A Festive Plated Dessert with Chocolate and Pomegranate

With the new year approaching, those of us who love baking are probably already dreaming up the perfect dessert for a Christmas party or New Year’s Eve. As always, I’ve been working on some beautiful and delicious desserts for the season, hoping to inspire you.

For New Year’s Eve this year, I will be serving this pretty Snowball. It’s made of chocolate sponge with chocolate mousse dusted with a light layer of powdered sugar, resting on a crunchy crackers, topped with chocolate decorations and homemade pomegranate sorbet. The sweet chocolate mousse pairs perfectly with the tangy sorbet, creating a truly wonderful flavor experience—and I’m loving the wintery, snowy vibe!

For more inspiration, check out more beautiful desserts. 

Dessert Timeline and Preparation

Christmas and New Year’s Eve is always a busy time, especially if you’re responsible for both appetizer, main course and dessert at an event. Plus, you don’t want to be stuck in the kitchen once your guests have arrived. That’s why I love desserts where many of its elements can be prepared in advance and just need to be assembled before serving.

Here’s a recommended timeline for preparing this plated Snowball dessert for your event:

• Up to 3 months before: Create your chocolate decorations and store in a cool, dark place
• Up to 2 months before: Make your pomegranate sorbet and store in the freezer. If needed, you can also bake the chocolate sponge now and freeze it.
• Day before event: I like to prepare my quenelles ahead of time so they’re ready to serve directly from the freezer.
• Evening before event: Bake your chocolate sponge and store it at room temperature. If you baked it ahead and froze it, thaw it in the fridge.
• Min. 6 hours before event: Pipe chocolate mousse into the chocolate sponge. Also, crush the graham crackers so they’re ready to use.
• Just before serving: Arrange cracker crumbs, dust the cakes with powdered sugar and top with chocolate decorations and pomegranate sorbet

Special Equipment for the Snowball Dessert

You will need a few pieces of special equipment to create this beautiful dessert:

Half-dome mold
To create the perfect snowball, you’ll need a half-sphere mold to bake the chocolate sponges. I recommend using a silicone mold for this purpose.

Acetate
I recommend using food-friendly plastic (acetate) to encapsulate the chocolate sponges when piping the mousse. It keeps the mousse in place and helps maintain its perfect shape until it sets. Alternatively, you can use a plastic sheet or similar, but it’s not food-safe, so do so at your own risk. Parchment paper can also be used, but it’s harder to work with because it’s not as stiff and doesn’t provide as clear visibility.

Quenelle mold
If you want perfectly uniform quenelles (oval-shaped balls of sorbet), using a silicone quenelle mold is helpful. However, you can also shape nice quenelles yourself using one or two spoons.

Recipe

Snowball Dessert with Chocolate Mousse and Pomegranate Sorbet

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This beautiful holiday dessert is a winter wonderland on a plate, featuring a stunning snowball made of chocolate sponge and chocolate mousse, topped with chocolate decorations and homemade pomegranate sorbet.

Difficulty: Advanced

Yield: 4 servings

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• Half-dome silicone mold
• Food-safe acetate
• Quennelle mold (optional)

Ingredients

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Pomegranate sorbet:

• 2 dl pomegranate juice (storebought or made with approx. 250-300 g (1.7-2 cups) pomegranate seeds from 2 pomegranates)
• 1/2 dl water
• 40 g blueberries (optional)
• 125 g sugar
• 1 dl water

Chocolate cake:

• 100 g butter (softened)
• 150 g sugar
• 2 eggs
• 60 g quality dark chocolate (55-70%)
• 100 g flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 2 tbsp cocoa powder
• 1 dl milk

Chocolate mousse:

• 1/4 liter heavy cream
• 100 g quality dark chocolate (55-70%)
• 4 egg yolks (preferably pasteurized)
• 40 g sugar

To decorate:

• 100 g dark chocolate
• 4-5 graham crackers
• 250 g powdered sugar (approx.)

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Instructions

Planning:

• Check out the recommended timeline and preparation instructions further up on the page.
  

Pomegranate sorbet:

• Start by cutting the pomegranates in half and gently tapping or prying out the seeds. Place the seeds and 1/2 dl water in a blender. Add the blueberries if you're using them—they add a lovely sweetness and a slightly deeper red color—and blend briefly to extract the juice.
  2 dl pomegranate juice, 1/2 dl water, 40 g blueberries
• Strain the pomegranate juice through a sieve so you’re left with just the pink liquid. Rinse and clean the blender, then pour the pomegranate juice back in, along with sugar and 1 dl water. Blend until you have a perfectly smooth, seed-free pink juice.
  125 g sugar, 1 dl water
• Freeze the sorbet using an ice cream maker according to the manufacturer's instructions for the best creamy result. If you don’t have an ice cream maker, you can pour the sorbet into a plastic container and stir occasionally while freezing for a semi-frozen result, or you can pour it directly into a quenelle mold for a more crystallized result. If you use an ice cream maker, you can transfer the sorbet into a quenelle mold after freezing or shape quenelles with two spoons and then re-freeze.

