Strawberry Chocolate Mousse

The strawberry season is on its way out and luckily this year I had some lovely strawberries come my way - at the same time that I brought some home from this trip to Maharashtra, my upstairs neighbour also got us some from his trip to Pune - thanks D!

Of course, with this surfeit of juicy,red strawberries I had to do *something* with them - especially since 4 year old has major issues with fruits which go "squish" in the mouth (which rules out most of them) and hubby is also not a great fan. I can't eat too much of raw fruit at one go and keeping them for too long would see them going bad. So, I looked about for some nice recipes - done the upside down cake (and I see others have been grappling with the same problem!).

Simply Recipes by Elise is one of my favourite go-to sites when I am looking for something in particular and I wasn't disappointed. She has this gorgeous recipe for Strawberry Mousse made with white chocolate. I didn't have white chocolate - but when has that ever stopped my from trying something! I used dark chocolate and adapted the recipe and it was fine - a slightly sweetish, tart dessert. I did this silly thing of pouring a layer of chocolate at the bottom of the glass - but of course since I didn't mix it with cream, it stuck to the bottom once it was cold. So after finishing the dessert I would pop it into the microwave for about 10 secs and then eat up the dark chocolate!

Strawberry Chocolate Mousse

Strawberries - 700gm
Dark chocolate - 200gms
200ml fresh cream (I used Amul fresh cream, but heavy cream, if available, is preferable)
2 tsp gelatine
2 tbsp powdered sugar

1. Soak the strawberries in water for 3-4 minutes and clean well. Dry, hull and chop up the strawberries, reserving about 5-6 strawberries for garnish and puree the rest in a blender. Slice the reserved strawberries and keep aside.
Pass through a sieve to filter the puree and keep aside.
2. Meanwhile, chop the chocolate and melt over a double boiler - put the chopped pieces into a small vessel which can fit into a bigger,shallow bowl which has water in it and keep the flame so that the water is barely simmering till the chocolate melts and is smooth. Pour into a large bowl.
3. Take about 1/4 cup of room temperature water and sprinkle the gelatine over the surface of the water - keep for about 5 minutes and stir lightly till mixed in.
4. Pour about 1/3 cup of the cream into a heavy sauce pan, mix in the powdered sugar and heat on a low flame. Add the gelatine water into the sauce pan and stir till dissolved - about 2-3 minutes.
5. Pour the cream and gelatine mixture into the melted chocolate, add the strawberry puree and mix well till completely combined.
6. Beat the remaining cream with a blender on high speed till it thickens and forms peaks ( Since I used fresh cream I whipped it over a bowl of ice). Fold the whipped cream into the chocolate-strawberry puree mixture till just combined. Refrigerate for 1 hour.
7. Pour the strawberry chocolate mousse into shot glasses and garnish each one with a couple of the reserved strawberry slices. Chill in the refrigerator overnight after covering each glass with clingfilm.

Upside down Strawberry Yoghurt Cake

I bought some strawberries hoping that my daughter would like to try a new fruit (I dont remember ever buying strawberries in Chennai when she was younger, considering they cost the earth and then some) - she took a small bite and then very firmly told me "No berry amma!" shaking her pint sized head from side to side for added emphasis.

So that was that, as any mother of a 2.5 year old will tell you - and I was left holding a box of strawberries.
Both hubby and I are not strawberry lovers and we no longer live near a certain friend of ours who just loves strawberries in any form - even in her drinks!!! :)

Coincidentally,a few days later while searching for something else, I came across this recipe on Happy Burp which Vaishali made sound so simple, I just had to try it!

So I did, though instead of using strawberry yoghurt, I used plain yoghurt and added the fresh strawberries I had .
I reserved some to put on the base of the ring mould as a sort of an upside down cake and it made it look very pretty when it was done.
It seemed to remind me of those jam tart biscuits we used to get when we were young (pre Jurassic era!) - does anyone remember them? I haven't seen them at all since.

The proportions I used were exactly the same as the original recipe except that I didn't use a yoghurt pot but instead used one of my steel katoris (cups) which holds about 150ml of curd.

So 3 cups of flour (2 cups wheat flour and 1 cup refined flour) :2 cups of sugar:1 cup of yoghurt: 1/2 cup veg oil: 1 egg - as in the original recipe.

To this I added - 1 cup of chopped fresh strawberries and 1.5 tsp of baking powder and 4-5 tbsp of milk, since the batter seemed a bit too thick.

I reserved about 2 tbsp of the chopped strawberries and laid them out on the base of the greased cake tin and poured the batter over it.

Baked in a pre heated oven set at 180C/350F for about 35 minutes. Let cool for 5 minutes in the oven and then remove to a wire rack and let it cool completely.



The cake was moist and really soft. Since I had divided the cake batter into two portions, the second time around I left it in the oven for another 10 minutes after it was turned off, so that it was a bit more browned.

There was a faint aftertaste though and I'm not sure where that came from - accomplished bakers any ideas?.....but I would definitely make this again...

Thanks Vaishali - this recipe is a keeper!

This recipe is going to Bindiya's event "Few of my Favourite things" which she hosts on her blog In Love with Food and the month's theme is cakes and muffins