White Chocolate Mousse

When the temperature heats up it is nice to have cool sweet treats to enjoy. We do make a lot of ice cream, but sometimes we want something a little different. Most of all we don't want to spend a lot of time in a warm kitchen.

This simple and deliciously silky mousse fits the bill. It comes from Claire Robinson's Five Ingredient Fix cookbook and couldn't be easier to make. If you dress it up with some fresh fruit you have an easy and elegant dessert in just a few minutes, with no oven required. I am not usually a fan of white chocolate desserts, as I find them too sweet, without much of a flavor other than sugar. This mousse, however, was not to sweet and with some fresh blueberries on top, it was a nice cool dessert we enjoyed on the patio after dinner. It is also nice that this is entirely make ahead, perfect for when you have some guests, and don't want to go back to work in the kitchen after dinner.

White Chocolate Mousse

via Five Ingredient Fix by Claire Robinson

Ingredients:
7 ounces white chocolate chopped into small pieces
2 egg yolks
2 tablespoons sugar
1 1/4 cup heavy cream
fruit for garnish

Directions

In a large glass bowl, place the chopped white chocolate and set aside.

Add the egg yolks and sugar to a small bowl and whisk until pale in color.

In a saucepan over low heat, bring 1/4 cup of the cream to a simmer and slowly add the cream into the yolk and sugar mixture to temper. Pour the creamy mixture back into pan and stir with a wooden spoon until it coats the back of it.

Pour hot mix into a fine mesh sieve placed directly over bowl with the chopped chocolate. Stir until completely smooth.

In another bowl, whip remaining 1 cup of the cream to almost stiff peaks. Fold half the whipped cream into the white chocolate mix to lighten and then fold in the remaining whipped cream.

Spoon the white chocolate mousse into 4 serving cups and refrigerate until set, approximately 1 hour. *We thought you could definitely stretch this to 6 or even  8 small  servings with some fruit*

Pomegranates

Ryan at POM Wonderful asked if I would like to try their product. No strings attached. He didn't ask me to write a post about it, he just asked me to enjoy it. And enjoy it we did. We love plain pomegranate juice, so we started by pouring POM and sparkling water over ice to make a really refreshing drink that was fruity but not too sweet. Although delicious as just a juice, we knew there were many more uses for our remaining bottles of POM. 

 Next we made a pomegranate curd. The egg yolks turned the curd a weird color, but it still tasted great. The curd can be used any way you would use a lemon or orange curd, and we turned it into the filling for some pink French Macaroons that I had made. The color combo is not so pretty, but the tangy curd and sweet chewy macaroons were perfect together.

Pomegranate Curd
adapted from Cook's Illustrated

1 cup pomegranate juice, reduced to 1/2 cup
1/2 cup sugar
2 large eggs
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, cold
1 tablespoon heavy cream
1/4 teaspoon vanilla
a pinch of salt

Heat pomegranate juice in in a small pan over medium heat until reduced to 1/2 cup.  In a non reactive sauce pan whisk eggs and sugar until light and lemon colored. Whisking constantly, slowly add the pomegranate reduction to the eggs. Place pan over medium heat and cook, stirring continuously until the mixture is thick and coats the back of a spoon (170 degrees). Remove from heat and stir in cold butter, mix until incorporated; stir in cream, vanilla and salt. Pour curd through a fine mesh strainer into a small bowl. Cover surface directly with plastic wrap and refrigerate until needed.
printable recipe

Then the curd became a white chocolate pomegranate mousse with a pomegranate reduction. We had made this mousse before without the pomegranate and found it a little too sweet from the white chocolate, but the addition of the curd and pomegranate reduction made it just right.

Pomegranate White Chocolate Mousse

adapted from 5 Ingredient Fix

7 ounces white chocolate, very finely chopped

2 large egg yolks

2 tablespoons granulated sugar

1 1/4 cups heavy cream, divided

1/2 cup pomegranate curd

1/2 cup pomegranate juice reduced by to 1/4 cup

Place white chocolate in a glass bowl and set aside. Whisk the egg yolks with the sugar until pale in color.