Chocolate decorations:

• Pipe abstract chocolate designs using tempered dark chocolate. You might want to check out my guide to tempering chocolate. Store the decorations in a plastic container in a cool, dark place (but not the fridge, that's too cold) until they’re needed.
  100 g dark chocolate

Chocolate sponges:

• Preheat your oven to 175 °C (347 °F). In a bowl, combine butter and sugar, and mix together with a stand mixer or hand mixer until the mixture is white. Add the eggs and mix until well combined.
  100 g butter, 150 g sugar, 2 eggs
• Roughly chop the dark chocolate and melt it in the microwave (remember to stir frequently to prevent burning) or over a double broiler. Stir the melted chocolate into the butter-sugar-egg mixture.
  60 g quality dark chocolate
• In another bowl, mix flour, baking powder, and cocoa powder together. Combine this dry mixture with the wet mixture, along with the milk, until you have a smooth chocolate sponge batter.
  100 g flour, 1 tsp baking powder, 2 tbsp cocoa powder, 1 dl milk
• Fill eight half-dome molds with the batter, leaving about 1/2 cm (1/4 inch) from the edge, and bake for 22-24 minutes, until a skewer inserted in the center comes out clean.
• Place the silicone molds on a cooling rack and let the cakes cool completely before popping them out of the molds. Once cooled, wrap the cakes in plastic film or a freezer bag until you’re ready to use them.
  

Chocolate mousse:

• Whip the heavy cream to soft peaks and chill it in the fridge.
  1/4 liter heavy cream
• Roughly chop the chocolate and melt two-thirds of it in the microwave (stirring often to prevent burning) or over a double broiler. Add the remaining third and stir until the chocolate is fully melted.
  100 g quality dark chocolate
• Whisk the egg yolks and sugar together using a hand mixer. Stir the melted chocolate into the egg mixture. Gently fold the whipped cream into the egg-chocolate mixture until the chocolate is evenly distributed.
  4 egg yolks, 40 g sugar
• Transfer the chocolate mousse to a piping bag.
• Place a chocolate sponge half-dome bottom side up. Enclose it with acetate and secure with tape. Repeat this process with three more half-domes. Pipe mousse onto each of the four half-domes to about 1 cm (3/8 inch) high. Place another half-dome on top, bottom side down, to create a "burger" of chocolate sponge and mousse. Press gently down to ensure the mousse reaches the edges.
• Refrigerate the chocolate snowballs for at least 4 hours, or until the mousse is set.

To decorate and serve:

• Place graham crackers in a freezer bag and crush them with a rolling pin to make coarse crumbs. Arrange a layer of crumbs on four dessert plates and make a well in the center.
  4-5 graham crackers
• Remove the cakes from the fridge and carefully remove the acetate. Sift powdered sugar over the cakes, holding them by the top and bottom. Place the snowballs carefully in the well on each plate without touching the sides. If there is any powdered sugar on the plate, brush it off.
  250 g powdered sugar
• Gently place the chocolate decoration on top of the snowballs. Finally, place quenelles of pomegranate sorbet on top of the chocolate decorations and serve immediately.

Notes

See step-by-step photos below this recipe.

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Shaping the Snowballs

To assemble the snowballs, bake the chocolate sponges in a half-sphere mold, so you’ll have a top and bottom piece for each snowball. Once baked, enclose them in acetate, pipe chocolate mousse onto the bottoms. Place the tops on, and chill the cakes so the mousse can set. This should give you a perfectly rounded cake ball.

Assembling the Dessert

1. Start by spreading a layer of crushed crackers on each plate. Create a small well in the center where the snowball will sit. This helps keep it from rolling around.
2. Take the snowball cakes out of the fridge, remove the acetate, and dust them with a generous layer of powdered sugar.
3. Gently lift the snowballs onto the plates and position them in the well of the cracker crumbs.
4. Top each snowball with the chocolate decorations.
5. Just before serving, remove your quenelles from the freezer and place them on top of the chocolate decorations.

I hope you have a fantastic holiday season with friends and/or family and that you ring in the new year in style!