Mousse Redux

Passover but sick of flourless chocolate cake? How about a layered chocolate and strawberry mousse instead? That was the plan. Instead of use our typical chocolate mousse recipe, we thought we'd go with a classic: Julia Child (by way of David Lebovitz). Then strawberry mousse.

Chocolate Mousse

• 6oz good chocolate chips
• 4 eggs, separated
• 2/3c sugar
• 6oz butter
• 1tsp instant espresso powder and 1/4c water (or 1/4c strong coffee)
• 2tbsp water
• pinch of salt
• 1/2tsp vanilla

This is a little complicated. Plan out your choice of bowls ahead of time. So, in one bowl, combine the chocolate chips, butter, and espresso. Melt over a double-boiler until, well, melted. Remove from heat. In a separate bowl, combine the egg yolks, sugar, and 2tbsp water. Prepare a cold water bath. Whip the egg mixture together over a double boiler for 3 minutes, then remove and whip in the cold water bath until thick (it gets very thick). In a THIRD bowl, whip the egg whites and a pinch of salt until firm, then add the sugar and continue to beat until shiny and stiff. Add the vanilla and incorporate.

Now assemble: mix the chocolate and egg yolks together until completely mixed. Fold in 1/3 of the egg white, then the remaining egg white. Pour into a bowl and refrigerate. After 2 hours, top this with a layer of sliced strawberries.

Strawberry Mousse

• 1lb strawberries
• Juice of 1/2 lemon
• 1/2c sugar
• 1/4c water
• 4 egg whites
• pinch of salt
• 1tbsp sugar
• 1/2c heavy whipping cream

In a saucepan, cook down the strawberries, lemon juice, sugar, and water until the strawberries are pretty decomposed. I even mashed them with a potato masher, actually. Then blend them (we used a stick blender) and let cool. When it's pretty cool (doesn't have to be COMPLETELY cool, but cool enough to touch), whip the egg whites with the salt and sugar, following the same process as outlined above. Then whip the whipping cream into stiff peaks in a separate bowl. Combine the strawberries and whipped cream, then the egg whites (1/3 first then the remainder). Pour over the now stiffened chocolate mousse. After 2 hours, top with another layer of sliced strawberries.

You could go on all day doing this, but we didn't. Serve (with a spoon? I guess?) and top with whipped cream.

Thoughts: This recipe is a little complicated, for either part. If you clean as you go and you plan out your bowls and utensils, you can get away without making a huge mess. If you don't plan ahead, you're going to have a bad time. But then, we had a bad time anyway. By the time we served this, it had completely deflated. It was like soup. Claire suggested maybe it was because we let it get warm and then cold again, which messed up the structural integrity, but I think we've had better success before. Anyway, total disaster. It was embarrassing because we had to serve it to everyone. Ugh. But then when we got home, we salvaged it by churning it into some extremely respectable ice cream.

Disaster Index: 6/10, but only because the flavor was good and it became good ice cream.

Fresh Lime Custard Berry Tart

This was a little complicated.

Ingredients

• Crust
  
  
  • 1 stick butter
    
  • 2tbsp neutral oil
    
  • 1.75c flour
    
  • 0.25c sugar
    
  • generous pinch of salt
    
  • 1 egg yolk
    
  • 2-3tbsp milk
    
• Filling
  
  
  • 1/3c sugar
    
  • 2tbsp corn starch
    
  • 1c milk
    
  • 2tbsp butter
    
  • zest of one lime
    
  • juice of half a lime
  • 3 egg yolks
  • berries - I used about 2/3 a pint of blueberries, 6oz of blackberries, and about 8 strawberries
    
• Glaze
  
  
  • Juice of two limes
    
  • 2tbsp jam - I used guava
    
  • Honey to taste
    
  • 2tsp corn starch
    

First the dough. Whisk together the dry ingredients. Then chop the butter up into small pieces and cut it into the flour. Next time I'm using the cuisinart like I usually do for making a pastry dough. Whatever. Then add the milk and combine, being careful not to overwork the dough or heat it too much with your hands. When it JUST sticks together (it will have the consistency of wet sand), wrap it in plastic wrap and form into a disk. Stick it in the fridge for 4 hours to chill.



