Mousses

I wish I was good at making mousses. I’m not. But I have a few recipes that work well enough. I wish I knew how to make the kind that legit Russian bakers use in their mousse cakes. OH WELLS. I adapted the mousse cake mousses from Verdade de sabor: torta rubus. Not sure where I first got the tart mousse recipe from :o.

For these, you can easily replace flavors by subbing out flavors/ powders/ purees.

1. Mousse Cake Mousses: 1i. Cream Cheese Mousse: (to encase inset layers) [for one 6-9in mousse cake]

  • 70 ml of milk
  • 50 g sugar
  • 2 tsp vanilla (or to taste)
  • 4 egg yolks
  • 8 g gelatin (+about 20 g water to bloom)
  • 250 g of cream cheese
  • 350 g heavy cream
  1. Bloom gelatin.
  2. Add egg yolks and sugar into a bowl and whisk a bit until they become a bit whiter in color.
  3. In a saucepan, mix milk and vanilla and bring to a boil.
  4. As soon as the milk starts to boil, remove it from the heat and pour a thin stream (about half the milk mixture) onto the egg yolks/sugar, whisking constantly. This is tempering the egg yolks so they won’t scramble.
  5. Pour the mixture back into the saucepan with remaining milk and set on low heat.
  6. While constantly mixing/ whisking, bring the mixture up to 170F.
  7. Remove from heat and add in gelatin and stir until fully dissolved.
  8. Stir in the room temp cream cheese.
  9. If the mixture isn’t already, let it cool to 85F.
  10. Whip the heavy cream.
  11. Fold the whipped cream into the cream cheese mixture.
  12. It sets pretty strong and sets quickly, so if you want less, just add less gelatin.

1ii. Blackberry Mousse: (any fruit flavor or anything really) [for flavored mousse inset of one 6-9in mousse cake]

  • 90 g heavy cream
  • 90 g of blackberry reduced puree
  • 3.5 g gelatin (+ about 15 g water to bloom)
  • 30 g Italian meringue
    • 15 g water
    • 60g sugar
    • 30 g egg white
  1. Bloom the gelatin. Stir water into gelatin to get an apple sauce like consistency.
  2. Heat the blackberry puree over medium heat and dissolve the soaked gelatin in it. Pour in a bowl and leave to cool.
    • If you’re doing a non fruit flavor, instead of puree, use a cream that has been infused with your flavor.
  3. Prepare the Italian meringue:
    1. In a small saucepan, combine the sugar and water.
    2. On low and stirring occasionally, cook the syrup.
    3. Start whisking the egg whites until foaming.
    4. When the syrup reaches 240F, remove the saucepan from the heat and pour in a thin stream, while whisking the egg white.
    5. Continue whisking to stiff peaks.
  4. Whip the cream. Prechilled bowl and whisk speed up the process.
  5. Fold in meringue into the puree/gelatin (make sure it’s not warm).
  6. Fold in the whipped cream into that mixture.
  7. Pour the mousse into a mold or whatever you’re using. Freeze. I often make a few flavors and layer them in subsequent freeze steps. (For example, strong matcha layer–>freeze, lighter matcha layer–>freeze, raspberry later–>freeze)

2. Tart Mousses: (this one is thicker and easier to pipe and doesn’t require freezing)

Raspberry Mousse [for 30 2.5in tarts or a 6-9in tart]

  • 20 g gelatin (+ 35ish g water)
  • 3 large egg yolks
  • 120 g sugar
  • 360 g milk
  • 360 g heavy whipping cream
  • 20 g raspberry powder (from freeze dried raspberries) [or honestly up to like 50ish g of puree or other flavoring]
  1. You’ll need to prepare a whipped cream, so cool a bowl and whisk in the fridge.
  2. Bloom gelatin. Add water to gelatin until you get an apple sauce consistency.
  3. Whisk egg yolks and sugar together in a bowl. Will be relatively clumpy at this point.
  4. Mix and heat the milk and raspberry powder in a saucepan and dissolve in the bloomed gelatin.
    • If you’re doing another flavor that’s not acidic, add it now. Otherwise, wait until the end (so you don’t curdle the milk).
  5. Once gelatin is dissolved, slowly add the milk mixture to the egg/ sugar and whisk constantly. This is tempering the mixture so it won’t scramble the eggs. Consistent whisking is crucial to prevent scrambling. The mixture will be pretty runny now. The red gets a bit washed out from the egg yolks, so you could add some red food coloring.
  6. Chill in a bowl of ice or the fridge or freezer. Make sure to whisk every few minutes.
  7. Using your chilled bowl, whisk the heavy cream to stiff peaks.
  8. Now add the whipped cream to the milk mixture. If it still seems runny, that’s fine. It’ll set soon enough. Just pop it into the fridge and whisk every few min.
  9. Right before piping, give it another whisk. If it has set, just rewhisk and you’ll have a while to work until it sets again.

Cream Cheese + Inset:

Tart Mousse:

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