You’ll need bowls to make this dish. In all seriousness, this will cause a mess of your kitchen.
This is a universally approved dish. Unless you’re a vegan or have been sectioned. Though these two are seldom exclusive of each other.
If you want to leave your guests reeling as though they have just seen the face of the Almighty, this is the dessert for you.
Ingredients:
-2 tablespoons gelatin powder (you can the vegan stuff these days, if you must)
-60ml cold water
-250g digestive biscuits
-6 tablespoons melted butter
-300g British strawberries, quartered
-50g sugar
-400ml double cream/whipping cream
-200g fine white chocolate
-150g double cream/whipping cream
Method:
I’ve spaced out the ingredients logically for your convenience. Bear with me and I shall explain why.
Firstly, combine the gelatin with the water and let set for five minutes, while you tend to the biscuits.
Break up the cookies and blend them in an electric blender. You could even wrap them in plastic and beat them senselessly with a rolling pin. Whatever gets your rocks off. In a bowl, combine this with the butter until they’re combined. Put this into a springform 10” baking tin. Make sure it is flat. You can do this with a pallet knife. Refrigerate while you deal with the strawberries.
In a saucepan, place the strawberries and sugar. Cook them on low heat until the sugar dissolves. Then use a hand blender to cream the mixture.
Set it aside to let it cool for a few minutes.
By this time, the gelatin should be solid. Add half of it to the strawberries. Make sure the strawberry puree isn’t too hot or the gelatin won’t work. I made a fool of myself at a funeral once for forgetting this. Don’t ask.
It is now time to whip your cream. It’s better to do all 400ml at once, unless you have the bowls to do it separately.
I prefer to use a balloon whisk to whip my cream. If you use an electric one for want of time, make sure you have an apron on. That stuff does not come out of cotton shirts easily.
Whip the cream until it forms stiff peaks.
Add half of this to the strawberries.
In a saucepan, heat up the 150ml cream. Don’t let it bubble, toil or trouble. When the cream is sufficiently hot, add the white chocolate. Stir together until the two ingredients become one.
Add the other half of the gelatin mixture to the chocolate. Then add the other half of the whipped cream mix.
Pour the white chocolate into the springform tin. Put it in the fridge until the chocolate is stiff enough to be covered with the strawberry mousse. This should take about 20 minutes. Ample time for you to wash your bowls.
When the white chocolate has set, cover it with the strawberry mouse.
Refrigerate overnight for optimal results.
Tips:
Usually recipes will tell you to put the strawberry mixture through a fine sieve to get rid of all the seeds. Being unusual, to say the least, I recommend you do not do so. The contrasting texture of the seeds against the smoothness of the white chocolate is highly desirable.
Serving suggestions
You could slice some extra strawberries lengthways and top the strawberry mousse with them, once it has set.
This is excellent with some gin whipped cream you can make this by mixing the double cream with a little bit of gin and lemon before whipping it. Though it may take a little while more.
In honesty, however, this dish is a masterpiece by itself.