Chocolate Mousse Cookie Dough Bombe

Chocolate Mousse Cookie Dough Bombe

Many of my original dessert recipes come from a thought or memory tied to my heart. Two days ago I found myself daydreaming while mixing up a bowl of cookie dough for truffles. When I finally snapped out of it, I laughed. "Where did I go just now?"

Oh yeah. 

It was my thirtieth birthday. My husband had taken me to a nice restaurant and I was wearing a new green dress. The waiter brought out the biggest piece of chocolate zuccotto cake I'd ever seen!  People in the restaurant were turning around to look at the tremendous piece of cake in front of me.  I felt happy.

Needless to say, the truffle-making was history. Instead, I pressed the chocolate chip cookie dough into a stainless steel bowl.  It was the beginning of a very good thing.

As far as dome desserts go, this one is fairly simple. It has a few steps but they're all pretty straight-forward.  The combination of cookie dough, chocolate mousse and brownie make it entirely delicious.  It's a real looker, too!

Plan ahead if you're making this for a holiday gathering. Both cookie dough and mousse need to chill in the freezer for several hours.

Chocolate Mousse Cookie Dough Bombe
Yield: 12-15 serving                                                                              [click for printable recipe]

Cookie dough layer:

3 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 ¼ cups light brown sugar, packed
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 cup unsalted butter, melted and slightly cooled
1 1/4 tsp. vanilla extract
1 cup mini chocolate chips
¼ cup whole milk

1. Line a 2 ½ quart (10 cup) bowl with plastic wrap.
2. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, stir together flour, salt, brown sugar and granulated sugar. Pour in butter and vanilla extract.  Mix until a dry dough forms. Add chocolate chips and mix on lowest speed (this is "Stir" on KitchenAid machines). 
3. When chocolate chips are evenly dispersed, add whole milk 1 tablespoon at a time with the machine on low speed.  Remove dough from mixer bowl and press about 2/3 into the bottom and up the sides of the lined bowl. Wrap remaining  portion of dough in plastic wrap and save for later use.  Ideally, the cookie dough layer should be about ¼ -inch thick, but mine was more like ½ -inch in places.  Do the best you can with it. 
4. Place in freezer while you make the chocolate mousse.

Chocolate mousse:

1/4 oz. package of powdered gelatin
2 tbsp cold water
3 egg yolks
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup milk, hot - (put in the microwave for 30+ seconds)
8 oz. high quality chocolate, chopped
1 1/2 cups whipping cream.

1. In a medium saucepan sprinkle gelatin over water.  Let stand for 1 minute.  Whisk in eggs and sugar.  Stir in hot milk.  Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly.  Mixture will thicken after 5 minutes or so. When done, it should be thick enough to coat the back of a spoon.  Stir in chopped chocolate and blend until chocolate has melted and no white streaks remain. Let cool.
2. Whip cream until stiff peaks form.  Gently fold whipped cream into the chocolate mixture until well blended.  Remove bowl lined with cookie dough from freezer and pour in mousse mixture.  Smooth the top to even with a rubber spatula.  Place in the freezer until firm, 4-6 hours or overnight.

Brownie layer:

4 Tbsp.  butter, melted
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1  egg
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
3 Tbsp. unsweetened cocoa powder
1/8 teaspoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon salt

1. Heat oven to 350°F. Grease 9-inch round baking pan and line bottom with a parchment circle. 
2. Stir together butter, sugar and vanilla in bowl. Add egg; beat well with spoon. Stir together flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt; gradually add to egg mixture, beating until well blended.  Spread batter thinly and evenly in prepared pan. 
3. Bake 10- 15. Cool completely in pan on wire rack. Turn out onto a piece of plastic wrap and peel off the parchment circle.

Assembly:

1. Remove mousse from freezer.  Place a piece of parchment paper or plastic wrap on a work surface. Roll out the remaining portion of cookie dough on the paper to ¼-inch thickness.   With the help of the paper, flip the dough over onto the mousse and trim to fit inside the bowl.  Lightly brush the cookie dough with water and then turn the brownie layer onto the cookie dough layer. Press brownie into cookie dough gently but firmly. Trim the edges of the brownie so that it fits inside the bowl and is flush with the bottom of the cookie dough bowl.  Trim edges of cookie dough bowl if necessary to make it flush with the brownie.   You will have a little leftover cookie dough to nibble on.
2. Turn entire dessert out onto a wire rack. Peel off plastic wrap.  Place wire rack inside a large jelly roll pan with a lip.  Let stand at room temperature while you make the glaze.

Glaze:

9 oz. chocolate, finely chopped
1 cup heavy whipping cream
1 tbsp. corn syrup

1. Place heavy cream in a large microwaveable bowl.  Heat in the microwave at 40 second intervals until very hot but not boiling (you can do this on the stove top if you don’t have a microwave). Stir in chopped chocolate.  Let stand for 3 minutes then begin gently stirring mixture.  You can use a whisk, but do not whisk vigorously as it will create air bubbles in the finished glaze.  When chocolate and cream are thoroughly mixed and smooth, add corn syrup.  Stir until combined. Transfer to a 4-cup measure with a pour spout. *Note: Corn syrup can be omitted if desired.  It is used to give the glaze an extra glossy appearance.
2. Pour glaze over entire surface of bombe. Allow the dessert to stand until the glaze dripping subsides, then pour excess chocolate in the jelly roll pan back into the 4-cup measure.  Rewarm glaze for 20-30 seconds in the microwave if it has thickened. Stir then pour a second coat over the entire surface of the dessert.  When dripping subsides repeat warming and pouring process a third time (the more times you cover with chocolate, the smoother the surface becomes).  Transfer bombe to a cake plate using a large spatula on one side of the dessert and a hand supporting it on the other side. Place a line of standard size chocolate chips flat-side-out around the bottom edge of the dessert.  Keep chilled. Slice and serve.

Note: The outer cookie dough shell may seem resistant to cutting at first, but after the first piece you'll get a feel for slicing it. Be sure to use mini chocolate chips in the cookie dough, they make slicing easier.