26 March 2014  10:34p

Kat's just going to bed now (or at least she's retiring to her room).  I just listened to several episodes from the second season of The Muppet Show, which as have on DVD.  Kat believes that she has not seen all of the episodes, so I guess we're going through them.

Today, in Pastries & Desserts class, we made mousses:  chocolate mousse and strawberry mousse.  One is thickened with gelatin (strawberry) and the other with a combination of egg white and whipped heavy cream.  My friend, Liz, came with me today, and is considering joining the class, because today she learned some things she hadn't known before, and was able to watch how to caramelize sugar to design decorations for semisolid desserts.

Picked up Kat on the way home.  She's a participant in the Greater San Diego Science and Engineering Fair.  The awards ceremony is tomorrow evening, and we will go to cheer people who win the awards.  There were some downright cool projects.  The topic for the project right next to Kat's was non-Newtonian liquids.  Its name goes from "oobleck" to "goo" to "slime."  The most amazing thing that I heard about, though I did see a photograph of the phenomenon, is the "dancing pancake," achieved at a specific frequency (I wish I could remember what it was) of sound, when the oobleck becomes like a rubbery disk, bouncing on the dish.  Kat told me that they watched a video of the dancing pancake.  Pretty cool.  There was another project that studied bioremediation of petroleum spills.  Kat studied the rates of fermentation using different fruit juices.

Here's the recipe we followed for the chocolate mousse:
6 oz. bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
4 T unsalted butter, chopped into small pieces
pinch table salt
1 t vanilla extract
2 T strong coffee or 4 t brandy, orange-flavored liqueur (like Grand Marnier), or light rum
4 large eggs, separated
2 T granulated sugar
1/2 C. heavy cream, plus extra for garnish

Melt chocolate in a double boiler (we did it this way, because I don't like using microwaves for cooking) or in microwave, then whisk in butter.  Stir in salt, vanilla, and coffee until completely incorporated.  Whisk in yolks, one at a time, until completely incorporated.  Set aside.

Stir egg whites in a double-boiler until slightly warm, 1 to 2 minutes.  Remove from heat, and beat with an electric mixer on medium speed until soft peaks form.  Increase mixer speed to high and slowly add sugar.  Beat until it forms soft peaks.  Whisk in a quarter of the beaten whites into the chocolate mixture, then gently fold in remaining whites.

Whip cream into soft peaks and fold into the mousse.  Spoon mousse into 6-8 individual serving dishes and chill at least 2 hours, up to 24 hours.  Garnish with additional whipped cream.

We went a little light on the sugar because we used the semisweet chocolate instead of the bittersweet, and Liz said it came out fine.  I'll taste it tomorrow when I have my portion of it (I'd brought two portions home, one for Kat and one for myself).

The strawberry mousse used gelatin to stabilize and thicken the mousse.  I'll include that recipe in a future post if I think of it, but I'm a little tired to do it tonight.

Tonight, I looked at our small sack of coconut flour, and thought about subbing it in for regular flour in a recipe for an almond-flavored cookie that includes almond extract.  Might try using almond flour, then for that recipe.  Hopefully, it'll come out fairly intensely almond.  I love the flavor of almonds.

Well, that's about it.  It's time for me to try to catch Peter on his cel, as he's in London this week and it's just about breakfast time.