Last week’s #TheFridayRecipe was healthy. This week’s is a bit naughty but so so nice! Inspired by a delicious dessert I ate at the excellent 1921 restaurant in Bury St Edmunds, I made this chocolate orange mousse with an orange sorbet for a lunch over Christmas and a New Year’s Eve party. The chocolate mousse is rich and dark flavoured with a touch of Gran Marnier orange liqueur, topped with a slice of scorched fresh orange and a spoonful of orange sorbet. The one I had at the restaurant was served as a plate of fancy quenelles, cubes of gel and wafers. This one is easier for home cooks and tastes every bit as wonderful. I garnished mine with a little chopped candied orange I bought from Emmetts of Peasenhall so that’s not an every day item but you could just as easily use a tiny bit of chopped stem ginger or a curl of chocolate – it just makes it look a bit more special.

Makes 4 little ramekin pots

• 120g min 80% dark chocolate
• 120ml double cream
• 1 tablespoon Grand Marnier
• 2 medium egg yolks
• 2 medium egg whites (whisked until stiff)
• Orange sorbet: 600ml orange juice, 200g golden caster sugar, 75g liquid glucose (makes it easier to spoon), juice of 2 lemons, 1 tbsp Gran Marnier
• 1 small fresh orange

To make…

• Firstly, finely chop the chocolate. Place it in a large mixing bowl and set over a saucepan of boiling water (not so much as to touch the base of the bowl) to melt the chocolate. In a saucepan, bring the cream to a boil, turn off the heat and whisk into the chocolate. Keep stirring until the chocolate has melded completely with the cream. Add the Grand Marnier and the egg yolks to the cream and chocolate mixture and whisk together. Fold in a quarter of the whisked egg whites into the mixture. Now gently fold in the rest of the egg whites with the metal spoon trying not to knock out any of the air. Spoon the mousse mixture equally into little pots and leave in the fridge to set for 1-2 hours.
• Orange sorbet: Put the orange juice, glucose and sugar into a pan. Bring to the boil, stirring, until the sugar has dissolved. Cool, then pour into an ice-cream machine and churn until smooth and frozen. (If you don’t have an ice-cream machine, cool the mixture, then tip into a freezer-proof container and freeze until firm, whisking every hour with a fork to break up the ice crystals).
• Using a very sharp knife, slice off the top and bottom of the oranges and then cut away the peel from top to bottom so that you have a whole peeled orange with no pith. Slice horizontally into 4 even slices. Lay each flat on a metal tray. Scorch lightly with a culinary-grade blowtorch or in a hot dry non-stick frying pan.
• To assemble: place a pot of chocolate-orange mousse each on each serving plate. Arrange a slice of the scorched orange on each pot and top with a quenelle/spoonful of the orange mousse.

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