Food: Get ready for some mousse madness
Chocolate mousse is my passion.
You know how some people cannot refuse their heart’s desire to belt their guts out on Broadway, risk their lives skiing down avalanches, or slave over sequins?
For me, it’s making chocolate mousse.
It took a few years to finally find the recipe but after countless experiments and versions and gelatin run-ins, I found the miracle cure: simplicity. Mousse in my opinion is best when light and fluffy, lending hints of the root flavor. I’ve tossed gelatin to the wayside and have majorly done away with adding sugar. Few ingredients= everlasting happiness.
Since it’s summer now, I find I have justification enough to whip out (no pun intended) every cold dessert that I can muster. This week, getting ready for a series of delicious desserts, I realized I was out of dark semisweet chocolate but instead had a surplus of mangoes.
Why not give fruit mousse a shot? Mango mousse was a little too plain for me, so I thought about adding some strawberries into the mix. I consulted the great god Google, saw that it could be done and set right to it. It was a bit messy and I nearly karate chopped my mixing bowl after ruining two batches of heavy cream (never, ever whip cream when you are stressed), but alas I have found something that works.
Here I have the experimental recipe of the mango-strawberry mousse as well as the root of all this love: my current recipe for white and dark chocolate mousse.
Hope you enjoy it!
Mango-Strawberry Mousse
• 1 large / 2 medium sized ripe mangoes
• 1 cup / 250 g strawberries
• 1 cup heavy whipping cream
• 2 egg whites
• ½ cup granulated sugar
First of all, it’s always a good idea to get all of your ingredients together because, believe me, nothing is more painful than realizing you don’t have enough heavy cream when you’re pent up for some guilty goodness.
To start off, wash all the fruit and remove the strawberry leaves and peel the skin of the mangoes.
Once peeled, cut slices of mangoes and remove the seed. Cut the strawberries in half.
Place the strawberries in a blender with ¼ cup of the sugar and mix until you acquire a smooth purée. After removing the purée to a bowl, make sure the blender is clean.
Once spic and span, blend the mango slices with the remaining sugar until you again obtain a smooth purée. With the mango it may be best to ensure there are absolutely NO lumps as it may clump with the cream mixture later.
After blending both fruit and placing them in separate bowls, pour out 1 cup of the whipping cream and beat until the soft peaks form. Try to restrain yourself from dipping a finger into its yummy goodness. Actually, on second thought, go for it. I’m guilty.
Note: The cream will double in volume after beating.
Once that’s done, separate the egg whites from the egg yolks into two bowls. I’m afraid the egg yolks are unnecessary in this recipe and so you can either be a wasteful slob who tosses them, or you can be a fried yolk eater.
Next, beat egg whites until stiff peaks form. You can tell when you’re done simply by lifting the beaters and seeing the mountain peaks of egg whites that don’t flop. Make sure you do not beat beyond this point.
Then fold the egg whites into the whipped cream slowly.
Remove half of the folded cream mixture to the bowl with the strawberry purée and whisk until evenly distributed. Then, go ahead and add the remaining cream mixture to the mango purée and mix. Next, get a few fancy glasses like champagne flutes and pour the strawberry mousse halfway up.
Place these half-filled glasses in the fridge for about half an hour in order to let the strawberry layer to set. After this time take out the glasses and pour the mango mousse to fill the top half of the glasses.
Garnish and serve.
Nom. Nom.
White and Milk Chocolate Mousse
• 8 oz. dark semisweet chocolate
• ½ cup milk
• 1 cup heavy whipping cream
• 1 egg white
Again, get your ingredients together.
Chop semisweet chocolate into fine small chunks and place in double boiler. Or if you have no idea what a double boiler looks like, you can do it the classy way like me and fill a saucepan with a low layer of water and place a glass bowl balancing on top with the chocolate. Simmer the chocolate over low heat, mixing the chocolate until it melts. Make sure that absolutely no water comes near the chocolate! It’s disaster.
After the chocolate has melted completely and is smooth, take off heat and mix in ½ cup milk.
Immediately after removing chocolate from heat, pour out 1 cup of heavy whipping cream and beat until soft peaks form. Separate egg white from yolk and beat egg white until it forms stiff peaks.
Fold the beaten egg white into the whipped cream and then add the milk chocolate slowly in. Whisk slowly until evenly colored.
Haul out more of those fancy glasses and fill them up halfway with the milk chocolate mousse. Then leave them in the fridge for half an hour while you start preparing the white chocolate mousse.
For white chocolate mousse layer:
• 8 oz. white chocolate
• 1 cup heavy whipping cream
• 1 egg white
• 1 tablespoon Grand Marnier
There it is, the giver of all goodness in the world.
Here too you also chop the white chocolate into chunks and place in the double boiler, homemade or otherwise. Simmer on low heat, mixing chocolate until it melts. Turn off and let stand.
While the white chocolate is standing, beat another cup of heavy whipping cream until you obtain soft peaks. Also, beat the separated egg white until stiff peaks form.
Then, fold the egg white into the whipped cream. Once folded, pour the white chocolate slowly in and whisk until evenly mixed.
Add 1 tablespoon Grand Marnier.
Note: this step is completely optional. I just happen to LOVE the little bang of flavor it gives. It may be the inner alcoholic in me.
Finally, go ahead and fill up the top half of the glasses containing the milk chocolate mousse.
Garnish at will and enjoy!
**The foodie section with Ariane will be back on Aug. 22 at DMN. Subscribe to stay tuned! All images are the copyright of Ariane Tye via DMN.
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