Make-Ahead Strawberry Mousse Cups

For dessert last night, we had strawberry mousse cups. Last spring, I posted a recipe for my "by scratch" strawberry mousse. There are also some wonderful mousse mixes on the market, and these are great short-cuts. That's what I used for last night's mousse. Specifically, I bought Foxy's Gourmet's Strawberry mousse mix. You can buy it on Amazon.com, as well as specialty food stores. With this mix, all you have to do is add whipped cream. You can pipe the prepared mousse into chocolate shells and freeze them ahead of time (just bring them out of the freezer and set them out in room temperature, abotu 30-60 minutes before serving, to thaw). Your guests will never know they were frozen! You can freeze these up to 1-2 months before serving. Of course, if you're going to serve them the day you make them, you would just keep them in the fridge.

Alternatively, you can make the homemade strawberry mousse. Here's my favorite recipe:

Do-Ahead Strawberry Mousse

1 quart fresh strawberries, washed, hulled and halved
1 package (1.4 ounces) strawberry gelatin
1/2 cup boiling water
1/3 cup extra-fine sugar
2 cups heavy whipping cream

In a large bowl, pour boiling water over gelatin and sugar. Stir until dissolved. Pour pureed strawberries into gelatin and stir until combined. Then put in the refrigerator to cool. While the gelatin is cooling, put the strawberries in a good food processor and puree until smooth. Then set it aside. Whip the cream until it forms stiff peaks. Then fold in the strawberry and gelatin mixture. Put into pastry bag and pipe into chocolate cups. Then put the strawberry mousse cups in the freezer until right before serving.

I make my own chocolate dessert cups. I buy Wilton Candy Melts from Michael's, or Candy Wafers from Hobby Lobby. These are melted in the microwave about 90 seconds, and then "painted" into dessert cup molds using a small paint brush. You can buy these molds from Amazon.com and other craft stores.

For a shortcut, you can also buy ready-made chocolate shells from Amazon.com and other online retailers, and sometimes from Cost Plus WorldMarket.

That's it for now. Happy mousse-making!

~Becky