico-spiked chocolate mousse topped with a crunchy crumbling of hazelnuts and a plump, tart plum. I used tinned Watties Black Doris plums for mine, but of course if you fancy, you can preserve your own! (I’m a sucker for the tinned ones – nostalgia maybe..?). Anyhoo, I love the bit of sharpness the plums add to balance out all that rich chocolatey goodness – and the fact that they are an absolute doddle to make – seriously quick and easy – but look so pretty. I served them with some little homemade tuille-esque hazelnut biscuits, but they would be just as good with your choice of thin dessert bikkies. This is also one of my fortnightly recipes for the lovely Dish magazine, feel free to check out my Tuck In section on their website! 🙂

Feeling a bit nervous about the afore-mentioned wedding at which I have been enlisted to take photos – errrp – it’s a bit like a barbecue master taking over the patisserie section…hope it all goes OK. (After this many years I feel pretty relaxed shooting any plate of food you fancy – but people – at night time – using my flash…cross your fingers for me). Anyhoo – current quick state of the nation before I go and get busy with the concealer – Henry is moving flat in Melbourne, or more precisely, is moving out of his flat, but hasn’t quite got a new one lined up (breathing very calmly about that), and still working away at Nique, Rich is getting into the swing of uni life and actually phoned me for a chat today – I just about had a heart failure thinking there must be some emergency but luckily it was just for a lovely update, and he’s also coming up for his semester break next Thursday (yippee!), aaand Nick is back up in China doing what he does at the Shanghai office. So, yes that leaves me and the dogs. And my book. And girlfriends for sanity-restoring chats. And wine. And chocolate 🙂

OK – better go – have a great end-of-your-week, and keep an eye out – another new recipe coming for the weekend…

Poached plums to serve – either home made or bought – I used Watties tinned Black Doris plums

Preheat oven to 200˚C and line two oven trays with baking paper. Heat 1/3 cup of the cream in the microwave or a small pot until just simmering. Remove from the heat and add chocolate. Add Nutella and leave for a minute for the chocolate to melt then add Frangelico and whisk until smooth. Beat remaining cream to soft peaks then fold through chocolate mixture. Spoon into 6 serving glasses and refrigerate for 2 hours or up to overnight. Whisk 1/4 cup of the ground hazelnuts with flour, caster sugar and cocoa in a  bowl. Whisk in egg whites and melted butter and drop heaped teaspoonfuls onto the baking trays – leaving plenty of room for spreading. Bake for 8-10 minutes until golden. As soon as you remove them from the oven, carefully use a spatula to lift off the trays and rest over tinfoil/plastic wrap tubes or rolling pins to create a curved shape…otherwise just leave on a wire rack to cool for flat biscuits. Once cool store in an airtight container.

To serve, cut three plums in half. Sprinkle remaining hazelnut crumbs onto mousses, top each with half a plum and sprinkle with roughly chopped hazelnuts. Makes 12 biscuits and 6 mousses