Cook's Illustrated Strawberry Mousse
Ingredients:
2 pounds strawberries, hulled (6 1/2 cups)
1/2 cup sugar
pinch salt
4 ounces cream cheese, cut into 8 pieces, softened
1/2 cup heavy cream
Part I - The Garnish
1. Cut enough
strawberries into 1/4 inch slices to measure 1 cup. Refrigerate until ready to garnish.
Part II - Preparing the Strawberries
2. Pulse remaining
strawberries in two batches in food processor.
6-10 pulses.
3. Do not clean
food processor - yet.
4. Transfer
strawberries into bowl and toss with 1/4 cup sugar and salt and cover
bowl.
5. Let bowl of
strawberries stand for 45 minutes stirring occasionally.
Part III - Juice-Gelatin Mixture
6. Strain
processed strawberries through fine-mesh strainer into bowl. You should have about 2/3 cup juice.
7. Measure out 3
tablespoons juice into small bowl and sprinkle with gelatin. Let sit for five minutes.
8. Place remaining
juice in saucepan and cook over medium-high heat until reduced to 3 tablespoons
- about 10 minutes.
9. Remove pan from
heat.
10. Add softened
gelatin mixture and stir until gelatin has dissolved.
11. Add cream
cheese and whisk until smooth.
12. Transfer
mixture to large bowl.
Part IV - Strawberry Puree
13. While juice is
reducing, return strawberries to now empty processor and process until smooth -
15 to 20 seconds.
14. Strain puree
through fine mesh strainer into medium bowl, pressing on solids to remove seeds
and pulp. There should be about 1 2/3
cups strawberry puree.
15. Discard solids
in strainer.
16. Add strawberry
puree to juice-gelatin. Whisk until
incorporated.
Part V - Making the whipped cream
17. Using mixer,
whip cream on medium-low speed until foamy about 1 minute.
18. Increase speed
to high and whip until soft peaks form -
1 to 3 minutes.
19. Gradually add
1/4 cup sugar and whip until stiff peaks form, 1 to 2 minutes.
Part VI
20. Whisk whipped
cream into strawberry mixture until no white streaks remain.
21. Portion into
dessert dishes and chill for at least 4 hours or up to 48 hours.
22. If chilled
longer than 6 hours, let mousse sit for 15 minutes before serving.
23. Garnish with
strawberries with reserved diced strawberries.
Part VII
24. Enjoy.
Mark's Story:
I saw this recipe in the most recent Cook's Illustrated
magazine. It looked good. I thought I would try it. First mistake that I made was that I confused
the 2 pounds of strawberries and the 6 1/2 cups of strawberries and I bought 7
pounds of strawberries at the store. I
didn't use them all. I realized my
mistake when I started going through the first few steps.
Then in step 4, I added 1/2 cup sugar rather than just
1/4 cup sugar. I don't think it altered
the recipe that much.
End result -
Trish loved it. I
thought it was okay. I thought it was a
very 'heavy' dessert with all the cream cheese and whipped cream. Although I don't eat a lot of cream cheese
to begin with. Trish does like cream
cheese. I would seriously think about
cutting the cream cheese to 1/3 cup or 1/4 cup.
It was also a lot of work and I went through a lot of bowls making
this. I almost don't think it was worth
the effort; but since Trish loved it, I'll probably make it again at some point
and I will remember to take a picture of it.
If I am going to go through that many bowls and make that much of a mess
though in the kitchen, I'll make the Cook's Illustrated Berry Fool
dessert.
This recipe is based on Cook's Illustrated Strawberry Mousse by Sara Mullins.