In a saucepan over medium-low heat, bring 1/4 cup cream to a simmer. While whisking, slowly pour the warm cream into the egg yolk mixture to temper. Pour the creamy mixture back into the pan, return to medium-low heat and stir with a wooden spoon until thickened and it coats the back of the spoon. Pour the hot egg mixture through a fine mesh sieve placed directly over the chopped white chocolate. Let stand a few minutes without disturbing and then stir the chocolate until completely smooth.Stir in the curd.

In another bowl, whip the remaining 1 cup cream until soft peaks form. Fold the half the whipped cream into the chocolate mixture to lighten, and then fold in the remaining whipped cream.

Spoon into serving dishes and refrigerate at least one hour. Drizzle with pomegranate reduction and shaved dark chocolate prior to serving.

printable recipe

Finally we made some pomegranate sorbet. It is so easy to make and perfectly refreshing for the hot weather ahead.

 

Pomegranate Sorbet

a method

Mix 2 cups pomegranate juice and the juice of one lime with simple syrup, to taste. Pour into ice cream machine and process according to manufacturer's directions. If you don't have an ice cream machine, just pour the mixture into a shallow pan and place in the freezer. Stir with a fork, breaking up the ice crystal every 15 minutes until frozen.

A big thank you to Ryan from POM for this great product. We enjoyed it in so many ways, and I have already received requests for pomegranate margaritas from Mr. Mimi and some dark chocolate pomegranate truffles from Mimi Jr., so I can see a few more bottles of POM on the grocery list in the near future so we can continue to explore the possibilities of POM! 

Guinness Chocolate Mousse

A salute to the Irish

When my children were small we celebrated every special day from Ground Hog's Day to Veteran's day  with a special meal or treat.  The idea was that we would be groundhogs, veterans or Irish for the day. On Ground Hog's Day, we had  trail mix of nuts and dried fruit, something a groundhog  might store in his burrow. On Veteran's day we had chipped beef on toast, something my father, a veteran of World War II, remembered eating while in the Navy. On St Patrick's Day  we had colcannon, boxty,  Irish stew and Irish soda bread.  But what could be more Irish than a mug of Guinness? 

A shot of Guinness Chocolate Mousse

Guinness is definitely an acquired taste one that, as a beverage, has eluded both Mr. Mimi and myself.  The recipe for the Guinness Chocolate Mousse appeared in our local news paper several years ago.  Smooth, creamy and slightly bitter chocolate mousse topped with a  sweet white chocolate mousse .  It is the perfect way to have your Guinness and be Irish for the day.

Black and White Chocolate Mousse
adapted from San Diego Union Tribune

Black Chocolate Mousse
8 oz semisweet or bittersweet chocolate chopped
4 oz unsalted butter
1/4 cup sugar
Pinch of salt
3/4 cup Guinness stout
3 large eggs separated
1 cup heavy cream

White Chocolate Mouse
6 oz white chocolate chopped
1 cup heavy cream

Black Chocolate Mousse:
In top of double boiler heat chocolate, butter salt and sugar.  Stir until the chocolate has melted and the mixture is smooth. Stir in the Guinness and then whisk in the egg yolks one at a time. Continue stirring over heat for 2 minutes.
Remove chocolate mixture from heat and allow to cool to room temperature. I put mine in an ice water bath to speed up the cooling.
In a small bowl whip the cream until soft peaks form.  Fold  whipped cream into the chocolate mixture. With clean beater beat egg whites until stiff peaks form.  Fold the egg whites into the chocolate mixture. Fill individual serving dishes 3/4 full with the chocolate mousse and refrigerate.

White Chocolate Mousse
Melt white chocolate and 1/2 cup cream, in a small sauce pan or in the microwave. Stir until the chocolate is completely melted. Let cool to room temperature about 30 minutes.  Beat reaming cream until stiff peaks form and fold into the white chocolate mixture.  spoon mixture over the top of the chocolate mousse and refrigerate for at least 2 hours or over night.