How to make a passion fruit mousse without gelatin?

Question

I am Brazilian amateur cook.

I wonder if there is any original recipe to make passion fruit mousse. Every time I do it, consistency is too runny and slightly aerated. Maybe the consistency to stay firm with the use of gelatine, but avoid using because I don't like to do it.

Most recipes that date make use of:

• heavy cream;

• sweetened milk and

• passion fruit juice or pulp.

At the same time all mixed in a mixer or in a blender. Apparently, using too much juice or passion fruit juice is what brings more acidity and taste the result, making the more liquid mousse. I don't know if the climatic condition here change something.

PS: Use whipped cream would make the consistency of mousse more aerated and firmer too? What could I do (without gelatine) to make the mousse as expected?

Answer 1

There are two things you can do to make the mousse stiffer:

1. Reduce the water from the fruit. So use some kind of concentrate instead of the pure fruit. For example, you could cook down a syrup or jam and add it to the mousse. Or see if dehydrating juice gets you somewhere.

2. Use more fat. Instead of whipping cream at 30 to 35% fat, you could use double-cream at 45%, or a mix of cream and mascarpone. Or fold whipped cream (for aeration) and some cooked down passion fruit into something even stiffer. Maybe base it off a whipped white chocolate ganache.

Answer 2

However much you are making, use this ratio: 4 parts heavy cream/whipping cream to 2 parts sweetened condensed milk to 2 parts passionfruit pulp. Make sure that before you start, you whip the heavy cream until it holds in stiff peaks. This results in a mousse that has an almost custard-like consistency, but with a lighter feel. I don't know how to make a fruit mousse that is much stiffer without gelatin. A good compromise if you are uncomfortable with normal gelatin is to use plant gelatin, available at many health-food stores.

Answer 3

One of the most important details in this recipe is that the mixture needs plenty of time - overnight is ideal, but at least 2 to 3 hours - to really chill completely before serving, so that the fruit acid in the passion fruit pulp (or concentrate) has time to thicken the protein in the heavy cream and condensed milk. (It works sort of like the way the lime juice firms up the protein in raw fish or shellfish when you're making ceviche.)

I thought I was doing it wrong the first few times I made it (with only the three ingredients referenced above by Suhany, the OP) since I was working from just a verbal description, not a written recipe, but it turns out I was simply being too impatient: it was perfectly delicious but way too runny, more of a sauce than a mousse. Once I contained myself and left it in the fridge overnight it came out exactly the way my favorite Brazilian restaurant served it. Also be sure you're using either pulp or a bottled/jarred concentrate, not a 'passion fruit juice' beverage, which will be much too watery.