When that's done, take it out and, on a well floured surface, roll it out. Fit it into a springform pan or tart pan, if you have one (I didn't). I lined my springform with a little waxed paper. Make sure the dough goes up the side a little bit. I had to actually press it into the pan with a well-floured drinking glass. It works. Anyway, put some more waxed paper or parchment paper in the middle and weight down with dry peas (classic) or the change from your change jar (my way), being careful that it doesn't actually touch the dough. Bake at 375 for 15 minutes, remove currency, and bake for another 15 minutes. This is called "blind baking". I'm just saying.



Now the filling. Set the crust aside to cool. In a bowl, combine the egg yolks, sugar, lime zest, and corn starch, whisking thoroughly. In a sauce pan, bring the milk to a simmer. When it's simmering, take it off the heat and (TEMPERING FIRST), whisk into the egg/sugar mixture. Tempering means you add just a LITTLE, stir it together, add a little more, whisk thoroughly, and then add the rest. This is so it doesn't scramble the eggs.



Now return the mixture to the sauce pan and set over low heat, whisking constantly. In about a minute, the mixture will seize up (it's really sudden) probably because of the corn starch. Ok. Take it off the heat and stir a little more, then add the butter and stir until it's melted. Now pour it into the cooled crust. Dot with the berries. Actually mine had ridiculous piles of berries. Anyway, try to arrange them radially. It looks nicer. People will appreciate that.



FINALLY, the glaze. Juice those limes you used - mine were the driest limes I've ever used, so I needed two of them, but you could conceivably use one. Mix in the jam and whisk thoroughly. Then add honey until the sweetness is well balanced. Add the corn starch and whisk together, then pour it into a sauce pan and cook over low heat until it thickens. Take it off the heat and spoon it liberally over the tart. Cover the tart and fridge it until completely cooled - at least four hours, though I just made mine like two days ahead of time, so that's possibly a better option.



Thoughts: difficult to make alone. Especially in the B-more heat and humidity. I've NEVER had that much difficulty with pastry dough. It was ridiculous. I think that if I had a tart pan, that would have simplified things a LITTLE, though also the pastry dough recipe is not my usual pastry dough recipe OR method, so next time I'll try my usual and see how that works out. There were confounding factors here, is what I guess I'm saying. Berries were super cheap at Giant Foods this week, so that is the origin of that. By the time I got to the glaze, I had no sauce pans left so I actually microwaved it for 30 seconds at time (stirring in between) until it thickened. It got a little weird - corn starch does that - but it thickened well and the whole thing was pretty amazing.



Disaster Index: 1/10

Strawberry Tarte Tatin

Gotta blog a huge backlog of recipes.

Ingredients

• 1/2lb strawberries, stems removed, halved
  
• 2tbsp butter
  
• 1/4c sugar
  
• 1.5tbsp water
  
• 1/2tsp vanilla extract
  
• 1 sheet puff pastry
  
• 2 mini tart tins
  

Preheat oven to 400. In a saucepan, combine butter, sugar, water, and vanilla and cook over medium heat until the sugar dissolves and the mixture just starts to darken. Then take it off right away - it will keep cooking while you wait. Meanwhile, cut puff pastry to fit the tart tins and place in the tins. Layer with strawberries radially. Pour the caramel over the strawberries and puff pastry and place tarts in the oven about 25-30 minutes.

