Whew! Crazy week... high time for an update! This mousse gave me a bit of trouble last week, but it was well worth it. Quite sweet (dare I say too sweet?) and best eaten in (very) small quantities, this triple-layer mousse is a challenge to make and a delight to eat. I recommend it after a salty entree.
Triplir Mousse: Chocolate, Salted Butter Caramel, Vanilla
[Adapted from Tartelette: http://www.mytartelette.com/2009/09/recipe-vanillasalted-butter-caramel-and.html]
[Note: you want to prepare the caramel part of this triplr mousse first as it needs to cool down properly before being incorporated to the rest of the base.]
For the caramel:
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 2 Tablespoons water
- 1/2 teaspoon fleur de sel or fine sea salt
- 1/4 cup heavy cream
- 2 teaspoons unsalted butter
For the chocolate:
- 4 oz dark semisweet chocolate
For the vanilla mousse base:
- 4 egg yolks (really, really no whites here)
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 1 cup whole milk
- 1/2 vanilla bean (or 1/2 to 1 teaspoon of extract)
- 1 Tb powdered gelatin, sprinkled over 3 Tb water
- 1 cup heavy cream
For the garnish:
- Handful of fresh or frozen berries (I used frozen blueberries)
- Powdered sugar
Directions:
Prepare the caramel:
1. Place the sugar and water in a medium heavy bottomed saucepan and bring to a boil over high heat. DO NOT STIR. (Unless, of course, your heating element is uneven and burns one edge like mine did. In that case, you have full permission to stir wildly while fanning out the smoke and badmouthing the electrician. If this happens, assume the burned parts will make the rest of it sufficiently caramelized and skip to step 3.)
2. Continue to cook until caramel in color.
3. Remove from the heat and add the salt, heavy cream and butter. Stir with a wooden spoon until completely smooth.
4. Let cool to room temperature.
Prepare the chocolate:
1. In a medium bowl set over a pan of simmering water, melt the chocolate until smooth. (Note: melting chocolate this way does NOT mean it will never burn. It will still burn, and it will wait until you've looked away to do so. Ergo, DON'T LEAVE IT ALONE. If it does happen to burn as mine did, add a tablespoon of canola oil and 1/4 tsp. butter (or smaller amounts, if it didn't burn all that much) and mix to combine, heating if necessary. Not perfect, but it gets the clumps out.)
2. Remove from the heat and let cool to room temperature.
Prepare the (vanilla) mousse base:
1. In a large bowl, whisk the egg yolks with the sugar until very pale.
2. In the meantime, in a large saucepan set over medium heat, bring the milk and the vanilla bean (split open and scraped over the milk) to a boil.
3. Slowly pour the milk over the yolks, whisking constantly. (Slowly means REALLY SLOWLY. I did this too fast the first time and ended up with scrambled eggs. Tasty, but not mousse. I took a full few minutes to drip the milk in the second time, and it worked marvelously. Also, if you have any whites in with your yolks, the mixture will foam uncontrollably at this point. You can either hope that the next step will work, turn the mixer down and fold the foam into the creme, or try it again with no whites.)
4. Pour the mixture back into the saucepan over medium low heat and cook until the cream coats the back of a spoon (as if making creme anglaise) [NOTE: DO NOT COOK TOO LONG, YOU WILL MAKE SCRAMBLED EGGS! You only need enough heat to melt the gelatine, which isn't much at all. I set mine down on the heat for as long as it took to plop the gelatine into the pot, stirring constantly. I then removed it from the heat to melt the gelatine in. Works fine, and saves the anguish of scrambling]. Add the softened gelatin and stir until melted completely into the cream.
5. Let cool to room temperature.
6. Whip the heavy cream to soft peaks and fold it into the cooled cream base. Divide the base into three equal portions (one will stay untouched).
Assemble:
1. Add a couple of tablespoons of the base to the caramel to lighten it a bit and stir with a spoon.
2. Gently fold the rest of the alloted mousse base into the caramel with a spatula.
3. Do the same for the chocolate portion.
4. Layer all three parts evenly into dishes or ramekins.
5. Sift sugar on top, garnish with berries and refrigerate for at least an hour.
[HUGE ASIDE: When layering, decide on your order beforehand. The chocolate is the heaviest, followed by the caramel and then the vanilla. Helene layered hers lightest to heaviest, as I did, and the chocolate fell right through to the center, having coagulated early. If you plan to layer the hard way, I recommend splitting the mousse base in thirds, layering in the vanilla portion, and sticking your dishes in the fridge or freezer while you mix the caramel layer. Layer that one on (sllloooowwwwllllyyyy), fridge. Mix chocolate, layer. Don't wait too long between layers, as the vanilla base will start mousse-ing pretty soon after you let it cool down. The gelatine does its thing and makes the mousse moussey. Cooling between layers lets the lighter one set up a bit before layering something heavier on top. If it still falls through though, don't fret; each layer is strong enough that they'll striate and not intermingle too much. The tastes will be preserved! =) ]
6. Enjoy!
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