How do you make your mousses/cake fillings?

[m brown]

dolce 'd leche is caramelized sweeted and condenced milk done right in the can! use caution as it can explode. I just do it in a sauce pan on very low heat for 'bout two hours. Also done with goats milk for more intence earthy flavor.


Mousses can be made so many ways, just be sure to cook your eggs either by making swiss, italian meringue and zabaglione style or pate a bombe yolks.

I like to keep pate a bombe in the freezer and whip up a mousse whenever I want.

Flavor compounds and mousse setting powders have come a long way and are very helpful. Don't be afraid to try either, they may make your life a little easier!

(not always a bad thing)

[thebighat]

I was making dulce de leche in chocolate cups last year and watched in stupified amazement as the cups began to melt as I piped in the too-warm stuff. Also made Pierre Herme's creme brulee ice cream with caramel swirled into it and called that dulce de leche ice cream for an Argentinian wine dinner. That was good stuff.

[angrychef]

At the bakery were I used to work they used Dreidopple compounds. I use Braun(i think) and I have used Hero before too. When I make a fruit mousse, aside from using the puree, I add a dash of the compound(it really intensifies the straw. or rasp. flavor, kinda giving it a punch).
You don't need to know baker's percentages for mousses and fillings, just for breads and cake baking. It is a useful thing to know, it helps you understand the difference in textures/flavors of any baked good and how to correct things if something goes wrong. I taught myself and eventually got used to doing it automatically. I really recommend you get Professional Baking, 3rd edition by Wayne Gisslen. This 3rd edition which I just got is so much better than the older edition I have. Le Cordon Bleu collaborated with him and made the recipes and styles more "hip". I haven't tried most of the recipes yet(the muffins really **** and so do the quickbreads) but use the percentages as guidelines and his frozen mousse recipe is very good. Go to a store like Barnes and Noble and check it out before you decide to get it. That's what I do --- I just got Spago's chocolate book and Bread Alone.
Yeah, most of the mousses I get asked to make are mostly chocolate. Strawberry, raspberry and lemon come in second. That's why I want to make samples for the sales managers to try. I made a white chocolate passion fruit mousse today which was pretty tasty(I just added a dash of the fruit puree to my standard white mousse but increased the chocolate a wee bit to compensate for how tart the passion fruit is). I don't get fresh exotic fruits since they are expensive and I'm not familiar with the seasons, so I just get Perfect Puree products. Since I've never really had a chance to work with more exotic fruit, now's my chance to try out some recipes and hopefully standardize them.

Here are the recipes from the book:

Fruit Bavarian
Fruit puree 8-10 oz.
sugar 4 oz.(adjustable)
lemon juice 1 oz.
gelatin 1/2 oz.
water 5 oz.
Cream 12 oz.

Basic Bombe Mixture(Frozen bombe)
sugar 8 oz.
water 2 oz.
eggyolks 4 oz.(6 yolks)
Flavorings: melted chocolate,liqueur,instant coffee, praline paste, fruit puree.
Heavy cream 12 oz.

Boil sugar and water to 240F while whipping yolks until light. Pour syrup into yolks. Mix until cool and thick. This mixture will keep covered and refrigerated for up to a week. When ready to make mousse/dessert, proceed with next steps. Stir in desired flavorings into pate a bombe. I add gelatin if I am not freezing the mousse. Whip the cream to mediumfirm peaks and then fold into base mixture.
This is just the gist of the recipe, it's a bit more detailed in the book.
Bighat has a good tip on the gelatin.

[Spoons]

Ditto on the "Hero" compounds. I use raspberry, lemon, and pistachio.
Braun mocha
Flachsmann Passion Fruit from Albert Uster is fabulous, don't get Dohler, not good!
Braun Neutral for mousses. Easy.

[W.DeBord]

I guess I'm abit slow but we have so many topics going now it's a bit confuising. Hope this makes sense....


We are talking compounds, purees and preserves....I use the hero preserves too and braun mocha compound. Actually I don't choose what I use, since my chef does all the ordering and doesn't listen to my imput... occasionally I order my product when he's willing to admit he doesn't understand or is too busy. I find this most frustrating!! Some of the stuff he gets me is just horrible. (Sorry, sometimes I just rant...needing someone who understands)

The frozen bombe recipe looks very much like what I've been doing for Frozen Souffles, even like the tortoni in the choc. spago book. Explain more please....what are you doing with the frozen bombe? Are you using this in your tortes or selling it as it's own item? We don't sell "mousse" they won't buy it, I make and use mousse in other desserts not as a seperate item. Is that what you were refering to?

d. I've done alot of work out of the Spago book if you ever want input...it's a very good book. Did you read us talking about it under the book thread at this site?

I have seen Gilsens book many times. I own Practical Baking (5th addition) by Sultan. The Modern Patissier by William Barker and Bo Friebergs book. We've kind of talked about his before...many of us are not thrilled with pro-book recipes because they don't always taste great. BUT< BUT they do help with knowledge and some recipes are very good...it's just hard to weed through all of them. I'm also most interested in the Amendola book m.brown mentioned on another thread, where can I buy it? It would be very nice to have some real imput on a couple probooks, that saves alot of time and confusion! I will get the Gilsens book asap...but that will be a week or so.

I'm open to the mousse mixes, absolutely. But I need some dirrection because I don't really understand how you use them. Could anyone offer a sample recipe using it so I could understand what your doing?