Thoughts: At least, that's how it works in theory. When we did it, the puff pastry did not puff. So we wound up taking the things out of the oven, turning them out, putting the puff pastry BACK in the oven until it cooked properly, then putting it back on top of the cooked strawberries. It was kind of a terrible mess. This is why Tarte Tatin is baked upside down, I guess. Also, the strawberries let out a lot of juice in the oven... which wasn't to their credit. I would say the flavor of the dish was fantastic. It was just a terrible mess is all. If I can think of a better way to combine similar ingredients, I'll do it.

Disaster Index: 6/10

Strawberry Bread

Unusual and unique. Not what we expected at all, but definitely worth it.

Ingredients

• 1c chopped strawberries (I don't know, but I'd imagine it's more like 1.5c un-chopped?)
  
• 1.5c white flour
  
• 1/2 granulated sugar plus a teaspoon
  
• 1.5tsp cinnamon
  
• 1/2tsp salt
  
• 1/2tsp baking soda
  
• 1/4tsp baking powder
  
• 2 eggs, beaten
  
• 1/2c vegetable oil
  
• brown sugar for crumbling on top
  

Preheat oven to 350. In a bowl, combine the strawberries and the teaspoon of granulated sugar and toss. In another bowl, combine the flour, salt, baking soda and powder, and cinnamon. Add the eggs and oil to the strawberries and stir around, then add to dry ingredients and stir until just combined. Pour into a lightly greased and floured 9x5" bread pan. Crumble some brown sugar on top (optional). Bake about 60 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean (so long as you don't pierce a strawberry). Could take as few as 40 minutes, depending on the rack in the oven and whether or not you, like I, have a pizza stone in the oven all the time.

Thoughts: Claire and I were surprised by the dark whole-wheat flavor of this bread even when we used white flour. I mean, the bread turns pretty dark brown and has kind of a caramel, nutty flavor. Weird. What caused that? Was it the egg? Hm. Anyway, this version isn't too sweet. The original recipe we stole this from (by someone named Ellen Rainey who posted to allrecipes) used double the sugar and no baking powder. I can see why some people might prefer more sugar, but I actually like it this way. And then if you want it sweeter you can drizzle a slice with some honey. Overall, this recipe surprised us. Really delicious, though.

Future variations: cut down on the cinnamon and add some vanilla instead. Add other berries, particularly blueberries. Bake in a bundt pan?

Disaster Index: 1/10

Fruit Cobbler

An interesting, lazy, twist on classic cobbler.

Ingredients

• 16 ounces of frozen berries, thawed (NOTE: WE DID NOT THAW FIRST)
• 2 tbsp powdered sugar (NOTE: WE USED GRANULATED)
• 2 cups pancake mix
• 1 cup whole milk
• 2 large eggs
• 1/2 tbsp powdered sugar
  
• Butter for baking dish.
  

Preheat oven to 375.
Butter an 8 or 10 inch baking dish - either is fine.
Add the berries and 1.5 tbsp of the sugar to the dish and toss.
In a large bowl, combine the pancake mix, milk, and eggs until no lumps remain.
Pour the batter over the berries.
Bake until the crust is golden and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 30 minutes (NOTE: WE BAKED IT FOR MUCH LONGER).
Remove from oven.
Let cool for 5 minutes.
Sprinkle with the remaining 1/2 tbsp powdered sugar. Eat.

Thoughts: This was pretty easy to make, and it would have been easier if we had actually thawed the berries like they asked. But I was like "oh whatever, they'll melt in the oven." Yes. They certainly did. And they made the inside all soggy so we had to bake and rebake the thing like, 3 times. So we ended up cooking it for like, an hour total. It was ridiculous. But that was our own fault. As a consequence, the texture was probably not what it should have been. It looked like white cake with berries underneath. I don't know. I didn't really like it, but both Dan and Erin thought it was good. Once you get yourself a piece and sort of mix everything around, it's good I guess. Dan thought it was too acidic. But he doens't like things like raspberries and strawberries and blackberries for just that reason. So I don't know. You can substitute any sort of fruit filling in this cobbler.

