Napoleon Would Be Proud

When I was younger, I loved vanilla, chocolate and strawberry ice cream in its wonderful little setting called Napoleon ice cream.

Wait, its not Napoleon ice cream, its Neapolitan. Took me years as a child to figure out why someone would name this beautiful creation after a short, crabby dictator. I was quite relieved to find out its origin made more sense in its true form.

From Wikipedia:

Neapolitan is a kind of ice cream, or more precisely, of ice cream packaging. The box (or tub, bar, etc.) is divided into three flavors, usually strawberry, chocolate, and vanilla. Other combinations are possible, such as banana/vanilla/chocolate or caramel/vanilla/chocolate). Neapolitan is listed as the third or fifth favorite ice cream flavor in the United States. Neil Armstrong ate some in space in July 1969.Neapolitan ice cream is so called because it is a variant on spumoni, a three-flavoured (usually cherry, chocolate, and pistachio) ice cream originally made in Naples. Spumoni was introduced to the United States in the 1890s."

My husband came up with this idea for my mousse, for my first entry in the HHDD Challenge for this month, hosted by the wonderful Tartelette.

http://tartelette.blogspot.com/2007/04/hay-hay-todays-day-for-mousse.html

I should always go with my first instinct, and that was to make a wonderful cool flavored mousse and concentrate on great presentation. But my husband was insistent that this was a great idea.

So I had to make three, yes, I said three different flavors of mousse for this creation (which I don't even know if it is against the rules to do this). I cursed my husband for the entire 2 1/2 to 3 hour period it took me to do this late on Sunday evening, exhausted from my days activities and concerned about my basement and the huge lake forming in my backyard, as we had a Nor'easter in our area that has lasted more than 24 hrs.

The chocolate and strawberry mousses are from recipes I got in my pastry arts class. The vanilla I switched up a little bit and instead made a white chocolate mousse, using white chocolate in the original semi-sweet chocolate recipe. The presentation was pretty good, but the lighting in my house this morning was awful as we were still in the midst of the Nor'easter. A little water in my basement, but nothing to cry about, so please forgive the darkness of the picture.

It looked like Neapolitan and it even tasted like a Neapolitan. And I'm sure if my husband has anything to do with it, the rest will be completely eaten by the time I get home from work today.

Chocolate Mousse

8 oz semi sweet chocolate (for white chocolate, substitute 8 oz white chocolate)
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
4 egg yolks
1/8 cup granulated sugar
3 egg whites
1/4 cup granulated sugar

Melt the chocolate over a double boiler, keep warm.
Whip the heavy cream to soft peaks, keep chilled.
Whisk the egg yolks and the first amount of granulated sugar over a double boiler and heat until the sugar dissolves (approximately 115 degrees).
Transfer the yolks to an electric mixer with a whip attachment. Whip the yolks on high speed until 3x's the original volume, light in color and holds ribbon.
When the yolks are close to finish; start whisking the egg whites with the second amount of granulated sugar. Whip to a firm peak.
When the entire mise en place is ready, fold the warm chocolate into the egg yolk base.
Fold in the egg whites.
Fold in the heavy cream.

Strawberry Mousse

1 tsp gelatin
8 1/2 oz of strawberry puree (room temp)
4 tbl of powdered sugar
juice of lemon
7 egg whites
4 oz granulated sugar
2 tbl cold water
12 1/2 oz heavy cream

Sprinkle the gelatin into a bowl containing 1 tbl of cold water.
Combine the fruit puree, powdered sugar, and the lemon juice in a large bowl. Whisk until well blended.
Prepare a Swiss meringue. Put granulated sugar and egg whites in bowl over double boiler and heat until sugar dissolves. Transfer to electric mixer and whip to stiff peaks.
Dissolve the gelatin over a double boiler. Whisk gelatin into fruit puree.
Whip heavy cream in mixer to stiff peaks.
Transfer the meringue to a large bowl. Fold the puree into meringue.
Carefully fold heavy cream in mixture