I've never heard of keeping pate a bombe in your freezer? Hum....just defrost and fold in? Really? O.k.... so do you have a base formula you use m.brown or do you just wing it to taste?

So are you using that formula day in and day out thebighat? How did you learn that proportion? I hate to sound so stupid but I get frustrated/nervous just relaxing and following your instructions with the gelatin(which I trust is good advice). It just starts to get confusing because (maybe I've read too many recipes) I can't find that standardized proportions when I look at all my favorite mousse recipes. I get crazy worrying that it won't hold up to slicing, but not be grossly firm. EEK! I don't know why I'm so bothered by this, I take risks everyday all day long. I rarely get burned by a recipe anymore but I still can with gelatin proportions.

[W.DeBord]

Would anyone be interested in posting their (tried and true) favorite mousse recipes as a resource? As another topic so things don't become to confusing...or maybe thats here already (I've never looked at the archieves here)?

I'm always in the process of creating/needing new tortes. It's one thing to work on the flavor combinations but if you could do that with known good recipes it would shortcut the process a bit and add to your resources.

I have many that are great, I'd be happy to share if anyone is interested?

[thebighat]

No, I'm not using much at all, but that's only because this summer at the country club is The Summer of The Cookie. I'm not making any desserts at all. But I guarantee that it works. I got it from an instructor at..ta-dah!! culinary school. This instructor was voted one of the top ten pastry chefs in the country two years running by Pastry Arts magazine, so I kinda sorta think she knew her stuff. I've seen the phrase "self-taught" in this thread and I think that is absolutely legitimate. I considered myself self-taught till I got to school and then learned other ways to do things, and I'm sure if I worked at another shop, I'd learn other ways to do things. That's one thing about this line of work..always something new to learn and have fun with.

[angrychef]

W., I use the mousses as cake fillings and components for sampler plate desserts and individual pastries. For the frozen bombe recipe, you can use it like the tortoni thing you just mentioned(also called frozen parfaits) or adapt it for a pipeable mousse by adding gelatin and maybe adding meringue or increasing the cream to make it lighter. It is just an example of the many techniques employed to make mousses. I finally came up with my peanut butter chocolate mousse filling today by adding a bit of chocolate to the peanut butter and sugar and then thinning it down with milk, I then addded gelatin and heavy cream. Sometimes, depending on what flavoring I am using, I don't like to use eggs because if it is one thing I can't stand, that's eggy mousses. Yuck!
I would love to hear what you tried from the Spago book. I will look up the thread. Thanks.

[thebighat]

Here's a sample of what you get in culinary school..copious homework. There's some Bavarian cream and mousse recipes in here, but this is a very long file.

some homework notes

[Spoons]

Wow,
Looks like my notes from school. But, I never had the time to redo them. It's still in my binders all handwritten. You are so organized.

[islander]

Dear W.DeBord: I certainly would be interested in a few "recipes" for mousse fillings. I am getting so confused! So many of the products (that sound wonderful) are not available in my area, and a just a few recipes would make life simpler for me! Thanks so much.

[W.DeBord]

I can find references for tons of mousse recipes, that wasen't exactly what I meant. I was talking about sharing my personal tried and true recipes, the backbone of my recipe file type recipes in exchange for those from others in the same position, only the best for the best...oh, well.


d. I'm confused abit, so you don't like eggs in your mousse (I must have misunderstood along the way, what is eggie to you? adding whites or working with pate a bombs?)....than the way Desaulniers works his mousses should please you.?.? Hum, which recipes did you try that you weren't crazy about from him, maybe you just hit the wrong ones.....they fit the decription of non-eggie totally.

I'm not following something.....

I was reading while waiting at my zillion and one stop lights on my path to work yesterday and right in the beginning of Au Coeur Des Saveurs is pages of info on making mousses. I thought that was going to be a great find!.......and then I read, it's like 3 or 4 pages about making chocolate mousse talking about temp.s, ingred. and proceedure with reference to starting with a "Base" but nothing about professional proceedures inregard to repetitive mousse proceedures. So close..........

Still hoping to learn some answers from previous questions posted on this thread....any input?

[W.DeBord]

If your open... definately try his chocolate strawberry mousse (I do that cake alot when I need something quick with a simple quick presentation). His chocolate carmel mousse and choc. raspbery mousses are pretty good too...actually there are MANY (I haven't opened any of his books in awhile so I can't list more off the top of my head).


I would certainly agree his basic chocolate mousse with no whites is nothing to repeat but I use his other chocolate mousse as my everyday mousse.


6 oz. choc.
1 1/2 c. cream
3 whites
2 tbsp. sugar (put into whites when full)

There are alot of terrific recipes in his first 3 books (I have the 4th but have only I've only done 1 thing from it). I hope you will give it a chance again......


For non-chocolate based mousse recipes I really like Michel Rouxs' recipes for banana, lime, mint, caramel, apple and a couple more. His mousses are just right in the gelatin department, not too much/nor too little.

[islander]

Hello BigHat: Thank you so much for the "homework notes", I enjoyed reading them and I printed out several. I hope this won't seem like a stupid question, but the very first recipe calls for 1 lb.8oz of pastry cream. Well, where does one find pastry cream? I would love to make this Diplomat Cream. Sorry to bother you with such a question, I am a beginner in this area. Thanks so much.

[islander]

thebighat: No need to respond to my previous post as I found a recipe for pastry cream. Ooops. Sorry to bother you.