April 9, 2015 48 Comments

Strawberry Mousse with Lemon Whipped Cream

Name: Strawberry Mousse with Lemon Whipped Cream
Prep time: 60 min
Cook time: 15 min
Total time: 75 min
Ingredients: 2 pounds of fresh strawberries, (plus more for garnishing (about 1 cup chopped)); 1/2 cup granulated sugar, (divided); pinch of salt; 1 3/4 teaspoons unflavored gelatin ((1 package)); 4 ounces cream cheese, (cut into 8 pieces, at room temperature); 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream; 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream; 2 tablespoons granulated sugar; 1 teaspoon lemon zest; 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

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Creamy Strawberry Mousse with Lemon Whipped Cream - Fresh and lightly sweet, this is the perfect spring dessert and a terrific way to use the seasons best strawberries! www.savingdessert.com #savingroomfordessert #strawberry #mousse #strawberrydessert #strawberrymousse

Creamy Strawberry Mousse with Lemon Whipped Cream – Fresh and lightly sweet, this is the perfect spring dessert and a terrific way to use the best strawberries of the season!

Are you a fan of Cook’s Illustrated? Their magazines are the only ones that I don’t recycle after removing the interesting recipes. I hang on to each and every one. It may be because it’s the most expensive magazine I subscribe to and it may be that I love their recipes. I’ve only found one recipe that wasn’t perfect as written and I had no trouble at all with this delicious recipe for Strawberry Mousse with Lemon Whipped Cream.

The May / June 2014 issue of Cook’s Illustrated features an article about how to coax the most (flavor) out of grocery store strawberries. I was intrigued and felt the recipe was worth a try. It’s hard to get consistently juicy, flavorful strawberries but I do my due diligence and inspect probably a dozen packages before taking one home.

This recipe calls for 2 lbs of fresh strawberries. Once you clean the berries and remove the hulls, you’ll have about 1 3/4 lbs.

Process 1/2 of the strawberries in a food processor until most pieces are 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick. This took about 10 short pulses. Repeat with the remaining strawberries.

red ripe strawberries chopped in a food processor

Be careful not to over-process the strawberries. Place the processed strawberries in a medium mixing bowl and toss with 1/4 cup of sugar and a pinch of salt. Cover and allow the strawberries to rest for 45 minutes, stirring occasionally. Don’t wash the food processor yet – you’ll need it again in a minute.

Strain the strawberries through a fine-mesh sieve into a large bowl. You should have about 2/3 to 3/4 cup of juice.

Remove 3 tablespoons of the juice into a small bowl. Sprinkle unflavored gelatin on top and let it rest for about 5 minutes.

Take the remaining juice and place it in a small saucepan. Heat on medium-high and cook until the juice is reduced to about 3 tablespoons, this should take about 10 minutes. Remove the saucepan from the heat and add the softened gelatin. Stir until the gelatin is dissolved. Pour the gelatin mixture to a large bowl and add the cream cheese. Whisk until the cream cheese is fully incorporated.

While the juice is cooking down, take the strained strawberries back to the food processor and pulse until smooth. Strain through the fine mesh sieve using a spoon to press the solids and extract all the juice. Once all the pulp and juice is extracted, discard the seeds and solids.

Add the strawberry puree into the bowl with the gelatin and cream cheese mixture.

Whisk until smooth. Beat 1/4 cup of heavy whipping cream until soft peaks form. Gradually add 1/4 cup of sugar and whip until stiff peaks form. Gently whisk the whipped cream into the strawberry mixture until fully incorporated.

strawberry mousse with lemon whipped cream

Divide the strawberry mousse into serving dishes or stemware. Cover with a small piece of plastic wrap and chill for at least 4 hours, or overnight.

Garnish with diced strawberries and lemon whipped cream if desired.

This recipe delivers as promised. The mousse is full of strawberry flavor and the small amount of cream cheese creates a wonderful texture.

Don’t skip the lemon whipped cream. The zing from the tart lemon really works well with this dessert.

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