Mom'S Chocolate "Mousse" - cooking recipe

Ingredients

12 ounces chocolate chips
18 ounces half-and-half cream, scalded
4 egg yolks
1/2 cup brandy (scant measure)
1 -2 prepared pound cake (optional)
TOPPINGS
16 ounces frozen raspberries, thawed or 2 cups fresh raspberries macerated in sugar
whipped cream

Preparation

Put chocolate chips in blender. Top with egg yolks.
While adding half & half slowly, start blender. After adding half & half, add brandy. Run blender on high for 1 minute.
Pour into demitasse cups, and chill overnight. Top with raspberries and whipped cream to serve.
To make Chocolate Mousse Cake:
Slice pound cake and arrange in glass bowl in one layer. Slowly pour in the hot chocolate mixture so that it has time to saturate the cake slices. I even pour directly onto each slice first, as if they were sponges, and then fill the empty space.
Chill thoroughly (at least overnight, a full day or even two is preferable).
Reserve several whole raspberries and set aside. Pour the rest of the thawed raspberries AND the collected juice onto the bowl. Top with whipped cream. Decorate with the reserved raspberries.
Variations:
Substitute flavored liqueurs for the brandy, such as Chambord (delicious with the raspberries!).
Substitute HOT espresso or strong HOT coffee for some of the scalded half & half, skip the raspberries, and decorate with shaved chocolate and/or chocolate covered espresso beans. This would be particularly delicious paired with kahlua or bailey's substituted for the brandy!
To have the Mousse Cake still in the demitasse cups, simply cut small cubes of pound cake and place one or two in each cup prior to filling with the chocolate mixture.
Notes for Success:
There are two things truly necessary to make this very easy yet very impressive dessert pull together properly. First, the half & half (and coffee if you are using any) must be very hot, as it is what will melt all of the chocolate and cook the egg yolks. This is why measuring and assembling everything beforehand is your secret weapon. The other half of this temperature game is to have the egg yolks at room temperature. Frankly, I've always achieved this by putting the chocolate and egg yolks in the blender prior to putting the half & half on the stove, but if you would like to take extra precautions, set out your eggs beforehand for them to come to room temperature.