We’re closing in on the 11th anniversary of this project, and if I ever have hopes of finishing it (which I still do), I need to figure out a strategy. I’ve spent enough time in my real life learning how to “professionally” manage projects, so I’ll apply some of that here and aim to knock out at least one recipe a week until I finish everything non-meat-related. Then I might just dump the rest online and call it a day.
You don’t care about any of this–you’re here to read about 15-46: Mousse Casablanca, right? Everyone wants to “jump to the recipe” already.
Blah blah something about how this is fancy and 80s.
Here’s the thing with this recipe–it seems too “kiddy” to be an adult dessert recipe, but is also something you most likely wouldn’t serve to kids (unless you grew up as a quasi-adult like I did). I’m not sure who this is supposed to be for?
I couldn’t find any comparable recipes to this, but I’ll be honest that I really didn’t put that much effort into it. I don’t think it has anything to do with Casablanca, though.
It does kind of remind me of spumoni. When was the last time you had a good spumoni? It’s been a while for me.
Ingredients. I used store-bought biscotti for the almond biscuits and some leftover cacao nibs for the chocolate curls. They are not as sweet (or fancy) as chocolate curls, but they get the job done and it’s time to finish them off.
Trying a new thing where I show more of the measured-out ingredients (cooking-show style) rather than the packages themselves. Also took all these pictures with my phone instead of the same DSLR camera I’ve used since the beginning.
Soaking the gelatin in water–might have overfilled slightly.
Separating the eggs into yolks, whites, and shells (for compost/green trash).
About to cream the yolks and sugar in the stand mixer.
Measuring out the half-and-half. I’m always slightly over, it seems.
Eggs and sugar are finally creamed.
Half-and-half is heating up on the stove. I transferred the gelatin/water to a bowl since once it gets combined with the other ingredients, it’ll need to chill.
After combining the gelatin/water with the thickened egg mixture. I kept waiting for the egg mixture to get to a full custard/curd on the stove, but it never quite gets that thick.
Using my new mini-food processor (I upgraded to this one from a little Cuisinart, and I still have the BIG Cuisinart as well), I gave my biscottis a chop.
After processing.
I just love this thing. I did the cherries in it too, except for the few I saved for garnish.
Those extra cherries got cut in half to top each mousse. The walnuts took a trip through the processor as well, but I didn’t include a picture of that…I figured you had the idea.
Whipped cream (left), whipped egg whites (middle), and cold egg mixture (right). Same idea–saved you pictures of some of the stuff you’ve seen a million times.
In the midst of combining it all.
So, here’s my plan to keep the calories down on this–cut the servings in half and freeze most of them so we only have to eat them one round at a time.
I’ll use my extensive Pyrex collection to facilitate this–they’re not fancy mousse cups, but they get the job done.
After distributing amongst the dozen Pyrex cups.
Topping each one with a cherry (pictured) and cacao nib (not pictured) garnish.
You can see about how full each 1-cup Pyrex container is–those are 280 calories each! Sorry, I’m no fun anymore when it comes to this stuff.
Close-up of the two I kept out for dessert after they chilled in the fridge for a while.
Final picture–they make nice little dessert parfaits, but I don’t know if it’s something super exciting. And definitely not for 280 calories a pop (even when cut in half). I’d maybe do them again for a party, but not for something everyday.
Grade: B
