Various Iced Mousses

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •2-quart heavy-bottomed saucepan
• •Fine-mesh sieve
• •Instant-read thermometer
• •Large bowl and a second bowl for an ice bath
• •Balloon whisk or hand mixer
• •1½-liter metal charlotte mould or 23 x 13 cm loaf pan

Instructions

1. 1

   Choose and prepare

   Choose exactly one flavor for the batch and chill a 1½-liter metal mould or loaf pan. Coffee, tea, vanilla, walnuts, and citrus zest begin in the milk. Heat the milk until it trembles at the edge, then remove it from the heat. Cover crushed coffee beans for 20 minutes, black tea for 5 minutes, a split and scraped vanilla bean for 20 minutes, or citrus zest for 15 minutes. Strain, then restore the milk to 1½ cups (360 ml) with fresh milk. For walnut, blanch the kernels for 1 minute, rub away as much bitter skin as you comfortably can, blend them with ½ cup (120 ml) of the milk, stir in the remainder, and cover for 15 minutes without straining. Reduce fruit purée or citrus juice now, then cool it completely. Chocolate, violet syrup, and liqueurs wait.

2. 2

   Cook the crème anglaise

   Whisk the yolks with the sugar and salt just until smooth, using the lower sugar quantity only for the violet variation. Bring the prepared milk back to the edge of a simmer, pour one-third into the yolks while whisking, then return everything to the saucepan. Stir constantly over gentle heat, reaching into every corner, until the crème anglaise reaches 82°C and makes a nappe, a coating on the spoon through which a drawn finger leaves a clean path. Never let it boil. If tiny curds appear, remove the pan immediately, add the optional cold cream, blend until smooth, and pass it through the fine sieve. Ça se rattrape while the curds are small; after a hard boil, begin the custard again. For chocolate mousse, strain the hot custard directly over the chopped chocolate, leave it for 1 minute, then whisk from the center outward until dark and glossy.

   A thermometer is useful, but the spoon tells the truth. The custard is ready when it coats evenly and the cleared path stays open instead of flooding back.
3. 3

   Cool and perfume

   Set the bowl of custard over an ice bath and stir until it falls below 20°C, then cover and chill for about 30 minutes, until cold but still fluid. Coffee, tea, walnut, vanilla, and chocolate are already flavored. For apricot, strawberry, or peach, whisk in the cold reduced purée. For orange or tangerine, whisk in the cold reduced juice. Add sirop de violette to the violet base. Stir anisette, kirsch, maraschino, or rum into the cold custard only now; added hot, alcohol loses its perfume. If citrus was added while the custard was warm and it feathers, chill it at once, blend briefly, and fine-strain it before continuing.

4. 4

   Whip the cream softly

   Whip the cold heavy cream until it forms soft peaks that bend over as soon as the whisk is lifted. Stop there. Stiff cream breaks into little fatty grains when folded and leaves the mousse heavy. If you go a little too far, whisk in a spoonful of the chilled custard until the cream relaxes and turns supple again.

5. 5

   Fold without crushing

   Whisk one-third of the whipped cream into the custard to lighten it. Add the remaining cream in two portions, folding from the bottom of the bowl and turning the bowl as you work. Stop as soon as the color is even; a few fine white traces are safer than another dozen turns. The trapped air is the mousse's structure, so every unnecessary stroke makes the frozen result denser.

6. 6

   Mould and freeze

   Spoon the mousse into the chilled mould, pressing gently into the corners without flattening it, then tap the mould once to release any large hollow pockets. Level the top, cover directly with parchment or reusable wrap, and close with a lid or foil. Freeze without churning for at least 6 hours, preferably overnight, until firm through the center.

7. 7

   Unmould and serve

   Move the mousse to the refrigerator for 15 minutes before serving. Dip only the outside of the mould in warm water for 5 seconds, dry it, and invert onto a cold platter. If it refuses to release, repeat for another 3 seconds rather than melting the edges. Slice with a knife dipped in hot water and wiped dry between cuts. Scatter the optional crushed violets over the violet version; the other flavors need no decoration. À table!

Chef Tips

• •Use cream with at least 35% fat. It must hold soft air through folding and freezing; a thin pouring cream cannot do that work.
• •Three tablespoons of liqueur is deliberate. Alcohol lowers the freezing point, so a generous extra pour leaves a mousse that slumps instead of slicing.
• •Ripe fruit gives the clearest perfume, but the classical pantry has an honest answer outside the season: use unsweetened frozen apricots, strawberries, or peaches, thawed and drained before puréeing. Tired fresh fruit has no virtue simply because it is fresh.
• •Fresh walnuts are pale, moist, and mild. If they are unavailable, use recently opened, light-colored walnut halves kept in the freezer; dark or paint-scented nuts are rancid and no custard can rescue them.
• •Only flavors added after chilling, such as liqueurs, violet syrup, and reduced fruit, can share one neutral base divided by weight. Coffee, tea, vanilla, citrus zest, and walnuts flavor the milk itself and require their own batch.

Advance Preparation

• •The crème anglaise can be prepared and chilled up to 24 hours ahead. Keep it covered against the surface, then whisk it smooth before adding any late flavoring and whipped cream.
• •Freeze the finished mousse at least 6 hours ahead. It is at its finest within 3 days, tightly covered so it does not collect freezer aromas.
• •For individual servings, divide the mixture among eight 180 ml metal ramekins or cups and begin checking after 4 hours. Unmould each with a warm cloth around the outside.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 120g)