Haute Cuisine: This chocolate mousse hails from Brazil

This light, airy and delicious confection is a variation of a dessert born in France in the 1600s, following the introduction of Spanish hot chocolate.

The recipe typically starts with melted chocolate into which hand-whipped heavy cream is gently folded. Then pastry chef and Cordon Bleu alumna Beatriz Ramos adds her own touch with cornstarch cookies, which she crushes and presses with a spoon onto the bottom and sides of a tart pan. She pours the chocolate mousse over the crushed cookies and refrigerates the dessert for at least six hours. The result, said Ramos, is “chocolate heaven.”

To dress it up a bit, you can top each slice with a dollop of whipped cream and a dusting of peanut flour. But, Ramos cautioned, the key is the mousse, which should dance across your tongue on little chocolate feet, with one’s taste buds undistracted by anything else.

Marcia, serving Sao Paulo, Belo Horizonte and Brasilia airports. Info: www.marciascatering.com.br, [email protected], +55-11-5035-0981.