Tropical Mango Mousse

When it's mango season in the tropics, one of our favourite ways to eat them as a dessert is in egg free and creamy Mango Mousse. Fresh or frozen mangoes can be used for this recipe. It's the perfect dessert to enjoy on a hot Summer's Day and over the Australia Day long weekend, which we are enjoying right now. However, I think you will love this dessert, anywhere and anytime.

When we were in Cairns at Christmas time, we indulged in a very common Far North Queensland activity of buying the local mangoes from a farmer who was selling them very reasonably priced from the back of her truck. She was parked on the side of the road, so we pulled over, checked out the price and the quality, and pleased with what we found we bought a few kilos of them. Mr. HRK sliced them up and froze them in packs of about 2 mangoes per pack. We purchased these for the purpose of freezing, and this is the origin of the mangoes I used for this Mango Mousse. We had previously bought our Christmas Kensington Pride or Bowen mangoes from the iconic Rusty's markets and ate those fresh. 

INGREDIENTS:

Serves 6 x 3/4 cup serves

2 1/4 cups mango puree (you will need 2-3 large ripe mangoes for this amount). Frozen mango can be used, and thawed out first.

1 (250 ml) cup thickened cream, very cold, for whipping

1/4 cup icing sugar

1 teaspoon orange or lime zest (I used orange)

2 tablespoons lime or orange juice (I used lime)

2 teaspoons powdered gelatine

Toppings of your choice, such as extra mango slices, grated chocolate, fresh berries or mint leaves. Or just eat it straight from the bowl without any toppings.

Please be aware, the Setting time for the Mousse is 4 hours, so you will need to plan ahead.

METHOD:

Prepare your mangoes: Peel and cut the flesh from your mangoes, and store covered in the refrigerator until you are ready to use them or thaw out your frozen mangoes.

Whipping the cream: I like to use my handheld electric beater for whipping cream, it gives me more control over the process than using the large bowl of my Kitchen Aid.

Find a large mixing bowl, and pour the cream in. 

Beat the cream to stiff peaks, using your beaters to test this. This will happen quickly once you see the imprint of the beaters in the cream. It's important not to overwhip cream, or it will turn to butter, but before that it will lose its smooth consistency.

Chill your whipped cream in the refrigerator covered in the bowl until required. This can be done in advance.

Making our Mousse:

Add the mango flesh to your food processor or blender. Blend until smooth.

Measure out 2 1/4 cups of the pureed mango into another medium sized bowl. Add the icing sugar and the lime or orange zest to the mango. 

Dissolving the Gelatine:

Take your smallest saucepan, or any small one, and pour in the lime (orange) juice. Sprinkle the gelatine over the top evenly. Set your timer, and let it sit for 3-4 minutes to soften. It's amazing how quickly this time goes.

Set the heat under your saucepan to low, and stir until the gelatine is dissolved. Keep it at low, we don't want it to simmer or boil. If you see any bubbles on the surface, remove your saucepan straight away. The gelatine needs to be completely dissolved, so that there are no lumps in your mousse. I use a very small whisk to whisk it gently and a large spoon for stirring to remove any small lumps.

No gelatine lumps? Then pour the gelatine mixture into the mango puree, and start to whisk it immediately to combine.

Mixing the ingredients:

Take your bowl of whipped cream from the refrigerator, and add 1/3 of the mango mixture to it. Fold it gently together using a non-metal spatula (the one you use for making cakes and scraping the bowl.) 

When there are just a few streaks of mango in the cream, add the next 1/3 portion of mango and repeat the process.

Repeat until all the mango is folded into the cream, ensuring there isn't any mango at the bottom of your bowl.

All of the cream and mango are now incorporated. 

Spoon the mixture into 6 serving vessels, either small ramekins or glasses ( about 3/4 cup volume). Or just spoon it all into a decorative bowl for serving. Place the serving pots into a large covered container and refrigerate for 4 hours or overnight to set. 

Decorate your mousse just before serving.

Cooking notes:

This is a beautiful and refreshing recipe where the sweet and tropical flavours of the mango really shine through.

I haven't done it, but I think good quality frozen mango from the freezer section at the supermarket could be used.

I prefer to use lime juice for a slight touch of tang, however if limes aren't available, orange juice is a good substitute.

I made these pots of mousse in the morning and they were set by late afternoon, and definitely within 4 hours.

The recipe can be doubled if you are catering for more than 4 people. However, a larger bowl will be needed for the final mixing of ingredients.

There are quite a few Mango Mousse recipes available, with a variety of  ingredients, and I  was inspired by Sugar Salt Magic to make my version of hers. We were really thrilled with the result.

I am always careful not to overload my recipes with too many ingredients, however there are other variations I'll be considering for next time:

• Adding 1 teaspoon of coconut extract
• Adding some fresh passionfruit pulp to the mango
• A Middle Eastern variation by adding some saffron
• I'm working on others...Do you have any suggestions?

Warm wishes

Pauline