Passion fruit pulp strained and mixed with condensed milk, folded into whipped cream and set with gelatine. Four ingredients, nothing cooked, and hours in the fridge before it can be turned out.
Nothing here is cooked
The card used to claim ten minutes of cooking time and zero minutes of preparation, which is backwards in both directions.
There is no heat anywhere in this recipe. The passion fruit is blended, the pulp strained, the cream whipped, the gelatine dissolved in a little warm water. All of that is preparation, and it takes about fifteen minutes.
What the recipe does need is time in the fridge, several hours of it, and that is where the real waiting happens.
Unflavoured gelatine, every time
Step four says unflavoured gelatine. Step five, before this rewrite, said flavoured. They are not the same thing and the difference matters.
Unflavoured gelatine is a pure setting agent: no colour, no sugar, no taste. Flavoured gelatine is a dessert mix, already sweetened and dyed, and it is calibrated for a completely different ratio of powder to liquid. Substituting one for the other gives a sweet, coloured, oddly textured mousse that may not set at all.
Fourteen grams of the plain kind is what this recipe needs.
Cool the gelatine before it meets the cream
Gelatine dissolved in warm water is hot, and whipped cream is cold. Poured straight in, the gelatine hits the cold and sets on contact, producing fine rubbery threads suspended through the mousse.
Once they are there, no amount of stirring removes them. A minute off the heat before it goes in is all the prevention needed.
Soft peaks, not stiff
The cream is whipped before it meets anything else, and it should stop at soft peaks: the point where a peak lifted on the whisk folds over on itself rather than standing upright.
Everything that follows thickens it further. Fold in the passion fruit and condensed milk on top of stiff cream and the mixture goes grainy, which is cream on its way to butter and cannot be reversed.
Knowing when it has set
The recipe says a few hours and leaves it there. Gelatine sets by cooling and it does it gradually, so the honest answer is that it depends on the size of the moulds and how cold the fridge is.
Press the surface with a finger. If it springs back and leaves no dent, and if the mousse has pulled very slightly away from the side of the mould, it is ready to turn out. If the finger leaves a mark, give it another hour.
More cold desserts
- Passion fruit dessert — the same fruit, set differently.
- Banana mousse — the same method, different fruit.
- Three milks dessert — the other condensed milk classic.
- Grape dessert — set with gelatine too.
Passion Fruit Mousse FAQ
Unflavoured, all fourteen grams of it. One instruction on this page had lost its prefix and asked for flavoured gelatine, which is a different product: sweetened, coloured and set to a fixed strength. It would not work here.
Several hours, and the recipe does not give a number. Judge it by the mould: when the surface springs back under a finger and the mousse has pulled slightly away from the sides, it is set.
Because poured in hot it can seize on contact with the cold cream and set into fine threads, and those never disappear. A moment off the heat is enough.
Soft peaks only. Folding the passion fruit and condensed milk in thickens it further, and cream whipped to stiff peaks first ends up grainy by the time everything is combined.
Because most of a passion fruit is seed and shell. Eight go into the mousse and two are kept back to spoon over the top at the end.
Yes, if you want a mousse rather than something with seeds through it. Blending breaks the pulp away from the seeds and the strainer takes the seeds out. Keep a few for decorating if you like the look.
The recipe uses individual moulds and turns them out. A single dish works but needs considerably longer to set and is harder to unmould cleanly, so serve it in the dish.
📖 Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 can condensed milk
- 10 passion fruit (eight for the mousse, two for decorating)
- 2 cups cream (cold, for whipping)
- 14 g unflavored gelatin
Notas
Instructions
- Blend the pulp of eight passion fruit. Pass it through a strainer to get rid of the seeds and set it aside.
- Mix that pulp with the condensed milk and stir until it is even.
- With an electric mixer or a hand whisk, whip the cream until it holds soft peaks.
- Hydrate the unflavored gelatin in a little warm water and set it aside.
- Now fold the passion fruit mixture into the whipped cream and add the dissolved unflavored gelatin. Stir until the mixture is smooth throughout.
- Pour it into individual moulds, cover them with plastic wrap and leave them in the fridge for several hours to set.
- Turn them out and decorate with the pulp of the two remaining passion fruit.
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