Strawberry Mousse Cups

This morning, my husband brought in a bowl of fresh strawberries from our garden! We’ve also got a large formal dinner coming up soon. So what instantly came to mind when I saw the strawberries was STRAWBERRY MOUSSE! That will be one of our desserts for our upcoming dinner party. So that was my cooking project for today.

Usually, when I make mousse, I fill them in little candy cups. I use the meltable Candy Wafers or Candy Melts (available from retailers like Michael’s and Hobby Lobby) to make the candy cups. They’re fairly easy to make: just melt the discs for a minute or two in the microwave, and then using a small brush, “paint” the inside cavities of candy molds. Put the molds in the freezer for a minute or two and then pop out the candy cups. Once the cups are made, fill them with the mousse, using a pastry bag with a star tip.

I wrote about my chocolate and raspberry mousse cups in one of my first blog posts in January. Today, I wanted to share my strawberry mousse recipe with you. Like the other mousse recipes, this can be made in advance and frozen. Just pull the mousse cups out of the freezer about an hour before serving.

Now the mousse cups I wrote about in January were the full-size mousse cups. These that I made today are a lot smaller. Today I used cordial and mini flute molds. I like to have the smaller-sized mousse cups to serve when I’ve got lots of desserts to choose from (which I will in our upcoming formal dinner!). This way, everyone can have a taste of the mousse, without having to take a full-sized portion.

I hope you like this recipe too!

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.

Of course, if you want to serve up the mousse right away, you can skip the freezer step. If you plan on eating the mousse the same day you make it, you could just keep it in the refrigerator until right before serving.

Happy mousse-making!

~Becky