Thursday, July 19, 2012

Strawberry mousse in chocolate cup!

Strawberry is one of my favorite fruits. I prefer to eat it in its natural form however, I had this recipe on my mind for a long time. So when I had a heap of strawberries from my trip to farmer's market, I decided to give it a try.
        Making chocolate cup sounds difficult but it is not. This delectable dessert requires a little patience, but I would absolutely do it again and again!


Ingredients:
For chocolate cup:
1/3 cup dark chocolate chips
1/4 tea spoon vanilla extract (optional, use orange zest if like)
3 normal size muffin liners
pastry brush

For mousse:
5-6 medium strawberries,quartered
1/3 cup water
1 tb sugar
1/4 heavy whipping cream
1 tb spoon sugar
1/4 tea sp vanilla extract
1/2 tea spoon agar agar powder
2 tb spoon water

Method:
To make the chocolate cup, melt 3/4 of the 1/3 cup chocolate chips on a double boiler.Once the chocolate melts, remove from the heat and add rest 1/4 chocolate chips and stir well until smooth and glossy. Add vanilla extract/orange zest and stir everything. Take a muffin liner.Pour 1 tb spoon warm chocolate into the liner and coat the entire liner with chocolate using a pastry brush. Make sure to have even coating throughout and a relatively thick layer at the bottom of the liner. Freeze for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, coat again the frozen chocolate muffin liner with remaining molten chocolate and freeze again for 30 more minutes. Next, remove the cups from the freezer and leave them out at room temperature for a minute. Remove carefully the paper liner. If the cup is set, the liner will come out smoothly.You will have to work quickly else the cup will start to melt.
             In the meantime, boil together strawberries,water and 1 tb spoon sugar for 5 minutes. Puree it in the blender and sieve the puree to get 1/3 cup total smooth puree. Heat the agar-agar powder with 2 tb spoon of water and mix together warm strawberry puree with warm agar-agar mixture and set aside until it starts to thicken or starts to set. Whip the heavy whipping cream with 1 tb spoon sugar and 1/4 tea spoon vanilla extract until firm peaks. Gently mix strawberry mixture and whipped cream. Mousse is ready.
                    Pour the mousse into frozen chocolate cups and refrigerate for at-least 2 hours before serving.

Note: If paper liner sticks to the chocolate while removing, do it slowly even if the paper liner starts to come off in pieces.
 Handle the cups carefully as they are very very delicate and can break. ( take a hint!)

2 comments:

  1. When you make it again, and again, let me know, and I will knock on your door unannounced! :)

    ReplyDelete