No Churn Marbled Ice Cream Mousse

One of my favourite desserts of all time is the classic chocolate mousse.

Rich, velvety and oh-so-smooth, I could never get bored of it.

But when the boiling Summer weather comes along, chocolate mousse isn't really the best option for dessert- the chocolate feels clammy in your mouth, the egg whites start to melt and the whole combo isn't the most refreshing. Instead, Ice cream and desserts containing fresh fruits take the centre stage (rightfully so).

Recently, I was looking through my recipes when I passed the chocolate mousse page and found myself looking over it (and with a hint of nostalgia may I add). A sudden idea then hit me: What if I could make a mousse suitable for Summer?

It had never really occurred to me that mousse could take on a variety of different flavours besides chocolate- such as fresh fruit. In this recipe, I'll be using strawberries, blueberries and coconut.

But I wanted to go further with my idea.

What if I could make the classic mousse a refreshing dessert?

I wondered if it could be possible to make a 'mousse-ice cream' hybrid, since both desserts are creamy in quality. On one hand, the mousse would add texture to the dessert, whereas the Ice cream would make the ensemble more refreshing and appropriate for Summer.

And so here I am, after 4 trials, with my final, perfected Ice Cream Mousse recipe. I encountered multiple mishaps along the way, but they allowed me to learn and adapt my recipe. I've included what I've learnt across my trials in this Instructable, as 'Top Tips!' in each section of the process.

I'm so excited to finally share my Ice Cream Mousse recipe with you.

Ingredients for 10 medium-sized servings:

• 3 cups (750 ml) whipping cream
• 1.5 cups (350 ml) condensed milk
• 1 cup (200 ml) coconut milk
• 1 cup (200g) strawberries
• 1 cup (200g) blueberries

Equipment needed:

• Electric blender
• Whisk (preferably electric), or Mixer machine
• 3 mixing bowls
• 3 shallow tins (I used baking tins)
• Spatula
• Sieve
• Tin foil

Pour the whipping cream into a bowl and use a whisk or mixer machine to beat it until it forms firm peaks.

Top Tip! If using an electric mixer, keep a close eye on the cream since its consistency will play a huge role in achieving the texture of the mousse. I would suggest stopping often and using a spoon to test whether the cream is firm enough. From what I've learnt in my past trials, beating the cream too long means it won't mix with the fruit juices, whereas not beating it long enough won't give you the mousse texture.

As you are mixing, add the condensed milk to the cream (I used my electric mixer). This is the step which will make our final dessert an Ice cream mousse instead of plain Ice cream: once all the condensed milk has been added, continue mixing until the mixture becomes smoother and liquid in consistency.

Top Tip! Your mixture should still be thick- once you see the mixture becoming liquid, stop right there! We need to conserve the thickness of our whipping cream to make the dessert an ice cream, whilst making the batter light enough to become a mousse.

Next, separate your mixture evenly into three mixing bowls. You're good to go to the next step!

Take your blueberries and use the electric blender until you have a homogenous juice without bits.

Top Tip! You will find that the juice obtained from the blueberries is thicker and contains more pulp than that of the strawberries. I would recommend using a sieve to filter the blueberry juice, but if you would prefer your mousse with bits that's absolutely fine!

Once you have your blueberry juice, add it to one of the bowls containing the mixture of cream and condensed milk. Gently mix until the colour of the mixture is even.

Pour this into a shallow tin (I used a baking tin).

Repeat what we had done with the blueberries: Take your strawberries and use the electric blender until you have a homogenous juice without bits. Add this to a second bowl containing your mixture of cream and condensed milk.

Gently mix until the colour of the mixture is even.

Pour this into another shallow baking tin.

Next, measure out the coconut milk and add it to the third bowl. Again, gently mix the coconut milk with the mixture of cream and condensed milk.

Pour this into a shallow baking tin.

To achieve a mousse that looks like the one shown in the Instructable image, we will marbleise the three mixtures together. This step has two roles: firstly, it will allow use to incorporate the three distinct flavours without completely blending them and losing them. Secondly, I think it drastically improves the presentation of the mousse!

Take one of your 3 tins and pour its contents into the first presenting bowl (the mousses will be served in the presenting bowls. I also experimented by using teacups to present my mousses!).

Take another of the 3 tins and pour its contents into the opposite corner of the presenting bowl.

Next, take your last tin and pour it into the middle of the presenting bowl. You should have three differently coloured mixtures in different parts of the bowl leaking into each other.

Starting from the outer corners of the bowl, use a spoon to gently swirl the presenting bowl's contents. Draw a spiral towards the centre of the bowl, as even as possible.

Repeat in a new bowl for every serving!

Top tip! I found that after drawing one spiral, I hadn't achieved my desired marble effect. If you also felt this, use the same utensil to go over the same spiral shape as you did before. This will strengthen the effect without entirely blending the three batters. You can continue doing this until you have reached your desired effect. Another thing to note is the depth of your spoon when doing the swirling: the deeper the spoon into the mixture, the stronger the marbleising and vice versa.

Take the bowls containing the marbleised mixtures, cover them in tin foil and carefully place them flat inside your freezer. This will prevent crystals from forming on the surfaces of your Ice Cream Mousses. And bam, you've finished!

I found that my mousses were ready after 4 hours (with a freezer temperature of -15 degrees Celsius/ 260 Kelvin/ 5 degrees Fahrenheit), but freezing them overnight gave the same results.

Now all that's left to do is to tuck in to your Ice Cream Mousses!