Hi everybody!

Did you miss me? It’s been almost a year of my blogging break and after a few (or many) changes over the past year, I feel like I’m finally happy to be getting back into it. If you follow me on Instagram, (and if you aren’t already, WHY AREN’T YOU? ), you would know that I’m now in Sydney, Australia, studying culinary arts and FINALLY pursuing my career in hospitality. It’s been almost a year since I moved and there have been a lot of changes and getting used to things that blogging took a back seat. However, I feel like I have got a grab of things now so this seems like the time to be getting back into blogging, and I’m very happy to do so! 

I have been getting so many messages from people who want to pursue baking as a career or even if not a career, who just generally enjoy baking at home and would love to know more about it. I guess this is one of the reasons that made me realise that it would be a shame if i didn’t share whatever I have learnt over the few years with my readers. After all, that’s one of the purposes behind this blog- to share what I know. As I shared on Instagram, I haven’t quite discovered my baking style yet, but I do want to share with my readers the things that I know. I have been learning a lot of French techniques at school and however fancy that sounds, it doesn’t need to be difficult. Just like this mousse right here. It’s a classic sabayon (egg yolks and sugar whisked together to create a light airy base) based mousse which tastes like pure fruit and is so simple and straightforward to make! Perfect for a hot scorching day like Sydney’s or if you just want to be fancy without spending all day in the kitchen! How cool is that?! 

#NerdAlert: A mousse can be based with different bases and every method will give you a different end product. This is an egg yolk based mousse as compared to a meringue based mousse.  The difference? Egg yolks are high in fat, therefore, they give you a smoother and richer mouthfeel vs egg whites which are high in protein so they give you a lighter and fluffier mousse but not as velvety or rich. Most french mousses are sabayon based. The technique is pretty much the same always: Make a custard by whisking the egg yolks and sugar together until light and fluffy and then add hot milk. Once cooled, it is then lightened by folding in the whipped cream.  This can be replicated for pretty much any kind of mousse. I prefer this over a meringue based mousse for a) smoother velvety texture, and b) while the custard provides the texture, it has a very neutral taste so the flavour of your mousse is the star, instead of it tasting eggy. Simple right? Well, you will only know once you give it a shot  So let me know how it turns out by tagging me in your Instagram photos with @myyummyspatula and I hope you all enjoy making it as much I did! Bon appetite! 

Recipe adaptation: http://www.greatbritishchefs.com

Recipe 

Makes: 4 serves

Ingredients

For the coconut crumble:

• 75 g castor sugar

• 50 g shredded coconut

• 120 g salted butter, melted

• 150 g plain flour, sifted

For the mango passionfruit mousse:

• 3 egg yolks (~approx. 50 g)

• 30 g condensed milk

• 30 g castor sugar

• 250 ml milk

• 9 g gelatine leaves, soaked in cold water for 10 mins

• 300 g mango puree * (~about 1 1/2 mango)

• 70 ml fresh passionfruit juice ** (~about 3-4 passionfruit)

• 150 ml heavy cream

 Method

For the crumble:

• Preheat oven to 160 C. Line a baking tray with baking paper. Keep aside.

• Place all the ingredients together in a bowl and rub with your fingertips until it resembles course breadcrumbs.

• Spread onto the prepared tray and bake for 15-20 mins or until golden brown, tossing with a spatula every 5 mins. Let it cool.

For the mousse:

• Soak gelatine in cold water for 10 mins until it softens. Squeeze and drain the excess water, be careful not to drain any gelatine mass.

• In a large bowl, mix the egg yolks with sugar and condensed milk and whisk until light and fluffy. You can do this either by hand or a mixer.

• Heat milk in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Remove from the heat and stir in the soaked gelatine until completely dissolved.

• Pour the milk over the egg sabayon and mix until well combined. Don’t need to beat it, just whisk enough to combine.

• Add the mango puree and passionfruit juice to the above mixture and mix. Let it cool. 

• In a separate bowl, whip the heavy cream until medium peaks and gently fold into the cooled mixture. ***

Assembly:

• Put some coconut crumble at the bottom of a glass.

• Pour the mousse mix over the crumble. Cover with cling film and let it set in the refrigerator for at least 4 hours or until completely set.

• Serve with passionfruit pulp and berries. Bon appetite!

Notes:

*- To make the mango puree, cut mango in small cubes and blend into a puree in a blender.

**- For the passionfruit juice, scrape the passionfruit onto a muslin cloth and squeeze the juice. You can save the pulp to serve with the mousse.

***- It is important to cool the mixture before folding in the cream. If you add the cream when the mix is hot, the cream will melt and you will lose the smooth velvety texture of the mousse. Let the mixture cool to at least room temperature before folding in the whipped cream.

If you enjoyed that and tried it at home, please tag me at @myyummyspatula on instagram so that I can see all your bakes! For more BTS stories, updates and fun, you can follow long here: