Last week I shared my ackee hot chocolate recipe and earlier this year easy ackee muffins with toasted coconut and white chocolate. I love ackee and white chocolate together, it’s just so good!
Some of my other favourite flavours to combine ackee with for sweet treats are coconut, almond, caramel, maple syrup, honey, Jamaican allspice (pimento) and brown butter (See this recipe for Brown Butter Ackee Bread with Walnuts *swoons* 😍).
But I digress, this is about creamy white chocolate ackee mousse atop a toasted cashew sponge with white chocolate glaze and candied cashews 😊. First featured exclusively in Issue 1, 2017 of Jamaican Eats Magazine (click here to it out), you can find the all recipes needed to put together this colourful little showstopper.
Ackee White Chocolate Mousse Domes
None of the recipes are hard but all together the project is a bit involved. Once you’re organized it’s smooth sailing.
Whereas I’ve included approximations to the volume conversions, I highly recommend using as a digital scale as it will always be more accurate. Here are two that I use and love:
The Escali Primo scale is actually the first scale I owned. I bought it in 2007 and it’s still going strong. I left it with mom when I migrated and bought myself another just like it after purchasing a different brand only to have it die within a month.
My favourite thing about this scale is that it uses AA batteries which I always have laying around. It comes in a bunch of preeeetty colours (oooouuhhh 🤪)On top of that, the area where you’d put the container you’re measuring into is elevated which means you can see the display even if you use a slightly larger container, yay!
Which brings me to the OXO one.
It’s even better than the Escali since you can pull out the display which means you can use virtually any size container and still see what you’re measuring. The links above are for both the 5lb and 11lb capacity scales. I use the 11lb one at work but the 5lb one should be fine for use at home
I’ve given the five recipes that make up the domes separately below then a final one with instructions for finishing and assembling the domes; I promise it’s far simpler than it seems. Don’t be shy to give this one a shot.
For a quick and easy dessert you can even make only the mousse recipe and maybe the candied cashews to sprinkle on top for some texture.
That’s it for today, what do you think? As always feel free to share your thoughts in the comments section below. If you make this or any of the recipes from this site, be sure to #amazingackee and @amazingackee so that I can see your posts across social media.
Until next time, thanks for stopping by 😊
*Note: The post above contains affiliate links. This means that at no additional cost to you should you choose to purchase something from Amazon.com through any of the links provided I may earn a small commission. I would never however, recommend a product that I not personally tried and liked.
Toasted Cashew Sponge
Ingredients
- 75 g (¾ cup) Toasted cashews, cooled
- 75 g (½ cup + 2 tbsps) Icing sugar
- 20 g (8 tsps) All Purpose flour
- Pinch Salt
- 100 g (2 each) Eggs
- 67 g (2 each) Egg whites
- 10 g (2 tsps) Granulated white sugar
- 15 g (1 tbsp) Unsalted butter, melted
Instructions
- Spray a 9x13” rimmed baking sheet with oil, line with parchment paper and set aside.
- Preheat oven to 220˚C (425˚F)
- Place cashews, icing sugar, flour and salt in a food processor and grind till the cashews are fine
- Combine cashew mixture with eggs in a large bowl beat for 2 minutes till well combined, set aside.
- In the bowl of a stand-mixer fitted with the whisk attachment (alternately you could use a hand held mixer) combine the egg whites and granulated sugar. Whip till you have a meringue that is stiff and glossy.
- Fold the meringue into the cashew batter followed by the melted butter being careful not to overmix.
- Spread into baking pan and bake for 5 to 8 minutes till the top is nicely browned.
- Remove from oven, invert onto a cooling rack, peel off parchment and let cool completely
Ackee White Chocolate Mousse
Ingredients
- 70 g (1/3 cup) Heavy cream
- 125 g (½ cup + 1 ½ tbsps) White chocolate
- 3 g (1 tsp) Gelatin, powdered
- 15 g (1 tbsp) Water
- 175 g (¾ cup) Parboiled (or canned) Ackee
- 237 g (1 cup) Heavy cream, whipped
Instructions
- Have moulds or pan ready before starting the mousse as once it’s done you want to get it into the containers before it starts setting up.
