Sweetened or unsweetened, chantilly means light, airy, like the mousse at the corner of the ocean waves. Crème fleurette, full fat cream, obviously, sometimes cut with a bit of mascarpone so that it holds better: it is fluffy, it is light, it is everything.
I usually start my chantilly party in the spring - whipping cream by hand is a fun way to start strawberry season, and then stretch it out through summer all the way to fall.
Lightly sweetened with sugar, or rose syrup for a pink twist, it's a great companion to all the red fruits out there. But why stop there when you could be adding whipped cream to your cappuccino, raspberry tart, cheesecake, hot chocolate, pavlova, vacherin, Eton mess?
Investing in a pipping bag will instantaneously elevate your chantilly by making you feel like a pastry chef - even though, as you know, you just whipped something up.
This is an ode to cake decorating and a simple whipping cream. Like the cream on top of this incredible mousse that quite literally blew my mind in Barcelona (see the recipe story at the very end).
- Les choses, upcoming exhibition at the Louvre about natures mortes (still lives)
food
- Poly hotdog, made in Paris by the social food, a talented duo of french photographers/ food entrepreneurs.
- The chantilly waves on a pistachio strawberry ice cream vacherin from Christophe Felder, a brilliant pastry chef who works between Paris and Mutzig, a small village in Alsace.
skincare
- Jojoba oil by Rowse, a beautiful brand, focused on minimalist packaging and single (or very few) ingredient products.
skincare from barcelona
the original mousse at Lluritu
THE INCREDIBLE MOUSSE
What's in the mousse? I asked. Galletas de Maria biscuits, he said. A mousse made with biscuits? To say I wasn't convinced is an understatement but I ordered it anyways, intrigued. Unassumingly, my mousse came in a tiny Duralex glass placed on a small white saucer. But as soon as my spoon dove into the mousse, I travelled through textures and flavors, from the barely sweetened and airy whipped cream to a silkier, denser, sweeter caramel looking mousse. It was creamy and sweet, with hints of vanilla. The mousse was made with condensed milk and crushed biscuits, topped by barely sweeten whipped cream. Sandwiched in the middle & sprinkled on top were delicate crumbs of Galletas de Maria.
I hadn't heard about theses biscuits before but it turns out they are very famous - and even have their own Wikipedia page. The Marie biscuit was created in London in 1874 to “commemorate the marriage of the Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna of Russia to the Duke of Edinburgh and quickly became popular throughout Europe, particularly in Portugal and Spain".
France also has a version of the Maria biscuit: Delacre says it's “un biscuit léger et croustillant à la saveur traditionnelle”. It's indeed a rather plain biscuit, close to a digestive but less rich, similar to a petit-beurre in texture, though perhaps drier, and more friable.
THE STORY
After going back to Lluritu twice to savor their calamari and this spectacularly simple mousse, I took notes and decided I would bring back home some Galletas de Maria. After some research, I found many versions of this ‘postre’, from individual ramequins, to a tiramisu style layout with entire biscuits layered in between the cream.
To amp the effect of this brilliant dessert, I served my version in cristal champagne glasses. But you could decide to go more classic, with small Duralex glasses like they do at Lluritu.
Using these classic biscuits in a mousse is a brilliant idea I didn't have but decided to recreate. You could swap these biscuits for digestives - but your country should have a version of these Galleta Maria. I decided to conquer my fear of using gelatine and celebrate the joy of making a simple dessert without fuss but you could also use agar-agar, or make a custard. Because this dessert is all about the cream, make sure you pick a nice full fat whipping cream. Final tip: make sure your cream, your whisk, and bowl are very cold before whipping. I usually put everything in the freezer for twenty minutes prior.
serves 4
the mousse
galletas de maria biscuits - 10
full fat whipping cream - 15 cl
full fat milk - 10 cl
vanilla extract - one teaspoon
gelatine - one sheet
condensed milk - 3 tablespoons
(or Dulce de Leche)
the whipped cream
full fat cream, whipped - 25 cl
powdered sugar - 1 tablespoon (optional)
the finishing touch
galletas de maria crumbs - from 4 biscuits
start with the mousse
To rehydrate the gelatine sheet: soak it into cold water. In a hand-held blender or a mixer, blend together the biscuits with the cream and milk and teaspoon of vanilla extract until the biscuits crumbs are no longer visible. In a sauce pan over low heat, add the gelatine sheet (squeeze in your hands first to remove all the excess water) and the 3 tablespoons of condensed milk until the gelatine melts. Transfer a little bit of the cream + biscuit mix into the gelatine + condensed milk, whisk, before transfering back into the cream + biscuit mix. Whisk again to make sure all the gelatine is evenly incorporated. Layer the mousse at the bottom of each champagne glass and leave to cool in the fridge for 4 hours or overnight.
whip & assemble
Once the mousse is set, you can assemble the postre: sprinkle some galletas de Maria crumbs over the mousse first. Whip the cream until if forms soft peaks, add the sugar if using any (you could go to one tablespoon but I wouldn't go further) then layer the fresh whipped cream over your mousse - I used a pipping bag with a petal nozzle (but any other one will work) - you could also just spoon it over, or perhaps you have a fancy cream whipper. Add a bit more crumbs on top and serve right away.
