Chocolate Mousse - just two ingredients!

Chocolate Mousse

Get a perfect creamy chocolate mousse using just water and chocolate. It sounds crazy. I've always been told that you never mix chocolate and water, because the chocolate gets grainy and ruined. But this recipe from the french chemist Hervé This make you rethink your chocolate truths. You can watch Heston Blumenthal explain and prepare the mousse here.

My husband is a chocolateholic, so chocolate mousse is one of his favorite desserts, but I rarely make it. Maybe, maybe I’ll make more often, when it's as easy as this. I definitely have to try making it again, with different chocolates and different flavor profiles. The mousse has a very intense chocolate taste, you might tone it down with some sugar or adding cream with the water.

I didn’t have a 70% chocolate, so I used the 61% Valrhona, I just got, instead, and it worked perfectly.

Serves 2-3

 Ingredients

• 265 g (9⅓ oz) chocolate (70 %)

• 240 g (1 cup) water

Directions:

Place a mixing bowl on top of another slightly larger bowl filled with ice and cold water, (you can add a teaspoon of salt to get a cooler ice water). The bottom of the top bowl should touch the ice water, but the ice water shouldn't be able to get into the top bowl. Set aside.

Chop the chocolate finely, adding it to a small sauce pan with the water. Slowly melt the chocolate while whisking. When melted, pour the chocolate into the bowl sitting in the ice water, begin whisking.  Whisk vigorously until mousse begins to thicken. In the beginning it looks like nothing will ever happen, but after 2-4 minutes it starts to thicken up.  Be careful not to over whisk as the chocolate can become grainy.  I used a hand mixer in the beginning and a hand whisk in the end. If you over whisk the mousse, you just have to remelt the chocolate mousse and start whisking all over again. You don't have to throw it all away. 

When you have the desired texture, pour the mousse in to the serving dishes. You have to do it pretty fast, because the mousse thickens. 

Serve the mousse immediately or let the mousse thicken up some more in the refrigerator. 

The chocolate mousse will keep, covered, in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. (But not in my house).

Classic Fragilité Cake

Classic Fragilité Cake

The classic fragilité cake with coffee buttercream originates from the same Danish pastry chef, Johannes Steen, who also made The Sarah Bernhardt cookie. And must originate from the beginning of the 1900s, when Denmark was very influenced by everything French. 

Fragilité means fragile, and it describes the cake well. It's made with delicate layers of crispy meringue with hazelnuts, layered with a mocha/coffee buttercream. The cake feels very light and fluffy, but don't let it fool you, it's filled with great tasting calories😋

Ingredients:

Meringue:

• 100 g hazelnuts
• 200 g confectionary sugar
• 4 egg whites

Mocha buttercream:

• 3 pasteurised  egg yolks
• 100 g confectionary sugar
• 150 g butter, salted and room temperature
• 3 teaspoons unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1,5 teaspoons instant coffee 

Directions:

Preheat the oven for 400℉ (200℃).

Chop the hazelnuts. I used the mini chopper that came with my immersion blender, and ended up with a coarse hazelnut flour. Mix the hazelnuts with half of the confectionary sugar.

Whip the egg whites, in a stand mixer, until you have soft peaks. Add the sugar and keep whipping until you have a shiny meringue with stiff peaks. You should be able to turn the bowl upside down.

Fold the hazelnut mixture in.

Line a baking pan with parchment paper, spray it and sprinkle with sugar. I used a 9" x 13" (20x30 cm) pan.  

Spread the meringue evenly in the pan, and level of the top.

Bake the meringue for 2 minutes at 400℉ (200℃), then lower the temperature to 305℉ (150℃) and keep on baking foe another 40 minutes.

Buttercream:

Mix all the ingredients in a bowl, and whip the buttercream until thick and fluffy over a double boiler. I used a saucepan with very hot water, and placed my bowl on top of that. I didn't have it on the stove. It takes some time to get the buttercream nice and fluffy.

Cut the meringue in two, and place the one part on a cake stand, spread all the buttercream  on it in an even layer. Put the other half of the meringue on top. 

Decorate the cake with some melted chocolate or a sprinkle of confectionary sugar.

Danish Hazelnut Makroner

Danish Hazelnut Makroner

Makroner is a classic danish cookie used in trifle, classic danish apple cake or in layered cakes (danish birthday cakes).

Normally makroner is made with almond flour, but I love this version with hazelnuts. I had a reason for making these makroner, I'm going to make Sarah Bernard cakes. You can read more about Sarah Bernard cakes in another post.

Ingredients:

• 150 g hazelnuts
• 300 g sugar
• 4 egg whites

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400℉ (200℃).

Grind up the hazelnuts in a food processor with thew sugar. Add the egg whites and keep processing until the mixture gets finger warm. Be careful not to get it too hot, so the egg coagulates. 

Put the mixture into a pastry bag (decoration bag) with a plain round tip. Pipe the cookies onto a sprayed parchment paper in rounds, leaving space between the disks. 

Bake the cookies for about 10-15 minutes.
Let the cookies cool on a wire rack.  Gently remove the cooled cookies of the parchment paper, they might stick.

The cookies should be crispy on the outside and chewy on the inside. If you are using them in a trifle, bake the cookies a bit longer to make them more crispy.

Store in an airtight container at room temperature.

Enjoy!

