| Bite-Size Desserts | Wiley, 2009 | Serves 6
I love the flavor of caramel, and when I made this mousse, I found myself cleaning the bowl and licking the spatula. It has just what I want in caramel mousse—a rich, deep caramel flavor and a velvety, creamy texture.—Carole Bloom
Special Equipment: Use six 2-ounce mini martini glasses or bowls.
Active time: 30 minutes | Total time: 2 hours, 30 minutes.
Creamy Caramel Mousse Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 cup heavy whipping cream, divided
- 1/4 cup (1 1/2 ounces) granulated sugar
- 1/4 cup (1 1/2 ounces) firmly packed light brown sugar
- 2 tablespoons water
- 1 teaspoon honey
- 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla paste
- 1 ounce (2 tablespoons, 1/4 stick) unsalted butter, softened
Directions
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1. Bring 1/3 cup of cream to a boil in a small saucepan over medium heat.
2. Meanwhile, heat the granulated sugar, brown sugar, water, honey, and vanilla paste in a 2-quart heavy-duty saucepan over high heat, without stirring, until the mixture comes to a boil. Brush around the inside of the pan with a damp pastry brush at the point where the sugar syrup meets the sides of the pan to prevent the sugars from crystallizing. Do this two times. Cook the mixture over high heat, without stirring, until it turns amber colored, about 6 minutes.
3. Lower the heat under the caramel to medium. Slowly add the hot cream to the caramel, stirring constantly with a long-handled, heat-resistant spatula or spoon. Beware, the cream will bubble and foam. Continue to stir until you’re certain there are no lumps. Remove the saucepan from the heat and stir in the butter until it’s completely melted.
4. Transfer the caramel sauce to a 2-quart bowl and let cool to room temperature. Cover tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate until cool but still stir-able, 1 to 2 hours.
5. Whip the remaining 3/4 cup of cream with a stand mixer with the wire whip attachment or in a large mixing bowl using a hand-held mixer on medium speed until it holds soft peaks. Set aside 1/3 cup of the whipped cream and fold the remaining whipped cream into the chilled caramel sauce in 3 stages. Use a large ice cream scoop or spoon to fill each mini martini glass or bowl with the mousse. Cover the glasses or bowls loosely with waxed paper, then tightly wrap with plastic wrap and chill for at least 2 hours.
Garnish: Fit a 12- or 14-inch pastry bag with a large open star tip and fill the bag with the remaining 1/3 cup of whipped cream. Pipe a rosette or star of whipped cream on top of each mousse.
Adding Style: Pipe the mousse into tuile cookie cups right before serving.
Keeping: The mousse, without the garnish, will keep up to 2 days, tightly wrapped with plastic wrap, in the refrigerator.
- Dark Chocolate Yogurt mousse from Baking Sheet
- Mango Mousse from Joe Pastry
- Blackberry Mousse from Leite’s Culinaria
- Barefoot Contessa Fresh Lemon Mousse from Leite’s Culinaria
Creamy caramel mousse recipe © 2009 Carole Bloom. All rights reserved.
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[Brenda Carleton] Thankfully I have a lot of experience making caramel, so I wasn’t tempted to stir while the mixture was boiling. The recipe instructs you to brush the inside of the pan with a damp pastry brush twice to prevent crystallization, and that’s key.
The recipe also said to cook it about 6 minutes, until it turned an amber color, but I boiled it for just 5 minutes. I could tell it was perfect and didn’t want to let it go any longer. After the caramel is a lovely amber color, you’re instructed to add the hot cream (slowly, of course) followed by the butter. (Did I mention this mousse is not exactly fat-free?) Then you pour the mixture into a bowl and allow it to come to room temperature. The adds that it should be refrigerated for 1 to 2 hours, but I checked it after only half an hour (could not resist!) and it was already firm enough. Any longer and it would not have been stirrable.
As an aside, the recipe calls for vanilla bean paste, but it’s easy to make your own from vanilla beans. What flavor! Beautiful. All that’s left to do is fold in the whipped cream and voila! Mousse! I kept sneaking licks while it was firming up in the fridge. It’s light, silky, and airy, yet the flavor is rich and buttery. The only slight imperfection? It was ever so slightly grainy, due to the cream and butter, but other than that it was sublime. Seriously. Vanilla beans. Caramel. Convinced yet?
[Leanne Abe] I had always thought “bowl-licking-good” to be an exaggeration, but then I found myself licking the bowl—and the spatula—as I cleaned up after making this mousse.
Make sure you check the size of the pot you use to cook the sugars, as anything smaller than a 2-quart pot runs the risk of the caramel bubbling over when you add the cream and anything larger than a 2-quart pot may evaporate the water too quickly, allowing the sugars to burn. I found six minutes to be the perfect timing for cooking the sugar. At four minutes I had a caramel that was too light, runny, and too sweet (in other words, not sufficiently caramelized). But at six minutes, I could tell the sugars were well caramelized. I think any longer might have burned them. Adding the hot cream will make the mixture sputter, so stand back and use that long-handled spatula to stir!
Cool the caramel to room temperature, then place it in the fridge and check it after 30 minutes. You want the caramel to be cool but still stirrable. Warm caramel will “melt” the whipped cream later, but if it’s too cold and hard, it won’t fold in properly. An hour in the fridge was enough for my caramel – it took a bit of extra folding to get the first 1/3 of the whipped cream incorporated, but the rest went smoothly.
This may serve six at a dinner party, but it really serves two when eating it out of the bowl while standing in the middle of your kitchen
What’s vanilla paste?
Hi Anne. Vanilla paste is just that: a paste made from vanilla beans. You can read more about it and order it from here.
Thanks David. After reading all the reviews on it, I can’t believe I haven’t seen it on someone’s cooking show.
If I can’t find it in Canada, I’ll beg a friend to bring it over from the States.
Anne, so glad you like it. It’s a lovely book.
If you cook it without stirring and over high heat, wouldn’t it burn before it turns amber colored?
Actually, there’s enough liquid in there that it won’t burn.
As soon as I put it on the stove the color of the liquid was already amber by adding the light brown sugar, honey, and vanilla. How do you tell when you get an amber color if the mixture is already has a brown color with the added colored ingredients?
Jeff, good question. Do you have a light-colored pan? A darker pan will make it harder to see the color. You want the the mixture to turn from a lighter to darker brown. If it’s impossible to tell visually, use the timing of 5 to 6 minutes as a guide.