Citronfromage (Danish Lemon Mousse)
An incredibly light and fluffy mousse with a tangy kick from the lemon - a Danish classic!
Ingredients
- 3 large eggs; whites and yolks separated (use pasteurized whole eggs if you prefer)
- ¾ tsp cream of tartar (necessary if using pasteurized eggs; otherwise optional)
- 1½ tbsp powdered gelatin (if using sheet gelatin, this is around 6 sheets)
- 90 ml boiling water (for blooming gelatin)
- 150 grams granulated sugar
- 180 ml lemon juice
- 1 tbsp lemon zest
- 350 ml heavy whipping cream (for the mousse)
- 120 ml heavy whipping cream (for decorating)
Instructions
- If you would like to pasteurize your own eggs for this recipe: preheat a sous vide water bath to 135F (57C). Lower in the three eggs for the recipe directly into the water, PLUS an extra one or two incase of issues with separating them. Leave in the water bath for at least two hours, then remove and let cool down and place in fridge until ready to use. Just make sure to keep these eggs separate from the raw ones so you know which ones are pasteurized!
- To start making the mousse: separate your egg whites and yolks into separate bowls. Add the egg whites to the bowl of a stand mixer, or a large mixing bowl. Please note that separating egg whites and yolks from pasteurized eggs can be quite difficult, so proceed with caution and crack just one egg at a time into a bowl so you don't get any broken yolks into the egg white.
- If using pasteurized eggs, add ¾ tsp cream of tartar to the egg whites.
- Using a whisk attachment on the stand mixer or a handheld mixer, whisk together the eggs until you have reached soft peaks and they are white and fluffy. This could take up to 10 minutes or so, so now is a good time to prep the other ingredients in the recipe (zesting lemons, squeezing out lemon juice).
- Transfer the egg whites to another bowl to mix later; using the bowl of the stand mixer or the bowl that you whisked the egg whites in, add the egg yolks and 150g of sugar.
- Whisk together the egg yolks and sugar until light in color, around 3-4 minutes.
- Bloom gelatin in a bowl by adding 1½ tbsp of powdered gelatin to 90ml of boiling water; stir very well for a few minutes to make sure it is completely dissolved and there are no lumps of gelatin.
- If you haven't prepped the lemon juice already, zest the lemons so you have about 1 tbsp of lemon zest, and juice the lemons so you have 180ml of lemon juice.
- Add the dissolved gelatin to the lemon juice and lemon zest, and stir well.
- Stream the gelatin/lemon mixture into the stand mixer bowl with the egg yolks and sugar. Whisk together until incorporated.
- Transfer the egg yolk/lemon mixture to the same bowl as the egg whites, and just let it sit without touching it while you whip up your whipped cream.
- In the same bowl of the stand mixer, whip up 350ml of whipped cream until soft peaks.
- Gently fold together the egg white and egg yolk mixture, trying not to deflate the egg whites too much.
- Add in the whipped cream and start gently folding it together again; this could take a few minutes to get it mostly incorporated. If you're seeing small lumps, you can whisk it just a few times to break those up.
- Now you can either keep it in the bowl you have it in or transfer to a different serving container for setting in the fridge. If you'd like to make individual mousses, you can transfer to smaller containers. It will likely fill 8-10 individual containers depending on their size.
- Set in the fridge for around 6 hours; less may also be okay, as long as you can tell that it is set and not soupy.
- Whip up another 120ml of whipped cream for decorating the top - we like to pipe it on using a star tip nozzle. You can add additional lemon zest, or candied lemon peel, or candied lemon slices to the top for more decoration. Enjoy and keep any leftovers in the fridge!