Festive dessert with chocolate and chestnut mousse, caramelised corn flakes and pomegranate granita

A good looking, clever and delicious dessert to enjoy on New Year's party or any time really when you want something light and special. The surprise part of this dessert, to me, are the caramelised cornflakes which give such a nice crunchy taste and the refreshing pomegranate granita giving a nice balance to the sweet mousse

Recipe of Georgianna Chiliadaki

from the Greek cooking magazine "Umami"

Ingredients (for 4 people)

For the chocolate mousse:
280gr. of dark chocolate
280gr. of egg whites
4 egg yolks
80gr. of sugar
200gr. of butter
200gr. of marrons glacés, cut in cubes

For the caramelised cornflakes:
125gr. of plain cornflakes
65gr. of sugar
35 ml of water

For the pomegranate granita:
240gr. of sugar
160 ml of water
5 pomegranates

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chocolate shavings, cranberries and icing sugar to garnish

Method:
For the chocolate mousse, melt the chocolate and the butter together with the "bain-marie" method. Leave aside to cool down a bit. In the bowl of a mixer beat the egg whites with the sugar until you have a firm meringue. Incorporate the egg yolks into the meringue and then carefully (spoonful by spoonful) incorporate the meringue into the lukewarm chocolate stirring gently. In the end add the chestnuts into the mixture and gently mix. Leave the mousse in the fridge to firm up.

For the cornflakes, warm the sugar and the water in a non-stick frying pan until they become a thick caramel. Add in the pan the cornflakes and gently stir for 6-7 minutes until they are caramelised. Keep the mixture warm.

For the pomegranate granita, put in a saucepan the sugar and the water on medium heat and boil until they become a syrup. Transfer the pomegranate arils in a blender and whiz until they are completely mashed. Put in a bowl 250gr. of the pomegranate pulp and 80 ml of the syrup and mix well. Empty the mixture into a container and leave in the freezer to firm up. ***Better to do this the day before.

To assemble the dessert, first put in each champagne glass 2 tbsp of the caramelised cornflakes. Fill up to the 2/3 of the glass with the chocolate mousse. Take the granita out of the freezer and using a fork scrape the surface. With a spoon form a ball (like the ice cream's) and place on top of the mousse.

Garnish on the top of each glass with chocolate shavings, cranberries and dust with a bit of icing sugar.