• Recipe: Vanilla Mousse with Blueberry-Strawberry Sauce

    by  • March 11, 2006 • dessert • 2 Comments

    This is it: the entry that almost wasn’t.

    After my debacle with the zwieback, I knew I had to pull off a quick miracle to get my entry ready for my premiere Sugar High Friday. So I turned to my bookcase stuffed with cookbooks to come up with a great recipe worth of the dairy theme.

    As I flipped through Low-Fat Vegetarian Cooking by Jenny Stacey, a book I’ve had since it was released, I came upon a recipe I’ve gazed at many times and considered making. But honestly, I am not sure I was ever ready to create it before now. The recipe is for Vanilla Mousse, and I had all of the ingredients save one – so I think it was fated.

    Of course, I had to put my own spin on the creation. My version technically isn’t vegetarian because I was unable to locate vegetarian gelatin in time. Also, I had to substitute regular granulated sugar for vanilla sugar. And finally, the recipe calls for a raspberry sauce that looks and sounds delicious, but I wanted to do something all my own so I created a fantastic blueberry strawberry sauce.

    So, here it goes.

    Vanilla Mousse
    serves 4-6
    1 1/4 cups plain yogurt (the book calls for low-fat, I used non-fat)
    2/3 cup cream cheese (the book calls for low-fat again, but I used regular)
    1 tsp vanilla extract
    4 tbsp granulated sugar (the book calls for vanilla sugar)
    1 tbsp sherry (the recipe says you can use brandy, if you prefer)
    4 tbsp cold water
    2 tsp gelatin (the recipe calls for the vegetarian variety, but I could only find Knox)
    2 large egg whites
    • Combine yogurt, cream cheese, vanilla extract, sugar and sherry in a blender or food processor and blend until smooth (about 30 seconds). Pour mixture into a mixing bowl and let sit.
    • In a small saucepan, place cold water and stir in gelatin until dissolved. Heat on medium to boiling and let mixture boil two minutes. Remove from heat and let cool for 1-2 minutes. Be sure not to let it sit too long though, as it will solidify upon standing and you don’t want that. Trust me.
    • Stir gelatin mixture into the yogurt mixture.
    • In a small mixing bowl, beat the egg whites with a wire whisk until soft peaks form.
    • Stir egg whites into yogurt mixture.
    • Line a loaf pan with plastic wrap and pour the mixture into the pan. Chill for at least two hours, or until set. Remove plastic wrap and place on a plate.
    Blueberry-Strawberry Sauce
    1/2 cup blueberries
    water
    8 strawberries
    2 tbsp powdered sugar
    1 tbsp lime juice
    • Steam blueberries over water for 5 minutes. Place into blender (with 1/4 cup water) and blend until smooth. Set aside and let cool.
    • Hull the strawberries. Add to the blender with cooled blueberry mixture. Sift in powdered sugar and add lime juice.
    • Blend on medium until smooth.
    To Serve: Place a slice of mousse on a plate and spoon sauce around. Garnish with strawberries, blueberries or mint leaves.
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    About

    Sarah W. Caron is a freelance writer, editor and recipe developer.

    2 Responses to Recipe: Vanilla Mousse with Blueberry-Strawberry Sauce

    1. McAuliflower
      March 11, 2006 at 7:52 pm

      Mmm, what variety of gelatin did she recommend as being vegetarian? I’m curious for future experiments.

      I think you could tag this with low fat too!

    2. Sarah
      March 11, 2006 at 8:54 pm

      She actually didn’t recommend a brand of it. I’m going to look around at some natural food stores here and see what I can come up with because I would rather use a vegetarian version…I’ll post if I find some.

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