This easy strawberry mousse is a light, perfectly sweetened, no-bake dessert that melts in your mouth and looks amazing. Decorate this quick strawberry dessert with whipped heavy cream or fresh strawberries to make it even more appetizing.
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Ingredients you will need
Strawberries - I use frozen strawberries, but you can replace them with fresh ones if you want to make a fresh strawberry mousse.
Sugar - The amount of sugar to use depends on the sweetness of your berries. You can add a little bit more or less to adjust this strawberry mousse recipe to your taste.
Lemon juice - Lemon juice enhances the strawberry flavor and cuts through sweetness, balancing the flavor of your homemade mousse.
Heavy whipping cream - Use cold heavy cream with 36%-40% fat to whip it to soft peaks.
Gelatin and cold water - Gelatin is the ingredient that can make or break your recipe. It's very important to use the right amount and the right strength. Gelatin’s strength is measured with the bloom value, which can go up to 300. That means you can't just replace one brand with another or you can't just replace sheet gelatin with the same amount of powdered gelatin if they have different strengths. For this specific recipe, I recalculated how much powdered gelatin you can use from the Knox brand instead of 2 sheets of gold gelatin from Dr. Oetker. You will need to bloom 1 ½ teaspoons in 6 teaspoons of cold water for 5 minutes before adding everything to the strawberry mixture. To bloom sheet gelatin, you need to use whatever amount of cold water is necessary to completely cover the sheets for 5 minutes.
Cooking tips
Bloom your gelatin. Don't skip the 5-minute blooming process with your gelatin. Adding unbloomed gelatin can result in an uneven, lumpy texture of the final product.
Don't cook your strawberry purée. We want our mousse to taste like fresh strawberries. Cooking will remove that feeling of eating fresh berries. Once the strawberry mixture is warm enough to dissolve the gelatin, remove it from the heat to cool down.
Don't overwhip your cream. Cream that is whipped to stiff peaks produces thicker mousse and can appear grainy. It's recommended to whip the cream to soft peaks only. Soft peaks mean that when you lift your hand mixer, the peaks on the surface of the cream will bend over.
Sieve the strawberry purée. Of course, it's possible to remove all seeds using a sieve, but removing most of them will make your mousse more smooth in texture.
Step by step directions
1. Place the gelatin sheets in a bowl with cold water for 5 minutes.
2. Place the strawberries, sugar, and lemon juice into a saucepan and purée them using an immersion blender. You can also use a stand blender and then transfer the mixture into a saucepan.
3. When the gelatin has bloomed, squeeze the sheets to remove as much water as possible. Add the gelatin to the strawberry mixture and place the saucepan over medium heat.
4. Heat the mixture just until the gelatin sheets have completely dissolved. The end mixture should be warm, not hot. Do not bring the mixture to a simmer. When done, set aside to cool down until thickened but not set.
5. Whip the heavy whipping cream until soft peaks form.
6. Pour the strawberry mixture through a fine sieve into the whipping cream.
7. Fold with a rubber spatula to a homogenous consistency.
8. Pour the final mixture into 4 standard-size ramekins or any other molds of your choice and refrigerate until set. Decorate your homemade strawberry mousse with fresh strawberries and whipped cream before serving.
Possible variations
Vanilla extract - If you want to add a hint of vanilla you can do it by adding ¼ teaspoon to your strawberry purée. I would not add more vanilla than that because it can overpower the strawberry flavor.
Freeze-dried strawberry powder - If you can buy freeze-dried strawberry powder, do it! It's a great addition to all of your strawberry desserts. It really helps to bring up the strawberry flavor.
Chocolate - You can decorate your mousse with finely-shaved chocolate.
Cream cheese - Make a simple cream cheese frosting with heavy whipping cream and powdered sugar, then pipe it on top of the mousse.
FAQ
Freeze it for up to 2 months. Before freezing, let the mousse set and then cover the ramekins with plastic wrap and a piece of foil. Thaw in the fridge overnight before serving.
Store it in the fridge for up to 4 days.
Yes, you can make it with a variety of berries. Make sure you strain the berry purée of your choice through a sieve to remove seeds and skins.
More related recipes
Chocolate covered strawberries
Recipe card
Strawberry mousse
Equipment
- Saucepan
- Rubber spatula
- 4 Ramekins
Ingredients
- 2 sheets unflavored gelatin I use gold gelatin sheets from Dr. Oetker, 240 bloom value (read the note section on the bottom on how to replace it with powdered gelatin)
- Cold water for soaking the gelatin
- 175 g strawberries fresh or frozen
- 50 g white granulated sugar
- 15 ml lemon juice
- 185 ml heavy whipping cream cold
- Fresh strawberries or whipping cream for decoration
Instructions
- Place the gelatin sheets in a bowl with cold water for 5 minutes.
- Place the strawberries, sugar, and lemon juice into a saucepan and purée using an immersion blender. You can also use a stand blender and then transfer the mixture into a saucepan.
- When the gelatin has bloomed, squeeze the sheets to remove as much water as possible. Add the gelatin to the strawberry mixture and place the saucepan over medium heat.
- Heat the mixture just until the gelatin sheets have completely dissolved. The end mixture should be warm, not hot. Do not bring the mixture to a simmer. When done, set aside to cool down until thickened but not set.
- Whip the heavy whipping cream to soft peaks. Do not overwhip!
- Pour the strawberry mixture through a fine sieve into the whipping cream.
- Fold with a rubber spatula to a homogenous consistency.
- Pour the final mixture into 4 standard-size ramekins or any other molds of your choice and refrigerate until set. Can take 2-4 hours. You can also freeze the mousse until set to speed up the prosses. Decorate with fresh strawberries or whipped cream before serving.
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