Donal Skehan: Irish coffee chocolate mousse

This certainly isn’t a traditional dessert but it’s one that ticks many boxes for St Patrick’s Day and is a fine excuse to open that good bottle of whiskey you’ve been saving.

Prepare in advance and you have a simple dessert to savour on the day.

Make chocolate shavings by scraping the length of one of the bars with a sharp knife, enough to garnish the four glasses. Place on a plate and leave in the fridge.

With the remaining 175g of chocolate, roughly chop it and transfer to a bowl set over a small pot of barely simmering water. Heat gently until the chocolate melts.

Place the egg yolks in a mixing bowl and whisk together with the sugar, cocoa powder, espresso powder and a pinch of salt, until the sugar has dissolved. In another bowl, whisk the egg white until it holds light peaks. In a third bowl, whip the cream until soft peaks form.

Add the whipped cream to the egg yolk mixture and fold through, followed by the chocolate, mixing until completely combined.

Lightly fold in the egg whites until just mixed through and then divide the mousse between four serving glasses. Cover and transfer to the fridge to set for one hour.

For the whiskey cream, whisk the cream into soft peaks. Dissolve the icing sugar with the whiskey in a bowl and then add to the cream, folding to combine. Cover and leave to sit in the fridge until ready to serve.

Serve each individual mousse with a generous dollop of whiskey cream and garnish with chocolate shavings and a dusting of cocoa powder.