Orange Fromage / Orange Mousse
Orange mousse - airy and delicious © kvalifood.com
I know it from my childhood in the seventies. It was a classic recipe here in Denmark. But it has been somewhat of the radar for the last few decades. That is a shame since it is an excellent dessert. It is easy to make and inexpensive to boot. It is also a very good recipe to combine with other desserts. Especially if they include chocolate. This recipe is very simple, but I include a trick for pimping it up a little. Involving jelly and cake.
The principle of enough orange mousse is: 1 egg per person, 1 leaf of gelatin per egg and 25 g sugar per egg. So now you can make up your own recipe :-) Well ok. I will make an example :-)
approx. 4 servings
Ingredients
- 4 eggs
- 4 leaves (7 g) of gelatin
- 100 g (3½ oz) sugar
- 1 orange. Zest and juice
- 1/2 lemon, juice of (optional)
Directions
Put the 4 leaves of gelatin in a bowl of cold water until the become soft.
Grate the orange peel and squeeze the juice out of the orange. Add it to a mall bowl.
Squeeze half a lemon and put the juice into the small bowl.
Separate the yolks and whites into two bowls.
Remove the gelatin from the cold water. Squeeze out any excess water with your hands.
Put the gelatin into the orange juice.
Set the bowl of gelatin and juice into another bowl filled with hot tap water. That is usually enough to melt the gelatin.
Stir with a fork until all the gelatin has melted.
Put most of the sugar (3/4) into the egg yolks. Whisk the yolks until the sugar is dissolved.
Slowly put the rest of the sugar into the whites and whisk until they are stiff. When the bottom of the bowl can be flipped in the air without the whites falling out, they are stiff enough.
Put the juice and gelatin into the whipped egg yolks. Mix it quickly to avoid gelatin lumps.
Fold the egg/gelatin mixture into the whipped egg whites. Carefully so you beat as little air out of the whites as possible. We want it fluffy. Remember?
When it is completely mixed, pour and scrape it into a serving dish and put it in a cold for a few hours. Preferably your refrigerator.
Garnish with whipped cream and serve.
An extra little trick
When I serve this orange mousse I usually give it a tasty decorative boost.
Add a cake base in the bottom of a spring form.
Cover it with a half portion ganache .
Pour the mousse on top of the cake base. Make sure the surface is perfectly flat. For example, with a palette knife.
Cool it down for an hour or two.
Cover the top of the mousse with 3-4 dl (1¼-1½ cup) orange jelly, depending on the diameter of the spring form and let it cool a few more hours until the gel has solidified.
The mousse now looks like a cake and can be cut out in 8 or 12 pieces. The cake base and the gel makes it stick together, so it does not collapse when you cut out the pieces.
The top of the cake consists of a clear yellow gel that makes it look like a million.
Notes
1 danish sheet of gelatin is 1.8 g. Which a little more than 1/20 of an oz.