Name: Cardamom Coffee Mousse with Almond, Cranberry and Cocoa Nib Florentines
Prep time: 30 min
Cook time: 10 min
Ingredients: 4 tsp (20 ml) gelatin; 2/3 cup (150 ml) coffee, cooled ((I used Van Houtte Dark Roast)); 4 eggs (separated); 1/3 cup (75 ml) sugar; 1 cup (250 ml) 35% whipping cream; 1 Tbsp cocoa powder; 1 tsp ground cardamom; 1/2 cup sliced almonds ((55 grams)); 1/4 cup packed, dried cranberries ((30 grams)); 1/4 cup chopped almonds or pistachios ((35 grams)); 1 Tbsp cocoa nibs ((10 grams)); zest from one orange; 5 Tbsp butter ((50 grams)); 1/4 cup sugar ((50 grams)); 1 tbsp honey; 1 tbsp whipping cream; 1/4 tsp salt; 200 grams (4 oz) dark or bittersweet chocolate (broken in pieces); 3 tsp Instant coffee granules (crushed in a mortar and pestle)

Here’s a little treat to keep you company, as the sun starts setting earlier and earlier.

Mousse, like pudding can be so comforting. And yet mousse also has the ability to appear fancy, so it makes a great dessert after a small dinner party or family dinner. Or even a great date night dessert. This recipe would go great with my Za’atar Rack of Lamb with Wild Blueberry Rosemary Sauce, which is my idea of a fabulous date night dinner.

What is Mousse?

Mousse, like pudding, is basically eggs, cream and some sort of stabilizer/binder. In pudding, this is usually cornstarch or maybe flour. With mousse, we are looking at the egg whites and whipped cream to do all the work. And in this case we will also be using a little bit of gelatin. Because this isn’t just an ordinary mousse. This is a coffee mousse! Yes, you know my love affair with coffee. As a flavour in desserts, it is one of my all time favourites. So using it in a delightfully fluffy, light and yet rich mousse just seems right. So to use a good amount of coffee in this setting, we need to stabilize it as well. We will use a gelatin to do the work. It easily brings the coffee to a firmer texture so that it won’t water down the eggs and whipping cream.

After whipping up the egg whites, the whipping cream, and the coffee with the egg yolks and some sugar, all we really need to do fold the three main components together gently so as not to deflate any of them. Spoon the filling into glasses or demitasse cups, whether 4 or all the way up to 8 (but why, because this just means that you barely get a taste before your portion is gone?!) and set them in the fridge for a few hours to set completely. These can even be made the day before you want to serve them. The hard part will then be looking at them every time you open the fridge door before it is time to eat them! Dust them with a bit of coffee scented cocoa powder, and dessert is served.

A Crunchy Garnish

I am going to up the anty for you all. What better to serve with a silky, fluffy mousse, than the exact opposite! The crunch from a delightful little cookie takes this mousse to the next level.

Florentines are such a fun cookie to make. Sometimes, if the fillings aren’t large or prominent, these can also be called Lace Cookies. Basically these French cookies are a caramel type liquid holding a bunch of ingredients together. As they all bake together, the cookies spread out, and the edges get all lacy. The common ingredients that get coated in the simple caramel are almonds, candied citrus peel and dried fruit of some sort. Of course you can totally swap out some of the almonds for pistachios or chopped hazelnuts, even walnuts or pecans. You can use dried cherries, cranberries or even raisins. I like to use both candied peel and fresh orange zest in these.

The Lacey Edges of Florentines

These days you’ll find recipes that suggest baking up the filling in cupcake liners or greased muffin tins, to contain the caramel as it spreads. This gives an even, more uniform shape to the cookie. But then you may loose the lacy effect. The alternative to this is taking a glass and placing it on the cooling cookies to contain the cookie and caramel and gently but firmly turning it around to clean up the edges. You can also use a knife or offset spatula to reign in any excess caramel before it hardens. But rustic edges are just fine, they will taste just as good!

These cookies need to harden completely on the parchment paper before you should think about moving them. You want the caramel to harden around all the filling pieces, so that they will stay intact when you pick them up.

The finish to a classic Florentine, is a chocolate covered bottom. This is achieved quite easily. While the cookies are cooling down, just take some dark or bittersweet chocolate (milk or white chocolate are just too sweet and cloying for the already sweet cookie) and melt it down. Let it come to room temperature and then use a silicone brush to paint the bottoms of the cooled cookies. Turn these upside down to let the chocolate cool completely. Before the chocolate is set, take a fork and run ridges through the chocolate. This is just the classic finish. And I really like the look of it! I place them in the fridge to harden completely before storing in an airtight container. These cookies actually store well for a good two weeks or even more (I’ve never had them around longer to test the longevity past two weeks!)

So pull up a mousse, a cookie, a glass of port or red wine, and enjoy the fire and hopefully some good company (even if it is still over Zoom until the whole Covid pandemic is a thing of the past)

Love Jen