Chief
12-21-2006, 04:41 PM
This year my wife found a matching pair of inexpensive trifle dishes with flat sides and stands, and we have been finding excuses to serve trifles at gatherings as often as we can. (Remind me to tell you about Berry Misu some time....)
This is not a recipe as much as a description of technique. Anyone who is willing to read about trifles knows how to make mousse. I'm planning a trfle as follows...
Using Lindt Excellence 85% Cocoa Dark Chocolate, and heavy cream with at least 40% butterfat, make a gelatin stabilized chocolate mousse. Leave out any alcohol and/or liqueuer flavorings, because believe me this chocolate makes a statement all on it's own. My mousse recipe calls for 10 ounces or 300 grams of good quality melting chocolate, and the Lindt certainly fits that bill. I'm also tossing in another bar, or 100 grams just for good measure.
Using the same 40% heavy cream, whip 4 cups of cream to soft peaks and stabilize it with gelatin as well. With the mixer on low speed, add 1 cup of sifted 10X sugar and blend thoroughly. Drizzle in a half cup of Contreau, (or lesser orange flavored liqueuer). Once blended, finish the cream to stiff peaks and don't over whip. Cover it and keep it handy, Don't refrigerate it yet or the gelatin will set and ruin it.
At Gateway Produce on Andresen, between Mill Plain and Fouth Plain, they sell a good sized bag of ladyfinger cookies that are the perfect size for this recipe. A whole bag costs under three bucks, as opposed to three buck a dozen a Zupans... You will need 1 bag of these per trifle. They are very crisp cookies, almost hard to the touch, and are perfect for any kind of trifle.
Juice about four ripe oranges per trifle, and strain out any pulp and seeds. Taste the juice. Judge the acidity of the juice and sweeten it enough to please your palate. It may be necessary for your to heat the juice while stirring rapidly to ensure that the sugar is dissolved. Cool the juice completely. Flavor it with as much Contreau, (or lesser orange liqueuer) as pleases your palate, but the juice should have a distinct hit from the Contreau.
To assemble...
Take several packages of the ladyfingers out of the plastic so you can easily grab them quckly. Take a cookie, dip it rapidly and completely in the orange juice, and stick it vertically on the inside of the dish. Keep going all the way around inside of the dish until you have filled most of the space. They should be close enoug to support one anohter but some gap is OK. I keep an entire stack of kitchen towels on hand during this process because it gets really sticky, really fast.
I use a large pastry bag to pipe mousse and whipped cream, but you can spoon it as well. Fill about one third of the dish with the chocolate mousse. Keep the layer nice and level and try to gently fill any gaps between the cookies.
Next, pipe in a thin but complete layer of the flavored whipped cream. This layer should be about an inch thick.
Next goes a final layer of the mousse. This is where the big pastry bag comes in handy to get everything filled evenly and look good to boot. You can trim out the top with the remainder of the whipped cream.
Put everything in the fridge overnight and let the gelatin set. The consistency at serving is to be experienced, and this chocolate is some amazing stuff to make mousse with. The ladyfinger cookies will completely rehydrate from the juice and be a cake like consistency with a smooth orange hit, the whipped cream will have a mild contreau flavor, but that Chocolate will stand all by itself.
The beauty of this recipe is that you can make this with any flavor you want. Raspberry against this chocolate would be a near-religious experience...
Get the chocolate at World Market, and the heavy cream in half gallons at Cash and Carry.
Enjoy!
;D
This is not a recipe as much as a description of technique. Anyone who is willing to read about trifles knows how to make mousse. I'm planning a trfle as follows...
Using Lindt Excellence 85% Cocoa Dark Chocolate, and heavy cream with at least 40% butterfat, make a gelatin stabilized chocolate mousse. Leave out any alcohol and/or liqueuer flavorings, because believe me this chocolate makes a statement all on it's own. My mousse recipe calls for 10 ounces or 300 grams of good quality melting chocolate, and the Lindt certainly fits that bill. I'm also tossing in another bar, or 100 grams just for good measure.
Using the same 40% heavy cream, whip 4 cups of cream to soft peaks and stabilize it with gelatin as well. With the mixer on low speed, add 1 cup of sifted 10X sugar and blend thoroughly. Drizzle in a half cup of Contreau, (or lesser orange flavored liqueuer). Once blended, finish the cream to stiff peaks and don't over whip. Cover it and keep it handy, Don't refrigerate it yet or the gelatin will set and ruin it.
At Gateway Produce on Andresen, between Mill Plain and Fouth Plain, they sell a good sized bag of ladyfinger cookies that are the perfect size for this recipe. A whole bag costs under three bucks, as opposed to three buck a dozen a Zupans... You will need 1 bag of these per trifle. They are very crisp cookies, almost hard to the touch, and are perfect for any kind of trifle.
Juice about four ripe oranges per trifle, and strain out any pulp and seeds. Taste the juice. Judge the acidity of the juice and sweeten it enough to please your palate. It may be necessary for your to heat the juice while stirring rapidly to ensure that the sugar is dissolved. Cool the juice completely. Flavor it with as much Contreau, (or lesser orange liqueuer) as pleases your palate, but the juice should have a distinct hit from the Contreau.
To assemble...
Take several packages of the ladyfingers out of the plastic so you can easily grab them quckly. Take a cookie, dip it rapidly and completely in the orange juice, and stick it vertically on the inside of the dish. Keep going all the way around inside of the dish until you have filled most of the space. They should be close enoug to support one anohter but some gap is OK. I keep an entire stack of kitchen towels on hand during this process because it gets really sticky, really fast.
I use a large pastry bag to pipe mousse and whipped cream, but you can spoon it as well. Fill about one third of the dish with the chocolate mousse. Keep the layer nice and level and try to gently fill any gaps between the cookies.
Next, pipe in a thin but complete layer of the flavored whipped cream. This layer should be about an inch thick.
Next goes a final layer of the mousse. This is where the big pastry bag comes in handy to get everything filled evenly and look good to boot. You can trim out the top with the remainder of the whipped cream.
Put everything in the fridge overnight and let the gelatin set. The consistency at serving is to be experienced, and this chocolate is some amazing stuff to make mousse with. The ladyfinger cookies will completely rehydrate from the juice and be a cake like consistency with a smooth orange hit, the whipped cream will have a mild contreau flavor, but that Chocolate will stand all by itself.
The beauty of this recipe is that you can make this with any flavor you want. Raspberry against this chocolate would be a near-religious experience...
Get the chocolate at World Market, and the heavy cream in half gallons at Cash and Carry.
Enjoy!
;D