Chocolate Mousse Stuffed Strawberries

Last night, my friend came over and we made these little bites of delicious. I knew she had made them before, so I asked her to show me the way to this paradise of fruity chocolate. These are strawberries that have had the centers removed and have been filled with chocolate mousse. Now, I'm slightly ashamed to say this, but as a food blogger of about 4 years, I had never made chocolate mousse until last night. I don't know why - it's not particularly hard. Yes, it's annoying to make; you melt chocolate and butter, then you cook egg yolks and sugar, then you beat cream, then you mix it all together and wait for it to chill. But it's so worth it.

What I had the hardest time with was the actual coring - my friend couldn't find her strawberry corer (I had no idea those even existed, but apparently they do) and we had to do it with a knife. You just have to be careful so as not to cut all the way through. We also tried with a melon baller, which didn't work but inspired us to go buy a cantaloupe and ball it... okay, that's a whole other story. These aren't the prettiest, and they can certainly be made prettier for something like a party if you have patience and use a star tip on the piping bag. We had quite a bit of mousse left over, so whatever we didn't eat right out of the piping bag (nobody is allowed to judge teenage girls left alone in a kitchen with bags of chocolate mousse, okay??) we put in to shot glasses with a little strawberry jam on top. Yummy! Enjoy! <3 class="separator" div="div" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> Chocolate Mousse Stuffed Strawberries
(from Mind Over Batter)

1 cup semi or bittersweet chocolate, chopped
2 ounces (half a stick) of butter
3 large egg yolks
3 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons of kirsch or liqueur of choice (I left this out)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup (8oz) heavy cream
2 lbs. of strawberries, cored from the bottom leaving the stems

Place chocolate and butter in a medium bowl. Set the bowl over a pan of simmering water stirring occasionally until melted. Once melted, remove from heat and set aside to cool.
Combine the yolks, sugar, liqueur of choice and vanilla extract in the bowl of an electric mixer, or a medium sized bowl. Place the bowl over a pot of simmering water and whisk until very warm and thickened. Once thickened, remove from heat, place in electric mixer and whip until cold and very thick. If you don’t have an electric mixer, just bust out a whip and give it some arm action. Set aside.
In a bowl of an electric mixer or using a hand mixer or hand whip, beat 1 cup of heavy cream until it holds stiff peaks. Set aside.
Working quickly, add the melted chocolate to the thickened yolk mixture and fold thoroughly. Add the heavy cream to the yolk/chocolate mixture and fold quickly, but gently until no white streaks remain.
Place in the freezer to chill for 15-20 minutes.
Assembly:
Fill a pastry bag fitted with a star tip with chocolate mousse. Pipe chocolate mousse into each cored strawberry. Eat up!

*photo credit goes to my bestie - hey there if you're reading this!