chocolate mousse cake - passover dessert I

passover is right around the corner and this year we are going to celebrate it with family in washington dc, 18 of us. i volunteered to make the desserts. wheat flour is not allowed during passover week. the biblical explanation is that when the israelites left egypt in such haste, they could not wait for their bread dough to rise and the resulting in the matzo.
that is a challenge for any pastry flour desert. matzo meal is basically ground up matzo and so with that, i needed to find a way to make delicious desserts that will not fall due to the lack of flour. i wanted to find desserts that either do not use flour or if they do they can be used with matzo meal, basically a dessert that does not have to rise.
this pass week i have been experimenting with few different desserts and managed to find 2 wonderful cakes to bake. the first one that i am going to explain about is the flour-less chocolate mousse cake. it is fairly easy to make. the process is divided into two; first you make the lower level that contains the chocolate cake and than the mousse that will go over the cake. do not be discouraged if your cake will “fall” and “shrink” once it is outside the oven. the taste wont change and your mousse will cover it all. i changed the original recipe a bit, and added cointreau instead of the almond liquor. that was the only liqueur i had in my cupboard, and it came out mighty fine. you can never go wrong when orange is combined with chocolate.

INGREDIENTS
8.5 ounce at least 42% cacao dark chocolate
4 ounce butter
1 tbs + 1 tsp cacao powder
5 egg yolks

5 egg whites
1/3 cup sugar
pinch of salt

for mousse:
7 ounce at least 42% cacao dark chocolate
4 eggs
1 1/4 tsb cointreau
1 1/4 tsp rum
1/2 cup + 1/3 cup heavy cream

9” springform pan
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PREPARATION
cake:
cover the bottom of the pan with parchment paper and lock it into the springform. lightly oil the sides.
heat oven to 300 degrees. put an ovenproof dish with water at bottom of the oven in order to form steam during baking.
melt the chocolate in a double boiler and remove from heat. you can also melt the chocolate and the butter in the microwave by zapping it one minute at a time.
add cacao powder and beat thoroughly.
add yolks beat thoroughly.
Whisk egg whites with sugar and pinch of salt until stiff peaks form and fold into the chocolate.
pour mixture into the pan and put in oven and bake for 35-40 minutes till you can insert a toothpick in the middle of the cake and it will come out dry.
remove from oven and chill.

mousse:
melt chocolate in double pot or microwave, as explained above. remove from heat.
add eggs one after the other while beating with a hand mixer.
continue beating and add cointreau and rum.
in a separate bowl whip the cream till it holds a soft peak.
fold the cream into the chocolate.
pour the mousse over the cake and chill in the fridge for at least 2 hours.

*you can use different kinds of liqueurs or omit the alcohol all together.

*recipe courtesy of orna and ella cookbook.