My First Try to Mercotte’s Mousse
It is Wednesday and I think a little treat is not going to kill us. The sun is finally back, and it is amazing how much better I already feel just looking at its yellow bright colour! Who said that talking about the weather was boring?
So…
Does this cake ring a bell? It probably does if you have been lucky enough to explore the beautiful sweet creations that Mercotte makes. I am not typically a pastry maker by preference (I would always prefer a piece of cheese with bread to jam), but Mercotte has this talent to make you want to eat pastry. Really, she can turn a savoury tooth into a sweet one. “What is up with that?” I am thinking. What am I doing making all those cakes? It is not like I have 12 children’s sweet teeth to satisfy. I however did not think twice and one day by early morning, I decided I wanted to try. After all, I could perhaps make delicate individual cakes myself, even if I can be sometimes like un éléphant dans un magasin de porcelaine (an elephant in a china store were my uncle’s words when I was 14 but of course, this is outdated today as times have changed). I felt nervous and anxious to start, and see whether it was going to work. Since I love to use ring molds and make individual portions, the project sounded fair and suitable.
Pas mal! (not bad!)
Miam, c’est bon! (yum, it is good!)
Is what I thought.
The flavours were lovely and although not perfect looking as pointed out by my best critics (can I give names), I was happy. And that counts too.
What did I do differently though?
*I changed the flavour of the mousse and added lime juice to make the mousse.
*I used more gelatin for the gelée since when trying with the suggested 1/4 gelatin sheet, the jelly was a bit runny.
*Instead of using warm cream to dissolve the gelatin sheet, I placed the gelatin in a metallic bowl placed over a pot full of simmering water, in order to dissolve it.
What is the cake?
A very light mascarpone lime mousse topped with raspberry jelly, fresh raspberries, lime peels and confectioner’s sugar. Delicious for any person who loves zesty preparations.
A few things that were helpful:
-Feel free to change the freezing cooling time if you see the mascarpone preparation is not set to continue to top with the next layer on top.
-You need ring molds. (I used 4 ring molds 3″x 2.5″)
-You need plastic liners (although plastic wrap can work as well but maybe harder to work with).
-Always make sure your cream is cold to whip in chantilly.
-Use gelatin sheets if you can as they are much easier to use (easy for me to say as I am more used to them, n’est-ce pas?) – A dry gelatin sheet = 2 g.
-As mentioned, I needed a bit more gelatin than suggested for the gelée and used 1/2 gelatin sheet for 3.5 oz of rapsberry juice. I also asked our pastry master David L about equivalence rules for gelatin use and his answer was the following:
We can assume that the general rule is:
-
4 gelatin sheets = 1 envelope
Note: there are different strength in gelatin and it is really hard to be fully precise. I had to test myself a few times. Use whichever you feel more comfortable with. I am personally more comfortable with sheets, which can be found online in the United States.
You need:
For the mousse
- 2 eggs
- 1.5 oz (40 g) sugar
- 3.5 oz (100g) mascarpone
- 1 lime zest
- 1 lime juice
- 2/3 cup (15 cl) heavy cream
- 1 gelatin sheet (2 g)
- 1 tsp confectioner sugar
For the gelée
- 7 oz (200g) raspberries
- 2 Tbsp (about 40 g) sugar
- 1/2 gelatin sheet
For the decoration
- A few raspberries
- Lime peels
- Confectioner’s sugar
Steps:
For the mousse
- Start by mixing well together the egg yolks with the sugar with an electric mixer, until very light.
- Add the mascarpone cheese and the lime zest and juice and mix well.
- Soak your gelatin sheet in cold water for 5 mns and then drain well.
- Melt it in a metallic bowl placed over simmering water, before adding to the mascarpone preparation.
- Whip the cold heavy cream until you get firm whipped cream.
- Fold it gently into the lime mascarpone preparation.
- Beat the egg whites firm and just before they get fully firm, add 1 tsp confectioner sugar.
- Add again by folding carefully into the preparation.
- Take 4 ring molds and place a plastic liner* inside.
- Pipe the lime preparation in the molds with a decoration bag and place in the freezer for 10 mns, or until it gets set.
For the gelée
- Melt the raspberries with sugar on medium heat and strain to remove the seeds.
- Soak your gelatin sheet in cold water for 5 mns, then squeeze water out and add to the raspberry coulis. Mix together
- Let cool down in the fridge until it starts to get firmer.
- Pour it slowly on top of the lime cream and place in the fridge so that it fully gets firm (this can take a few hours).
- To finish and when the jelly is set, remove the ring mold and plastic liner and decorate with more fruit, raspberries in my case, lime peels and confectioner’s sugar.
*Plastic liners can be bought in specialized stores such as www.jbprince.com.
Et voilà!
Le coin francais
La recette de Mercotte est là, mais vous le savez sans doute déjà! J’ai eu besoin d’utiliser plus de gélatine que le 1/4 de feuille proposé par Mercotte dans la recette car ma gelée ne prenait pas la première fois. Merci Mercotte, c’était délicieux, surtout pour une première fois!
