Make a fluffy raspberry mousse with only five basic ingredients. This ultimate fancy dessert is made with frozen raspberries, some honey and cream. It makes a perfect fruity treat for a romantic dinner or a larger gathering, all year round.
I love to watch cooking and baking shows. And especially in the baking shows, they often make mousses, as a dessert or as a cake filling. Well, it was about time to make this incredibly rich and light dessert.
What is a mousse?
Mousse is a fluffy food with a light and airy texture. Do not confuse the word mousse with moose. Or else, you’ll soon have a large animal in your kitchen. Wink. Mousse originates in France and it translates as “foam”, describing its texture.
A mousse is a pretty straightforward dessert. On one hand, you have just a short list of ingredients, on the other hand, you are dealing with temperature-sensitive ingredients. In other words, you have to be prepared to work quickly. Therefore, prepare the ingredients and grab all the kitchen utensils you’re going to need, ahead of time.
Also, this is a great recipe, which can be prepared a day ahead. And, as you can see, I used frozen berries. You can use fresh berries, too. In fact, pick any berries you like most. I love raspberries, therefore the base and the topping are made with raspberries. Wink.
Do you know coulis? A coulis is a thin sauce made of pureed and strained fruits. However, I skipped those two steps but still called it coulis. Oops. Wink. I simply briefly cooked the berries, then smashed them and that was all. Simple, quick but delicious. Of course, if the tiny seeds bother you, go ahead and strain them.
For more raspberry recipes, you might also like these poppyseed raspberry cakes, these summerish watermelon look-a-like popsicles or the peppery raspberry arugula salad.
Base, aerator, sweetener, thickener
A mousse is made of only a few ingredients. In fact, there are three to four basic components. Firstly, the base can be a whole bunch of things. For instance, chocolate, vanilla custard, lemon custard or, like in this recipe, pureed fruits. The base is also the main flavouring part.
Secondly, an aerator (what a funny word) can be whipped cream or meringue for example. Something that brings the airy texture to the mousse. Thirdly, sweetener, like sugar or honey is mostly added to the aerator. Simply said, mixing sugar into the whipping cream. Wink.
And last but not least, the gelatine or agar-agar as a thickener help to set the mousse. In the case of a chocolate mousse, you won’t need gelatine at all, as the chocolate sets the mousse itself. Wink.
Tips and tricks
Make sure your base is at room temperature when you fold in the areator, the whipped cream. You are dealing with two problems here. On one hand, the warm base will completely deflate your cream or meringue. On the other hand, the too cold base will allow the thickener to set too fast before you’ll even finish mixing them together.
Also, use the whipping cream directly from the fridge and whip it in a chilled bowl. Whip it until medium peaks only minutes before using it. Since I find whipping cream is already sweet enough on its own, I skipped adding the sugar.
When incorporating the cream into the base, work fast but gentle. Remember, less is more. The more you fold and mix, the more you deflate the airy cream. Therefore, when you think you need to mix a bit more, simply stop.
Allow the raspberry mousse to set for at least three hours or according to the recipe. Some mousses need only 30 minutes, as well. Make sure you remove anything with a strong odour from your fridge, or else your mousse will take that strong flavour, too. And that will not taste good. Wink.
Ingredients for 2 portions of raspberry mousse:
- 160 g frozen raspberries
- 3 g gelatine leaf
- 2 Tbsp of raspberry juice (or any other red berry juice)
- 1 Tbs of brown sugar
- 100 g whipping cream
- 30 g dark chocolate (for the hearts; optional)
Ingredients for the raspberry “coulis”:
- 50 g frozen raspberries
- 1 tsp of honey
To begin, in a double boiler melt the chocolate. Once melted, temper it by adding some chocolate chunks and stir to melt and cool off the chocolate. At this point, put the chocolate in a small piping bag, cut a tiny piece of the tip and pipe a heart shape on a silicone mat. Leave to dry.
Next, place the gelatine leaf in a small bowl with cold water. Let it soak for around 10 minutes. In the meantime, put the frozen raspberries in a saucepan and cook until soft.
Remove the pan from the heat and puree the raspberries. Then, strain them through a sieve to remove the seeds (which you discard) and transfer them back to the pan. Add the juice and brown sugar and cook for a couple of minutes just until the sugar dissolves.
At this point, remove from the pan from the heat and stir in the gelatine (squeezed very well). Stir until dissolved and strain the whole raspberry mixture again through the sieve. Allow the mixture to cool to room temperature.
Meanwhile, prepare the “coulis”. Put the frozen raspberry together with honey in the saucepan and heat it up until soft and the honey dissolves. Mash the raspberries using a fork or a spatula. At this point, you can strain them through a sieve, if you want. Pour the mixture into a glass and allow it to cool in the fridge.
Last but not least, when the raspberry base is at room temperature, whip the whipping cream. Once you get soft to medium peaks, gently fold one-third of it into the raspberries. Then, add the rest of the cream and incorporate it in with as little folding as possible.
Then, pipe or spoon the raspberry cream mixture into the serving glasses or cups and place in the fridge for 2-3 hours or until set.
Finally, top the luscious raspberry mousse, just before serving, with a spoon or two of the raspberry coulis and the chocolate hearts. It makes a wonderful light treat that reminds you of summer.
Enjoy.
