White chocolate mousse & brandy snap baskets

By terrybryntesen

White chocolate mousse has always been a firm favourite of mine – I generally make it at Christmas and serve it up with brandy snaps. Mousse and brandy snaps were not the first thing that came to mind when thinking of things to cook for this month’s theme, but I soon realised that a hot and cold version would make an interesting twist

For a bit of fun I decided to make the brandy snaps into cylinders and dip them in dark chocolate so they could hold the mousse and be moved around. I also topped them in fresh raspberries which resulted in my own little sweet woodland of brandy snap trees.

Ingredients

• Mousse
• 320 g white chocolate
• 4 eggs (separated)
• 1 1/2 cups cream
• 1 tsp gelatine
• Cylinders
• 50 g butter
• 50 g caster sugar
• 2 tbsp golden syrup
• 1/2 tsp ground ginger
• 50 g plain flour

Details

Adapted from ourkitchen.fisherpaykel.com

Preparation

Step 1

Mousse
1. Melt chocolate on a double boiler until smooth.
2. Once chocolate has cooled mix in egg yolks. Mix gelatine with 2 tsp hot water, mix until the gelatine is completely dissolved and add to chocolate mixture.
3. Whisk egg whites until stiff peaks form, fold into chocolate mixture.
4. Whip cream until soft peaks form fold into chocolate mixture, refrigerate for at least 4 hours (overnight is best) until set and ready to serve.

Cylinders
1. Melt the butter, sugar and golden syrup on the stove, in a small saucepan.
2. Remove from heat and add in the flour and ginger mixing thoroughly.
3. Allow dough to cool, roll into a ball, gladwrap and refrigerate for an hour.
4. Pre-heat oven to 180°C.
5. Remove dough from fridge and roll out between two sheets of parchment until 1-2mm thick. Cut into rectangles the size of which depends on how big you want your cylinders, bearing in mind they will spread and grow when being baked.
6. Bake on baking paper for 10-15 minutes or until golden and fully ‘bubbled’.
7. Remove from oven and shape to desired diameter.
8. Alternatively you can bake it in two large squares, wait for it to harden once out of the oven and just break it into shards to serve with the mousse