Saturday, June 11, 2016

Frangelico Chocolate Mousse: a new party fave!

By Victoria Abbott aka Mary Jane and Victoria Maffini


 


We recently celebrated a ‘big birthday’ for MJ’s hubby/Victoria’s dad with a party.  With seventy people expected we wanted to have something besides the vast birthday cake for a warm weather dessert. It had to be made ahead and very easy to serve.  We adapted one of our favorite ice-creamy desserts and added Frangelico liqueur as hazelnuts and chocolate are an Italian tradition.  It was so easy to make and done well ahead of time. We used clear plastic mousse cups and tiny spoons from our local dollar store. Mousse cups are smaller than the plastic wine glasses and are just right for a ‘shot’ of dessert. This was an easy idea serving idea we pinched from one of our friends. We use  the mousse cup servers every time we have a crowd and they're always a huge hit (as long as there are plenty of them so people can have seconds).

Frangelico Chocolate Mousse

You will need:
1 can of sweetened condensed milk
1 jar chocolate syrup (the cheap and cheerful kind you put on ice cream)
2 cups whipping cream
½  teaspoon vanilla extract
½ teaspoon (or ¼) almond extract
3 tablespoons of Frangelico liqueur (or more to taste)
½ cup  toasted hazelnuts (optional)

First: Mix the condensed milk, chocolate syrup, whipping cream, vanilla extract, almond extract and Frangelico until well blended. Place bowl to chill in fridge for 1 hour.  I hope you can imagine this and the ingredients because WINDOWS 10 ate my photos of the process. They must have been delicious, that's all I can say,
While the mixture is chilling:  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Spread hazelnuts (if you are using) on pie plate. Toast for about 5 minutes until brown. Remove and let them cool.
When mixture is chilled, whip (stand mixer is best) until it is thick as whipped cream Transfer about ¼ cup or less to each mousse cup (you can tell if the amount looks right) The recipe should give you about 48.  We made roughly 140, but don’t feel you must! Top with toasted hazelnuts (if using) and freeze, covered with plastic wrap, for at least twenty-four hours or up to a month. For the ones without the toasted hazelnuts, we stuck in the little spoons and froze them on the serving plates to make serving easier. 

The hardest part of this was redoing the photos (with yet another batch) when Windows 10 messed with my photo storage system. But then, they also vanished: they must have been delicious too.  Next post: I'm moving to the MAC.

Never mind, back to the point: You could even just put candles in a few for a birthday mood!


Keep an eye on them. They have a tendency to disappear from the freezer before the big day.



But birthdays aren’t the only thing we have been celebrating.



We’re happy to announce that The Marsh Madness won the 2016 Bony Blithe Award for ‘mysteries that make us smile’.    You can bet that made us smile, Here we are at the podium going on a bit! Victoria is holding the award.




  
 and here’s a picture of the award design.





If you've already read it, we hope you'll PRE-ORDER THE HAMMETT HEX.  We're pretty excited about it too. You can get it HERE
 or wherever you order/buy your books!

Don't miss out on book and dog news, recipes and contests with our newsletter.  Click here and ask!
 

9 comments:

  1. My party favorite, also. It could easily become a vice! Thanks for the recipe.

    ReplyDelete
  2. those look delish--and so clever to be able to do ahead and freeze! and congrats again on the Bony Blithe award! xox

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you so much, Roberta! They are tasty and there's a new batch (photos didn't come out). Guess I'll have to have a party. XO MJ

      Delete
  3. Oh my goodness...I'm drooling! And I love that it can be made ahead of time and kept in the freezer. Congrats on the Bony Blithe award!!!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thanks, Kim! We aim to make you drool, so that's good news.

    XO MJ

    ReplyDelete
  5. How delicious does this recipe sound! Next time there is a birthday in the Reid house we will certainly try it. Come to think of it, why wait for a birthday.
    Hugs, Nancy
    And sympathy over the Windows 10 issues - I am still holding out - won't risk losing any of the 43,000+ plus photos in my files.

    ReplyDelete
  6. The recipe sounds so good! I'm really not much of a dessert person, but I may have to try this.

    ReplyDelete