Disaster Index:4.5/10 tolerable.

Strawberry Tart

Ingredients

• 1.5 cups white flour
• 1.5 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 6 tbsp butter, softened
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 tbsp whole milk
• 1 pint strawberries, hulled and cut in half (depending on the size of your pan, you may need less)

Preheat oven to 350. Lightly grease a spring-form pan. We used an 8.5 inch pan.
Mix together flour, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon in a bowl.
In a separate bowl, cream the butter and sugar. Add the eggs and milk. Mix the dry and wet ingredients. Do not overmix. This is important.
Spread the mixture into the bottom of the pan. Press the strawberry halves deeply into the batter, making several concentric rings.
Bake for 30-40 minutes, until a toothpick comes out pretty clean.

Thoughts: Pretty delish, and very easy to make. I might have sprinkled the top of the tart with sugar and cinnamon before baking it, just to add a little more flavor. The more strawberries you can fit on top, the better. Don't worry about making a pretty pattern. Just add all sorts of strawberries.

Disaster Index: 1/10

Simple Berry Cobbler

Ingredients

• Blueberries & Strawberries (see below)
  
• sugar to mix with the berries - about 2tsp per ramekin.
  
• Where X is the number of ramekins you are making:
  
  
  
  • 1/4x c flour
    
  • 1/2x tsp baking powder
    
  • 1/8x tsp baking soda
    
  • 1x tsp butter, melted
    
  • 1x tbsp milk
    
  • 1 pinch salt
    
  • 1x tsp sugar
    
  
  
• Optional cinnamon, vanilla extract in any part you really want
  

Cut up strawberries (if you're using them) and fill the ramekins with blueberries and strawberries, leaving about 1cm room on the top. Put them in a 400 degree oven for about 20-30 minutes, until they're bubbling (a little) and hot. In the mean time, combine the topping ingredients in a bowl. You can mix it with a spoon pretty easily. Add flour or milk at the end until it reaches a medium-dry but slightly greasy dough consistency. Pinch it into separate pieces and form into discs to top the ramekins. When the ramekins come out of the oven, put the dough discs on top and return to the oven for an additional 15-20 minutes. Let them sit a few minutes before serving with vanilla ice cream.

Thoughts: This recipe is simple enough that you can make it for desert without any premeditation and without much effort, but the results are delicious. I've tried putting cinnamon in with the berries themselves and with the topping, and I've put vanilla in the topping. Any way you want. You know, there's leeway with this recipe. My only suggestion is: don't put the ramekins in the oven alone - put them on a baking dish, because the berries WILL bubble over and you WILL be sad when you're cleaning burnt sugar syrup off the bottom of your oven. Still, really good.

Note: the first time I did this recipe, it turned out WONDERFULLY, but the second time it was a little iffy. The dough didn't rise and the berries didn't really congeal. Next time, consider adding a little corn starch with the berries and (added since I tried it most recently) some baking soda in the dough. Finally, let it cook a little longer the second time around.

Disaster Index: 1/10

Blueberry - Berry Cobbler

From the Best Light Recipe Cookbook.

Ingredients (filling, followed by topping)

• 6 cups berries (we used some fresh blueberries and some frozen berries)
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 2 tbsp fresh-squeezed lemon juice
• 1 tbsp cornstarch
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon


• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 3 tbsp cornmeal
• 1/4 cup sugar and 2 tsp sugar (for later)
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/3 cup buttermilk
• 3 tbsp unsalted butter, melted
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 1/8 tsp ground cinnamon

