Chocolate Mousse

A week ago, faced with a strong chocolate craving and a lack of desire to turn on the oven, I stumbled across this recipe. It's quick, relies on ingredients I generally have on hand, and best of all solves all chocolate cravings. Unfortunately, it does dirty an inordinate amount of dishes, but I suppose a single dish can't have everything going for it. The original below makes 8 servings.

One year ago: Gorgonzola and Grape Pizza

Chocolate Mousse (from Smitten Kitchen, originally Gourmet)

Ingredients
8 ounces bittersweet chocolate (no more than 60% cacao), chopped
6 tbsp (85g) unsalted butter, cut into 6 pieces
3 large eggs, separated
1 tablespoon Cognac or other brandy (I used raspberry liqueur)
1 cup very cold heavy or whipping cream
1/8 teaspoon salt

1. Get out one large heatproof, two medium and one small mixing bowl and dust off your electric hand mixer.
2. Place butter and chocolate in large bowl and melt in microwave, stirring until smooth.
3. In the small bowl, beat yolks with your electric mixer until thick enough to form a ribbon that takes a few seconds to dissolve — this will take about two to four minutes to achieve.
4. Whisk yolks into chocolate mixture along with Cognac, then cool to warm.
5. In one of the medium bowls, beat the cream with cleaned beaters until it just holds stiff peaks.
6. In the other medium bowl, beat the egg whites and salt with cleaned beaters until they just hold soft peaks.
7. Fold the whipped cream and beaten whites into the chocolate mixture, gently but thoroughly.
8. Transfer to 8 (4 ounce) ramekins or one large serving bowl, or go restaurant-style, serving it in stemmed glasses with white or dark chocolate shavings on top.