Mon dieu mon dieu , c’est me fait encore plus envie que la première fois chez Mercotte ! citrons verts + framboises mes 2 fruits préférés en dessert !
Well, you know if you ever make too much dessert, I will be more than happy to eat some for you!
Bea,
Don’t you love working with ring molds? Your dessert would satisy my sweet tooth for sure – raspberry and lime, mmm!
I am in love with that dessert. Those rasberries look amazingly plump and juicy!
Je regarde tes photos, et voila enfin un dessert qui me fait vraiment envie. Depuis que je lis Mercotte, j’ai une envie soudaine de faire des desserts, et la, avec cette photo, tu vas faire deborder le vase.
Superbe interprétation Béa ! et toutes mes félicitations ! je trouve que si on met trop de gélatine la gelée est compacte, je l’aime tremblotante !! mais effectivement on peut en mettre un peu plus…pas beaucoup….
sous le charme… tout simplement!
Attends , attends, je prends une petite cuillère pour goûter!!!!
Waou, it’s beautiful and Mercotte is a big baker … I like her blog …
Bea, first of all that dessert looks superb, brava! Secondly, the most pressing thing on my mind is the gelatin sheet(s). It is still one ingredient that I don’t feel comfortable working with because I’ve used the powdered stuff all my life. I can find gelatin sheets back in Italy and the dimensions are about, oh… 3×4 inches (7.5x10cm). Is this the size that you’re using?
Superbe ! Bravo !
Ben moi, je l’avais loupé chez mercotte, mais à voir cette superbe réalisation chez toi, ça ne peut que donner trèèèèèèèès envie!!!
(P.S: ça y est, tu as fini ta période fraises??)
Mais comment fait-elle pour TOUT réussir ?!!!!!!!!!! Est ce que tu rates des trucs aussi parfois ?? Allez dis-oui… juste pour être sympa…
your dessert is spectacular. so pretty.
my friends’ll be visiting me next week. i’d like to make this for them!!
wish me luck.
ps. i should practice first, though. the first one is for me 🙂
ooh, this sounds great!
hi bea, absolutely gorgeous! the combination of flavours and textures sounds like a piece of heaven
yum! mascarpone is my favorite! and i have been on quite the citrus fix these days, so this absolutely floats my boat. i’m thinking perhaps you need to get some kind of mail-order business going…. hee hee!
je ne sais pas si tu devrais être classée Utilité publique ou au contraire Attention dangeureux risque d’attaque.
enfin moi je m’en fiche, j’aime, j’adhère même si je regarde de façon bizarre l’écran de mon ordinateur.
c’est superbe!!
Framboises et lime? Pourquoipas. J’ai faim.
Tarzile
AH Cathy, il va falloir que tu t’y mettes alors!
Natalie, ahhah, of course!
Anita, yes I love ring molds!
Ellie, thank you!
Gracianne, non pas vrai! 😉 Il faut toi aussi que tu t’y mettes alors!
Mercotte, mais c’est merci à toi pour ce superbe dessert!
Althya, merci!
Choupette, trop tard, y’en a plus!
Fabienne, yes Mercotte is pretty amazing when it comes to convincing people to eat pastry, isn’t she? 😉
Rowena, yes this is the size, which I would think is pretty standard. Dry a sheet weighs 2 g.
Merci Marie.
Avital, comment as-tu fait pour râté celui-là?? Et la période de fraises continue, je dois juste écrire les recettes!
Framboise, non je te rassure, tu vas pouvoir mieux dormir, je rate aussi des trucs et ca ne me met en géné pas de bonne humeur du tout!
😉
Yuka, great idea! Yes I agree, it is always a good idea to practice before. I always do if I have guests coming around to avoid bad surprises!
Kat, thanks, as usual!
J, thanks a lot, yes I agree lime and raspberries are pretty amazing together!
Krysten, can you be my business advicer then? 😉
Anne, ahahh, mais non. Je suis douce et si bonne pour tout le monde! Ne ferais pas de mal à une mouche! 😉
Flo et Tarzile, merci, moi aussi j’ai faim tiens tout d’un coup!
My favourite is how you can see the lime zest in the mousse. Delicious!
Bea, your lime mousse with raspberries looks absolutely wonderful!
Hmm beau et bon en plus ça vient de chez Mercotte !
Que dire d’autre.
Peut-être un peu plus de framboises pour moi;o)
Merci Béa
Oh too gorgeous! You are the Queen of Gorgeousness!! hehe
God that is gorgeous. A work of art. And I am sure it tastes utterly divine
Thanks Ivonne, Sam, Thalie, Bron and Gabriella!
Wow, that’s soo good looking !!!!
I am always looking and looking for good raspberry recipes, and anxiously waiting for the picking season to start here in Oregon. Thanks for posting.
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Yuuum, cannot wait to make thiiis