Adriano Chiaretta

Here’s a recipe for a 15-minutes preparation mousse, resulting in a sweet, creamy, and great tasting dessert, without the classic mousse ingredients (such as whipping cream, ice cream, etc.).

Ingredients:

– 500 gr (2.5 cups) of fat free yogurt
– 100 ml (half cup) of fat free milk
– sugar sweetener at taste
– powdered drink mix, such as the ones from Hawaiian Punch — pretty much any of them works great, just a matter of picking a flavor you like. Orange Ocean, Berry Limeade, and Wild Purple Smash being my favorites. Instant coffee works great as well.
– 4 or 5 sheets of gelatin for cooking

Tools:

– mid size glass jar
– electric whip

Preparation:

– Place the glass jar in the freezer for at least 30 minutes before starting
– Place the sheets of gelatin in cold water, and while the sheets gets soft…
– Warm up in the microwave about 100 ml of milk, making sure it doesn’t get too hot
– Put the sweetener in the milk and mix it up with a spoon, then melt in the milk the gelating sheets, mix for a few minutes until the components are blended together. Then leave it standing till it cools down, mixing from time to time to prevent it from becoming solid (since the gelatin is going to solidify again once it reaches room temperature)
– grab the jar from the freezer, and empty into it the yogurt, then put in the milk w/gelatin and sweetener prepared above, and the flavor
– whip up the compound till it doubles up in volume. It usually takes 3 to 5 minutes of whipping to get the compound shown from filling about half of the jar, to completely fill it as shown in the pictures.
– once satisfied place the resulting mousse in smaller containers to make it easier serving, then place it in the fridge (or in the freezer if you plan to store it for longer), and let it stand there for at least a couple of hours, or till tick, before serving.

Variations on the theme:

– Flavors: instant coffee, or other powdered spices are all great alternatives. For example cinnamon either alone or mixed with the orange flavor makes for another great option.
– Milk and yogurt can be regular rather than low or fat free, in which case they’ll make the compound grow up even more when whipping. And regular sugar can of course be used in place of the sweetener.

Serving suggestions:

– the mousse can be enjoyed as-is, or garnished with fruits including peaches, strawberries, etc.
– if stored in the freezer, let it stand at room temperature for at least 30 minutes before serving, to allow it soften up.