Fragilite Roulade with Liquorice and Berries

Fragilite Roulade with Liquorice and Berries

This recipe came about due to a mini competition launched by Lakrids by Johan Bülow on their Facebook page. So off course I had to try to make a cake with the yummy marzipan with licorice.

This is my contribution to the competition.

Serves 4-6

Ingredients:

• 75 g marzipan with liquorice

• 25 g marzipan (I used ren rå from Odense)

• 3 egg whites

• 150 g sugar

Sprinkles:

• almond slivers

• raw liquorice powder

Filling and topping:

• heavy whipping cream (whipped to medium soft peaks)

• strawberries, cut into small pieces

• blackberries

Directions:

Preheat the oven for 360℉ (180℃)

Mix the marzipans with one of the egg whites using your hand, it’s a bit messy, but it's the easiest way to get a homogenous mass.

Whip the other two egg whites until you have soft peaks. Add the sugar and keep whipping until you have a shiny meringue with stiff peaks. You should be able to turn the bowl upside down.

Fold the marzipan mixture in.

Line a baking pan with parchment paper and spray it.  

Spread the meringue evenly in the pan, sprinkle with slivered almonds and raw liquorice powder on top.

Bake the meringue for about 15 minutes. The top should be lightly brown.

When the cake is room temperature turn it upside down on a sheet of parchment paper. Cut of the edges of the cake, and it will roll easier.

Filling:

Whip the cream, and spread it onto the cake, except for the last inch in the top. The filling will be pressed out when you roll it.

Cut the strawberries in pieces and drizzle them over the whipped cream.

Use the parchment paper to roll the cake tightly. 

Enjoy

The Danish version:

Fragiliteroulade med Lakrids og bær

Ingredienser:

• 75 g lakridsmarcipan

• 25 g marcipan (Jeg brugte ren rå from Odense)

• 3 æggehvider

• 150 g sukker

Sprinkles:

• mandelflager

• raw liquorice powder

Fyld og topping:

• Flødeskum

• jordbær, i små stykker

• brombær

Vejledning:

Fragilite:

Ælt de to marcipaner med den ene æggehvide.

Pisk resten af æggehviderne sukkeret til de er helt stive. Vend forsigtigt de stive hvider i marcipanmassen. Smør dejen ud på en bradepande beklædt med bagepapir. Jeg smør altid bagepapiret for at sikre mig, at kagen slipper. Drys med mandelflager og lakridspulveret. Bag bunden ved 180 grader i cirka 15 minutter. 

Når bunden er helt afkølet, vendes den om på et nyt stykke bagepapir, så nødderne vender nedad.

Fyld: Pisk fløden stiv. Fordel flødeskummet på fragilitébunden, men undlad at komme noget på de sidste 2-3 cm i den ene ende, da fyldet presses ud, når kagen rulles. Skær jordbærene i grove stykker og drys dem over flødeskummet. Brug bagepapiret til at rulle rouladen så stramt som muligt. Skær rouladen i skiver på sned, server med friske bær.

Danish Lemon Mousse - Citronfromage

Danish Lemon Mousse - Citronfromage

Lemon mousse was my moms favorite dessert. We had it as dessert all trough the 70’s every time we had people over. I guess this was very normal in the 70's because nobody thought that cream could be bad for you, not to mention the risk of eating raw eggs. Salmonella wasn't a big risk at the time. 

My mom served lemon mousse in a dark green glass bowl, actually it's the exact same bowl, that I used here. I have never seen this bowl used for anything else, and for sure I'm not going to change that.

Somehow this dessert went on the back burner after the 70's. But when you serve it, people will love it. When I serve it for my danish friends and family they always start reminiscing, lemon mousse brings back good memories.

Disclaimer: This dessert is made with raw eggs. I recommend using pasteurized eggs. This would minimize the risk of getting Salmonella food poisoning. You can find pasteurized in some supermarkets here in California, on safeeggs.com you can see where to find them in your neighborhood. In Denmark you'll find it right next to regular eggs. For tips and information on how to handle eggs, check out FDA’s website. The Danish version of FDA,  Fødevarestyrelsen also has advisory on egg

 Serves 4-6 (in my family it's closer to 4 than 6)

Ingredients:

• 2 teaspoons gelatin (4 sheets husblas)
• 3 whole eggs (read disclaimer)
• 100 g sugar
• ¼ cup freshly squeezed lemon juice (50-60 ml)
• 1 lemon, the zest of
• 1 cup (250 ml) heavy whipping cream + extra for decorating

Directions:

Whip the heavy whipping cream until soft peaks, and set aside.

Whisk the eggs pale and fluffy with the sugar, set aside.

Mix the gelatin with half the lemon juice and melt the gelatin over a double boiler. Mix in the rest of the lemon juice and lemon zest.  

Using Husblas: put the sheets in a bowl of cold water for about 10 minutes. Over a double boiler melt the sheets with the water that adheres to it when removed from the bowl. Mix in the lemon juice and zest when melted completely.

Mix the gelatin lemon mixture with the eggs while whisking. Gently fold in the whipped cream. Pour the mousse into the serving dishes, and set it in the refrigerator for about 3 hours.

Before serving, whip some extra whipping cream and decorate the mousse. Serve the cold mousse with whipping cream and shaved dark chocolate.

Enjoy.