Coffee and walnut mousse

I have to begin with admitting that this recipe is borrowed from a very dear friend and full credit goes to her for its taste and simplicity. This is a very versatile recipe, and you can replace the coffee in the mousse with any other flavouring. Use fresh mangoes, strawberries or even melted dark chocolate instead of the coffee.

I used Columbian coffee for the flavouring but you can use any instant coffee with a strong and aromatic flavour. My version of the mousse leaves a mild bitter aftertaste in your mouth (which gives it its charm!), so add sugar as per your preferred degree of sweetness.



Serves: 12 (shot glasses)
Prep time: 15 min
Cooking time: 40 min

Ingredients
Mousse base
100g Chocolate cream biscuits
1tbsp unsalted butter

Filling
4 tbsp Custard powder (vanilla flavour)
500ml Full cream milk
150ml Double cream
1 tsp Coffee essence/coffee powder dissolved in 2tbsp milk
1 tbsp unsalted butter
125g caster sugar
2tbsp walnuts roughly chopped
12 choco sticks for garnish

Method
Pulse the chocolate cream biscuits in a blender with 1 tbsp unsalted butter to form a fine rubble. Spoon this soft rubble into the shot glasses, pressing down with an inverted thin-necked bottle to get a smooth top surface. Refrigerate the shot glasses till you make your filling.

In a bowl, add custard powder and 25% of the milk. Whisk till you get a smooth mixture without any lumps. Place the remainder of the milk in a thick-bottomed non-stick saucepan and bring to a boil. On a reduced flame, add the custard mix slowly to the boiling milk, stirring continuously for 3-4 min. Set aside and allow the custard to cool.

To the cooled custard, add the double cream, coffee powder, 1 tbsp unsalted butted, and caster sugar. Transfer this final mixture into a blender and pulse till the mixture attains a smooth consistency.

Pull out the chilled shot glasses from the refrigerator and spoon the final mousse into these glasses. Garnish with chopped walnuts and choco sticks. Refrigerate for 3-4 hours allowing the mousse to set completely. Serve cold.

Bench notes before you begin

• Your final mousse mix should be thick, with a spooning and not a pouring consistency.
• If your final mousse mix is too runny, feel free to make some more thick custard and add to the mixture.
• DO NOT chill the mousse in a deep freeze. This spoils the consistency of the mousse.
• If you plan to use dark chocolate in the recipe instead of the coffee, place the dark chocolate into a heat-proof bowl. Create a double boiler by placing the bowl of chocolate over a saucepan of simmering water (approximately 3-4cms deep). Slowly melt the chocolate, stirring occasionally until the chocolate is silky smooth. Set aside to cool. If the chocolate is too thick and burning on the sides add 2-3tbsp of water to the chocolate while melting.