Happy Wednesday everyone! How are you today? How is this week going, so far? I hope you are all enjoying the warmth of Summer or the chilly days of winter, wherever you may be.

I had originally planned to bring you the recipes for the rest of the salads and dips that we had for our simple summer lunch, last week, but I received so many requests for the Lemon Coconut Mousse one that I decided to leave the salads for the next post. I guess my readers have a sweet tooth! 😉

This Lemon Coconut mousse was adapted from a recipe by Ina Garten and it’s easy to do even though it does take some time.  Basically, I make my own lemon curd (with a recipe I had completely forgotten I had and I rediscovered when going through an old recipe notebook!) and I replace the sweetened whipped cream of her original recipe, by coconut cream (I find that the mousse is already sweet enough, and I like the addition of the subtle coconut flavor). I also doubled the amount of lemon zest because I like it very lemony.

In order to make this mousse you will need:

Ingredients: 

For the Lemon Curd (serves two and half cups):

1 egg

2 egg yolks

zest and juice of 2 lemons

40 grs of butter

150 grs of sugar

2 tablespoons of cornstarch

250 ml of water

For the Lemon Custard:

3 XL whole eggs

3 XL egg yolks

1 cup of sugar

1/2 cup of lemon juice

4 teaspoons of lemon zest

a dash of salt

Additionally, to turn the custard into mousse:

3 egg whites, whipped into a firm meringue together with 2 tablespoons of sugar

1 cup coconut cream.

You can find coconut cream in the Asian food aisle of your supermarket, or you can simply put a can of unopened coconut milk in the fridge overnight. When you open the can, cream will have formed on top. Scoop it and add it to the rest of the preparation, it’s that easy!

1) The first thing to do when making this mousse  is to prepare the Lemon Curd. I like to do this the day before, to make my life easier, but you can also do everything on the same day.

In order to make the lemon curd, put all ingredients in a pan and cook until it thickens, stirring constantly so that the cream doesn’t burn/sticks to the bottom of the pan. It will take about 6/7 minutes. Let it cool for about 15 minutes and then let it rest on the fridge.

2) The second step is to make the Lemon Custard. I know the original recipe says that the whole recipe takes a total 15 minutes preparation but, in my experience it takes double as much time just to get the custard ready. But from then on, it’s only a few extra minutes!

In order to make the custard, put all ingredients in a heat-proof bowl and put this one on top of a pan with simmering water. Let it cook, beating constantly with a whisk. After about 10 minutes it will start to thicken. Continue beating until it reaches pudding consistency (Argentinian friends: tiene que tener la textura de un postrecito). When it does, take the bowl off the heat and let it cool for about 15 minutes. Then, cover with plastic wrap and put in the fridge for 1-2 hours. When I make this mousse for a special occasion, I generally prepare both the Lemon Curd and the Lemon Custard the day before and let them sit in the fridge overnight.

After taking the custard out of the fridge it should look like this:

3) When the custard is ready, whip the egg whites until firm. Add the two tablespoons of sugar, one at a time, and continue beating until the meringue becomes glossy and firm.

4) Fold the egg whites carefully  into the lemon custard with a spatula.

5) Add the coconut cream, making sure it incorporates evenly into the preparation.

6) Add 1 cup of  Lemon Curd. Incorporate.

7) Put the Lemon Mousse in the fridge and chill for several hours. Serve and enjoy!

If you like lemony desserts, I am sure you will love this mousse: it is sweet and it has a wonderful, luscious texture.

In order to decorate it, I used just a few thin slices of lemon zest.

Would you like to have some?

I wish you a wonderful rest of the week and weekend. See you in a few days with a new post!