For the filling: Put oven rack in middle position and heat oven to 400 degrees.
Toss the fruit filling ingredients together in a 9-inch deep-dish pie plate.
Place pie plate on rimmed baking sheet and bake until fruit releases its liquid and is hot and bubbling around the edges. This should take about 20-30 minutes.
For the biscuit topping: Whisk the flour, cornmeal, 1/4 cup of the sugar, the baking powder, baking soda, and salt together in a large bowl. Set aside.
In a separate bowl, whisk buttermilk, butter, and vanilla together - set aside.
In a third small bowl, mix the remaining 2 tsp sugar and the cinnamon together. Set aside.
When the filling is done cooking, stir the buttermilk mixture into the flour mixture with a rubber spatula until just combined and no dry pockets of flour remain.
Remove the fruit filling from the oven and stir. Pinch off pieces of the biscuit topping and arrange them on top of the filling. We actually had extra biscuit topping left over, so you don't have to worry about spacing them.
Sprinkle the top of the cobbler with the cinnamon-sugar mixture.
Return the cobbler to the oven and cook until the biscuit topping is golden brown and the filling is again hot and bubbling. This should take about 15-20 minutes.
Eat.

Thoughts: Delightful. We made this for a 4th of July party and people pretty much snarfed it down. This is a fantastic recipe. You could probably do this with blackberries too. Or whatever berries you want.

Disaster Index: 1/10

Flourless Chocolate Cake with Strawberry Sauce

The proportions for this are a little specific because we used four 3.5" ramekins. If you have that, go ahead, otherwise you're going to have to adjust things. If you want to make one big 8" chocolate cake, you multiply everything by 21/16. Yeah. Math.

Ingredients

• Cake
  
  
  
  • 2 eggs, beaten
    
  • 1 c plus 1.5 tbsp granulated sugar
    
  • 3oz chocolate chips
    
  • 6.5 tbsp dutch process cocoa (5 normal plus 1 heaping tbsp is fine)
    
  • 4/5 a stick of unsalted butter (a little more than 6 tbsp)
    
  
  
• Strawberry Sauce
  
  
  
  • 1/4 lb strawberries, washed, stems cut off, and halved
    
  • 1-2tbsp granulated sugar
    
  • 1/2tsp lemon juice
    
  
  

For the cake, preheat oven to 375. Put some water to simmer on the stove, and melt the butter along with the chocolate chips into a metal bowl in the simmering water. (The idea is to make a sort of double boiler. If you actually have a double boiler, go for it.) Take the bowl out and whisk in the sugar. Now (careful that the chocolate is not too hot) whisk in the eggs. Finally, whisk in the cocoa one tbsp at a time.

Line the bottoms of four 3.5in ramekins with a round of wax paper. Spray each liberally with PAM. Distribute the batter evenly between the four ramekins. Place ramekins evenly on a baking sheet with about 1c water in it. Bake for about 25-30 minutes, until the top of the cakes has a bit of a crust. It could take shorter or longer, depending. I had a pizza stone in my oven that I forgot to take out before I baked these. They came out fine, but it probably messed with the temperature.

For the strawberry sauce, throw the strawberries into a sauce pan with the sugar and lemon juice. Better to have less sugar and then add it as needed, I think. Turn it on high and stir until the sugar dissolves, then turn it down to medium and cover for three minutes. Uncover, adjust sugar and lemon juice. Le voila.

To serve (at least the way we did) put a little puddle of strawberry sauce in the center of a plate. Flip a ramekin over on it and then, lifting the plate and the ramekin at the same time, slam each back onto the counter (not TOO hard) so that the cake dislodges. Take the piece of waxed paper off the top, and top with more strawberry sauce and fresh raspberries.

Thoughts: This was a first experiment, and I think we all felt it was an unqualified success. It was amazing. Really good. Seriously. Only difference is, next time I do it I'm going to let them cook just a little longer. I took them out JUST when the crust formed on top so they wouldn't be too dry, and it worked - they were very nice. But they could use to bake up just a little firmer. All the same, this was delicious and surprisingly easy. As an aside, it would be clever to use a pyrex liquid measuring cup (or something heatproof with a lip) instead of a metal bowl in the double boiler because pouring the batter would be easier. That was the hardest part of this dish.

Disaster Index: 1/10