Maraschino Cherry Mousse with Browned Butter Brownies

Hello everyone!

So you liked the fortune cookies, huh? They were incredibly popular Thanks for liking and sharing and trying them yourself! I love to see what you come up with!

Today, I have a delicious, relatively easy but time consuming, dessert. I did have some problems with these though :

First, I used this cheesecake pan. It’s not the best tool to do these except if you have a cookie cutter of the exact same size of the cups. You can see on my pics that the brownies aren’t the good size so the mousse found a way to the bottom!

Second, the mousse recipe I used had no cream and it separated a little. There was cherry juice dripping out of the pan into my fridge! I don’t know if I did something wrong with the recipe or if it’s suppose to be that way. I did substitute the egg whites of the original recipe by meringue powder, but I’m not sure it contributed to this problem.

Finally, I wouldn’t use the same chocolate topping as I did, it’s cute, but it would be as cute with a malleable topping instead of this hard-rock chocolate. Why you shouldn’t do this? Because there is no elegant way to eat the mousse with it (trying to cute the chocolate your mousse is crushed and destroyed!)  ;) Oh except if you take out the chocolate first and then eat the mousse!

On the bright side, there is a very great discovery with these mousse : the brownies recipe is A-MA-ZING. We ate the leftovers with apple and raspberry coulis, simply delicious!

Maraschino Cherry Mousse with Browned Butter Brownies
Yield : 12 mini mousse

Browned Butter Brownies (I used half of this recipe)
Recipe from Something Swanky

• 2 1/2 sticks salted butter
• 2 1/2 cups granulated sugar
• 1 1/2 cups cocoa powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon water
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 4 eggs
• 1 cup all purpose flour

Cherry mousse (I used half of this recipe)
Recipe adapted from Williams-Sonoma

• 1 1⁄4 teaspoon unflavored gelatin
• 2 tablespoons cold water
• 1 jar maraschino cherries, drained (keep 1/8 cup of juice)
• 1/8 cup maraschino cherry juice
• 1/8 cup water
• 4 teaspoons meringue powder
• 4 tablespoons warm water
• 1⁄4 teaspoon lemon juice
• 2 tablespoons superfine sugar (I used granulated)

Chocolate icing
I propose you use this recipe.  But if you want to do exactly what I did (with the mess it creates when you eat it!) here is  the recipe :

• 4 squares (4 ounces) semisweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
• 2 tablespoons butter

Decorations

• Pink chocolate

 For the brownies

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Prepare a 9×13 (use a smaller pan if you do half the recipe) baking dish by spraying with non-stick cooking spray and lining with parchment paper leaving an overhang on both sides.
3. Melt butter in a large saucepan over medium high heat. Stir constantly until butter has reached a light brown color and little “bits” have formed.
4. Pour the butter into the bowl of a stand mixer. Add the sugar and cocoa powder and beat until smooth, almost creamy.
5. Add the salt, water, and vanilla. Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing in between each addition.
6. Add the flour and mix well. Batter will be very thick.
7. Use a spatula to spread batter in the pan. Bake for 25-30 minutes (about 15-20 minutes for half the recipe) until toothpick inserted comes out clean.
8. Using the parchment paper overhang, lift the brownies and let cool on a cooling rack.

For the mousse

1. In a small bowl, combine the gelatin with the cold water to soften.
2. In a small saucepan over medium heat, warm 1/8 cup water with 1/8 cup maraschino cherry juice to just below the boiling point. Remove from heat, add the gelatin and stir until it dissolves.
3. Puree the maraschino cherries in a food processor until smooth.
4. Whisk the gelatin mixture into the puree until blended. Let cool for 10 minutes.
5. In a large bowl, using an electric mixer, beat the meringue powder and the 4 tablespoons water until foamy. Add the lemon juice and continue beating until soft peaks form. Gradually add the sugar and continue beating until stiff, glossy peaks form. Using a rubber spatula, fold in the cherry mixture.

For the chocolate icing
In a bowl, melt the semisweet chocolate and the butter over a boiling pot of water.

For the decorations
Line a cookie sheet with either parchment paper or waxed paper. In a double boiler, melt the pink chocolate. Transfer to a piping bag fitted with a tip #2. Pipe 12 hearts (or more). Let cool.
** You could also top with a maraschino cherry

Assembly

1. Line each cups of the cheesecake pan with waxed paper.
2. Cut out 12 rounds in the brownies (I used the removable bottom of a cup and cut all around it with a knife) and place them inside the prepared cups.
3. Divide the maraschino cherry mousse evenly in each cups. Let cool in the fridge for about 4 hours.
4. Pour the chocolate icing evenly over the mousses.
5. Place a pink heart in the middle of each mousse. Chill again until set.

Enjoy!

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