Tuesday, September 6, 2011

White Chocolate Mousse Cups

An extremely simple but incredibly elegant pastry! You won't believe how simple it is!

White Chocolate Mousse Cups             by Erin Taylor

1 pkg. frozen Puff Pastry dough (in sheets, not cups)
1 egg white beaten with 2 tbsp. water

* Let pastry thaw for an hour or two before use. Preheat oven to 350 deg. Open up pastry and separate into two sheets. Cut each sheet along fold lines into thirds. Then cut each third into thirds so you have 9 squares per sheet. Spray muffin tin with non-stick cooking spray and place each square into muffin tin, pressing down bottoms and letting corners stick out over edges. (This will also work very nicely with the mini muffin tins). Brush each square with egg white mixture all over inside, and outer edges. Bake at 350 for 10 minutes or until golden brown. Let cool while making mousse recipe.


White Chocolate Mousse

8 oz (1 half bag) White Chocolate Chips (or block white chocolate chopped very small)

2 egg yolks

1/4 C Sugar

1 1/4 C. Heavy Cream

2 egg whites, beaten until stiff peaks form (optional)


Directions

Place chocolate in large bowl and set aside.


Add egg yolks and sugar to a small bowl and whisk until pale in color.


In saucepan over low heat, bring 1/4 C. of the cream to a simmer. Slowly add cream to egg yolk mixture while whisking to temper the eggs. Pour the creamy mixture back into the pan and stir with a wooden spoon until it coats the back of it.


Pour hot mixture (through mesh if it looks lumpy) into white chocolate and stir until completely smooth.


In another bowl whip remaining 1 C. of cream to almost stiff peaks. Fold the whipped cream in with the melted chocolate mixture. Be careful not to over mix, but gently fold. Add whipped egg whites at this point, also folding gently in.


Place in refridgerator for about an hour until ready to use.

*When mousse is cooled, spoon mousse into center of each puff pastry cup. (You may use a decorative tip with a pastry bag to make it look more professional.)  Fill all pastry cups then make ganache recipe below.


Dark Chocolate Ganache
1 C. dark chocolate chips
1/4 C. heavy cream

Heat cream until hot, but not boiling. Place chocolate chips in bowl and pour cream over chips. Let sit for 10 minutes and stirr chocolate until completely melted. If chocolate is too cool to melt, may microwave in 10 second intervals until melted.

Spoon mixture in baggie with small tip of one corner snipped off. (Or use pastry bag). Drizzle chocolate in zig-zags over each pastry. Place in refridgerator to cool and set. You may top each pastry with a raspberry, blueberries, strawberry or orange slice to decorate.

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