Lavender chocolate mousse

There is a lovely light texture to this velvety mousse. With its intensely floral hit of lavender sweets, it provides an unexpected flavour to liven up the tastebuds. It’s ideal for serving to dinner guests when entertaining.

Serves 4

150g dark chocolate (at least 70%

cocoa solids), roughly chopped 2 large eggs, separated

2 tbsp caster sugar few drops of violet extract, to taste 100ml double cream small roll of lavenfer flavouref sweets

1 Put the chocolate in a heatproof bowl, pour in 90ml hot water and set the bowl over a pan of gently simmering water, making sure the base of the bowl is not touching the water. Leave to melt for a few minutes, stirring occasionally. Once smooth, remove the bowl from the pan and leave the chocolate to cool. 2 Meanwhile, put the egg whites in a clean bowl and whisk until soft peaks form. Start adding the sugar, a little at a time, and continue to whisk until all the sugar is incorporated and the egg whites are glossy and stiff.

3 Stir the egg yolks into the chocolate mixture until well incorporated, then add the violet extract, making it as strong as you dare.

4 With a large metal spoon, beat a couple of tablespoons of the egg white into the chocolate mixture to loosen it. Add the remaining egg white and fold it in gently, being careful not to knock all the air out of the mousse. Divide the mousse between four ramekin dishes or glasses and leave in the refrigerator to set.

5 Before serving, whip the cream to soft peaks. Roughly crush the lavender sweets, leaving some larger pieces.

Serve the mousse pots with a blob of cream on top and sprinkle with the sweets to decorate.

Recipes are adapted from Bold: Big Flavour Twists to Classic Dishes by Nisha Katona (£30, Nourish Books) and not retested by us. Photographs Martin Poole.