- Pour water into a small bowl and sprinkle over gelatin, set aside and let bloom, about 5 minutes.
- Place white chocolate in a medium bowl and add bloomed gelatin.
- Heat the heavy cream (it doesn’t have to come to a boil), then pour it over the white chocolate, leave 2 minutes for the chocolate to start to melt then whisk together till completely combined.
- Combine the white chocolate mixture with the ackees and blend till smooth, pass through a fine sieve to ensure no hard bits get into the mousse.
- Fold the whipped cream into the ackee mixture in three additions being careful to combine well but not overmix.
- Follow instructions in the finishing and assembly.
Notes
White Chocolate Glaze
Ingredients
- 13 g Gelatin powdered
- 80 g Water
- 200 g Corn syrup
- 200 g Granulated white sugar
- 100 g Water
- 135 g Condensed milk
- 200 g White chocolate
- White food colouring as needed
- Red and yellow food colouring as needed (or any other colour of you like)
Instructions
- Pour 80g of water into a bowl and sprinkle over gelatin and leave to bloom, about 5 minutes.
- Place the bloomed gelatin in a bowl with the white chocolate.
- Combine: corn syrup, sugar, water and condensed milk in a saucepan and heat over medium till the sugar dissolves completely.
- Pour the syrup mixture over the white chocolate mixing till the chocolate has melted, use a blender or an immersion blender to make completely smooth.
- Add white food colouring to adjust the colour of glaze.
- Separate some of the glaze and tint to desired colour(s)
- The glaze is ready to use when it has cooled to about 35 – 40˚C (95 – 104˚F) – use an instant read thermometer to check this.
Candied Cashews
Ingredients
- 50 g (½ cup) Cashews
- Granulated white sugar as needed
Instructions
- Line a tray with parchment and set aside.
- Place cashews in a frying pan over medium heat.
- Once they start to warm up and glisten as the oils are released, sprinkle over with a handful of sugar
- Using a wooden spoon, mix the cashews so they are coated with the sugar as it melts.
- Pour onto the prepared tray and sprinkle over with a bit more sugar, let cool.
- Once cooled, crush cashews roughly
Simple Syrup
Ingredients
- 30 mL 2 tbsps Water, hot
- 30 g 2 tbsps Sugar
- Splash of vanilla extract
Instructions
- Combine all ingredients and let cool.
White Chocolate Ackee Mousse Domes - Finishing and Assembly
Ingredients
- 1 Recipe White Chocolate Ackee Mousse
- 1 Recipe Toasted Cashew Sponge Cake
- 1 Recipe Simple syrup optional
- 1 Recipe Candied Cashews
- 1 Recipe White Chocolate Glaze
Instructions
- Prepare pan/moulds – line with plastic or spray with oil-spray for a little extra insurance.
- Brush the sponge cake with simple syrup and cut into sizes needed depending on the pan/mould you are using (as shown, 3-inch round cutters were used to make 12 bases)
- Pipe mousse into mould and top with sponge cake base if using a dome; if using a pan, place the sponge cake base in the bottom of the pan and pour over the mousse.
- Set the mousse overnight.
- Remove mousse from mould/pan and place on a wire rack spacing well.
- Prepare the glaze.
- When the glaze is at the correct temperature for pouring, remove the mousse from the freezer and place on a tray large enough to catch the excess glaze that will drip off the mousse. Pour over glaze and design as desired.
- Carefully lift each mousse and scrape away the excess glaze from around the base of the mousse.
- Press the candied cashew crumbs around the base of the mousse. Chill for 15 to 30 minutes to allow the glaze to set a before serving.