White Chocolate Mousse

With Raspberry Napaju

For me, a good place to immerse myself in deep thought is definitely a book store especially a Japanese book store. If they have a place to sit, that will be ideal….I take some cook books and go over to the children’s book section to browse-study… I mean to get inspired for my next blog post until my behind gets sore from sitting on the tiny wooden chair…

I came across this dormy…I mean dreamy dessert recipe by Yuuko Kumagai in her cook book, “Decoration method for Petit Gâteau” But where can I buy the dome shaped mold?  I stopped by my other favorite (usually just looking) store, Sur-la-Table to see if they have one…they did! The store clerk asked me what I am going to do with it…uh…hopefully to make mousse? It looks awfully difficult…but I was optimistic! I also checked their clearance sale corner to make sure I don’t need anything else I can’t live without…I must say their clearance pricing is leaving much to be desired…oops, did I say that out loud?

I mostly followed her recipe except napaju (shiny transparent coating)

Ingredients and Instructions to fill 4 - 3 inch diameter molds (Print Recipe Here)

For Biscuit – skip this process if you’re using store purchased sheet cake.

Equipment: rimmed cookie sheet, parchment paper or printer paper. Hand held mixer. Note: I doubled the biscuit recipe for a 12x 9 inch sheet cake.

• 1 egg white
• 30g sugar
• 1 egg yolk
• 30g low viscosity flour (薄力粉) sifted

1. Pre-heat oven to 375 F. Beat egg white until cloudy at low speed with hand held mixer then add sugar. Switch to high speed, beat until stiff peaks form.
2. Add egg yolk and stir lightly with rubber spatula. Sprinkle in the flour. Scoop batter up from bottom and gently fold until the flour blends in.  Do not over mix.
   
3. Spread batter to 10x 8 freeform on the parchment paper, Place on cookie sheet then bake for 8 - 9 minutes. Remove from pan and cool. Wrap in plastic paper while the cake is slightly warm to prevent drying.

For Mousse

Equipment: 4 stainless steel molds   I used dome shape. Get ready for ice bath (ice and cold water in large bowl)

• 200g milk
• 30g sugar
• 7g (1 packet) powder gelatin, soak in 50g of water -: pour water first in shallow bowl then sprinkle gelatin.
• 100g White chocolate shaved and put in a *medium bowl (A) *1 size smaller than ice bath bowl
  
• .
• Zest of 1 lemon
• 1-2 drops orange extract or 1 Tablespoon Cointreau (optional)
• 180g heavy cream, beat till very soft peak
• 50g frozen berries mix combine with raspberry jam below
• 15g Raspberry jam
  

1. Put milk and sugar in a small saucepan and heat till it just boils at medium heat. Remove from heat, add soaked gelatin and combine well.
2. Pour half of the milk mixture in to the bowl of white chocolate A. Whisk well to combine. Add rest of milk mixture and mix well. Add lemon mixture and orange extract or Cointreau combine well.
3. Carefully lower the white chocolate mixture bowl into the ice bath so that water will not get into the chocolate mixture.Whisk gently to thicken the chocolate mixture.
   
4. When the mixture is thick (but still loose), add very soft peak heavy cream in two separate stages. Continue to whisk till it thickens but is not solid and pourable. If it gets too thick then add heavy cream or milk (2-3 Tablespoons) to loosen.
   
5. Pour in the molds 2/3rd way up. Gently push1 Tablespoon of frozen berries mixed with raspberry jam in the center of mousse.Note; see the pic below, I put in too much! Aarrgh! Spoon in more mousse to cover the berries. Cut out biscuit cake one size smaller than mold. Place with the top side of the cake on bottom of the mousse, press. Put in the freezer until solid, 4-5 hours.
   
6. When the mousse is frozen solid, stick a fork in the middle. Grab the fork and directly heat the mold all around for about 20 seconds (the mold will start sweating). Support with the palm of your hand under the flat side of mold and slide the mousse out gently with the fork. Decorate with fruits, Chantilly cream, gurasaju or napaju (recipe below). Refrigerate for about 1 hour to defrost
   

For raspberry napaju

Whisk 100g of raspberry jam and 1 Tablespoon hot water and 2 Tablespoons corn syrup. Strain through a mesh to make ultra smooth napaju. Set up a wire rack over the rimmed pan. Pour the napaju over the mousse. Keep in the refrigerator to defrost about 1 hour. Note: there are many napaju methods available online.  Mine looks less dreamy I know…I made a few mistakes but it was good challenge! And délicieux!

Last week’s  Today’s TAPAS Instagram posts (#todaystapas)  were slanted towered dessert…heck…probably not so good for you…The churros I ate with fruits for a balanced diet! 

Mango pudding topped with mango puree was for a friend who is on the mend.

We attended an Emergency Preparedness Fair coordinated by our church last Saturday. It was very educational event…how to store food and water safely, how much food we need to survive first 72 hours etc.…There were scratch and sniff card at the Northwest Gas Company booth… do you know how bad natural gas leaks smell?…gag…it wasn’t me!
I thought this Mt. St. Helen eruption photo from 1980 was something!

May 18th, 1980, my husband and I looked up the direction people were pointing out and saw the massive cloud of black smoke, visible in Portland… It was a really frightening sight.

Thank you for visiting, always grateful for your kind comments. Pleasure to know you through your fantastic blogs. I just want to say, keep going…you may not be aware of it but you are inspiring someone today with your message.

My husband and I are heading to Japan soon…see you in a few weeks.