This Heavenly White Chocolate Mousse is delicate and light with subtle notes of fresh citrus and a hint of black pepper. The white chocolate and cheese bring added stability and richness to this mousse, without compromising texture. And this white chocolate mousse recipe holds up well overnight – making it a great make-ahead dessert that can be topped with fresh fruit right before serving.
Jump to RecipeMousse – the stuff that dessert dreams are made of
Mousse – richly decadent, yet airy and light. It’s the stuff that dessert dreams are made of. A good mousse will dissolve on your tongue like a cloud. Every bite is both sinful and heavenly at the same time.
When you break down the components of a mousse, it’s a very simple dessert consisting of a base and aerators. The base provides flavor, while the aerators, in the form of whipped cream and eggs (whites, yolks or even the whole egg) provide the mousse’s cloud-like texture. Sometimes the addition of stabilizers, such as chocolate, cheese or gelatin are used to help the mousse retain its form.
That’s it. Because it’s so simple, there’s nothing for the chef or home cook to hide behind. The preparation and flavors must be on point. For this reason, adopting the culinary principle of Mise en place (Meez ahn plahs) is essential to executing the perfect mousse every time. You’ve heard me talk about the importance of work stations and having ingredients and equipment ready to go. The practice of Mise en place ensures you have your equipment prepared and all ingredients measured correctly when you hit a critical stage in a recipe’s execution. This is especially the case when executing a technically involved recipe or one that requires a heightened level of safety.
For example, in my recipe for Tempting 2-Bite Sweet Potato Drop Doughnuts, I talk about the importance of having all your stations ready in advance, using the proper tools and wearing the proper clothing when working with hot oil to fry the doughnuts.
Heavenly White Chocolate Mousse – the sum of its parts
I honestly believe a little advanced preparation makes for a less stressful and enjoyable cooking experience overall. This recipe for Heavenly White Chocolate Mousse utilizes the principle of Mise en place from start to finish.
If you’ve been following my blog for a while, you may have noticed that I integrate Mise en place into my direction steps – calling for items to be prepped and set aside until it’s time to incorporate. This Heavenly White Chocolate Mousse recipe utilizes this same principle. We start by having all ingredients measured out and equipment staged for use.
We then melt the white chocolate and set it aside to cool while we go on to prepare the mixing bowl for the egg whites. Detergents and oils can keep egg whites from reaching their full potential, so we clean the bowl and beaters with lemon juice first to remove any residues. It’s a good practice any time you are working with egg whites that need to be whipped. Once the egg whites are whipped to stiff peaks, we set them aside until we are ready to finish the mousse.
In the next step, we whip the cream and cheese base and add the flavorings. This step only takes a couple minutes. By now the chocolate has cooled enough to integrate into the base. All that’s left to do is to combine the base with the whipped egg whites, which have been waiting on standby.
It’s now time to fill the glasses that we set aside earlier. You can use either a spoon or a piping bag to fill the glasses, but have those items “mise en place” as well. After a couple hours in the refrigerator, the mousse is ready to top and you can enjoy these Heavenly White Chocolate Mousse cups.
Heavenly White Chocolate Mousse
Course: DessertCuisine: AmericanDifficulty: Intermediate6
1/2-cup servings30
minutes2
hoursDelicate and light with subtle notes of fresh citrus and a hint of black pepper.
Ingredients
- For the mousse
4 oz. white chocolate, melted and cooled, but not set
4 oz. cream cheese
1/2 tsp. pure vanilla
2 Tbsp. maple syrup
2 tsp. fresh lemon juice (plus extra for cleaning the mixing bowl and beaters used for the egg whites)
1/4 tsp. fresh orange zest
1/4 tsp. kosher salt
1/8 tsp. ground black pepper
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream, well chilled
1/2 cup liquid egg whites, room temperature
- For topping the mousse
1 cup fresh strawberries, diced fine
1 orange, peeled, segments removed and cut fine
2 Tbsp. roasted/salted pistachios, chopped fine
Directions
- In a coffee cup, melt the white chocolate in the microwave in 10 second intervals until just melted. Stir between intervals to ensure no hot spots form and the chocolate melts evenly. This will take approximately 45 seconds to 1 minute total. Stir and set aside to cool.
- Prepare a small mixing bowl by wiping it out with a little lemon juice. Clean the beaters as well. Add the egg whites to the bowl. Using a hand mixer, beat the whites on high speed until stiff peaks form. Set aside.
- In a separate bowl, beat together the cream cheese, vanilla, maple syrup, lemon juice, orange zest, salt and pepper on high speed until creamy – approximately 30 seconds.
- Gradually add the whipping cream to the mixture on low speed until the cream is fully incorporated. Increase speed to high and whip until thick and fluffy – approximately 2 minutes.
- Working quickly, add the white chocolate to the cream mixture and whip thoroughly – making sure to get any chocolate that has splashed on the sides of the bowl before it has time to set. At this stage the mixture will be thick like whipped butter.
- Add 1/3 of the whipped egg whites to the cheese/cream/chocolate mixture and blend on slow to incorporate. This will loosen up the mixture considerably.
- Using a spatula, gently fold in the remaining egg whites in two separate batches.
- Pipe or spoon into serving cups and chill in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours before serving.
- Top with fresh strawberries, oranges and pistachios before serving.
