Frozen Grand Marnier Mousse
"Elegant and scrumptious but not hard to do, this is a dessert for anyone who enjoys orange liqueur. Except for the flavoring, this classic French recipe has strong resemblances to tiramisu; but instead of freezing the mousse mixture, the Italian dessert uses mascarpone cheese to firm it up. The liqueur-soaked ladyfingers provide bursts of intense flavor, and the alcohol keeps them from freezing solid. Cubes of spongecake can substitute for the ladyfingers; and with a bit of experimentation, you can replace the orange flavoring with rum, or coffee and Kahlua, or what you will."
- Ready In:
- 27mins
- Ingredients:
- 7
- Serves:
-
3-4
ingredients
- 8 ladyfingers, Ladyfingers
- 3 1⁄2 tablespoons Grand Marnier
- 3 egg yolks
- 3 tablespoons water
- 1⁄2 cup sugar
- 1⁄2 tablespoon grated orange rind, about 1 medium orange
- 1 1⁄4 cups heavy cream, chilled
directions
- Chill a 1-quart souffle mold in the freezer while you prepare the mousse; also refrigerate a 1 1/2 quart bowl for the whipped cream.
- Line up the ladyfingers in a single layer in a baking dish, top side up, and slowly drizzle with 2 tablespoons of the Grand Marnier.
- Warm the yolks in a 3-cup bowl set in hot tap water.
- Bring the water and sugar to a boil in a small saucepan on high-medium heat, whisking until the sugar is completely dissolved, and boil 2 minutes. For the same 2 minutes, beat the yolks and orange rind with an electric hand mixer until pale and thick. When the syrup is ready, pour it into the yolks, beating constantly, and continue beating on medium to high speed for 6 minutes, until the mousse base is thick, white, and cool.
- Combine the cream and the remaining 1 1/2 tablespoons Grand Marnier in the chilled bowl and beat to medium-firm peaks. Scoop in the mousse base and fold together completely with a rubber spatula.
- Layer a third of the mixture in the chilled mold and top with half the soaked ladyfingers; repeat with a second layer, and finish with the remaining mousse mixture.
- Cover with plastic and freeze well, at least 6 hours. Serve on chilled plates.
- For a pseudo-souffle effect, use a 3-cup mold with a paper collar; at serving time, remove the collar and sift cocoa over the top to simulate oven browning.
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RECIPE SUBMITTED BY
I am a New York City attorney with over 40 years' serious-amateur cooking experience. My cooking is the antithesis of Mediterranean cuisine: I generally want a blended richness rather than a light freshness (a Strauss tone poem instead of a Telemann concerto, or cooking down jams instead of using liquid pectin). I value basic quality ingredients like vanilla beans or good butter, but have little use for such "in" things as brining, food processors, sun-dried tomatoes, or chichi chocolates that taste weird. I think Americans' tastes are being corrupted by a gross overuse of salt and lemon juice in recipes for just about everything. My favorite cooking is classic French cuisine, but I try to learn how to cook for myself any dish I've eaten that I want to be sure of having again in the future. Among my favorite cookbooks are Escoffier's "Le Guide Culinaire" in French, and Jacques Pepin's two early books on technique and method. (As for "Mastering the Art of French Cooking," it was a landmark when it appeared in 1961, and many of its recipes are still hard to beat; but a half century's experience has uncovered enough errors and misinformation to make it no longer as trustworthy as we all once thought.) Like any other repetitive activity, the actual mechanics of cooking can sometimes be a chore -- but the joy of eating the finished product remains undiminished!
