We came across an intriguing recipe for strawberry mousse cake in Martha Stewart Living and decided to skip the cake part and just make the strawberry mousse with white chocolate. I’ve made some modifications to adapt the recipe for a standalone sophisticated dessert. It’s delicious! And well worth the effort. Since the mousse requires several hours of chilling time, it’s an excellent dish if you are looking for a make-ahead dessert that will wow your guests.

Strawberry Mousse Ingredients

To make this show-stopping strawberry mousse, we use:

Fresh strawberriesLemon juiceWhite chocolateUnflavored gelatinHeavy whipping creamPowdered sugar

How to Make Strawberry Mousse

First, we make a purée with about half of the fresh strawberries, and stir in some lemon juice to brighten their flavor. Then we melt white chocolate and mix it with some gelatin that has been mixed with cream and powdered sugar. Why the gelatin? It will help give our strawberry mousse structure, enabling us to make the mousse several hours or even a day ahead. Then we combine the white chocolate mixture with the strawberry purée and whipped cream. We chill the mixture, and then stir in some fresh strawberries. Chill for several hours and serve this strawberry white chocolate mousse with some remaining strawberry purée on top. The purée is not sweetened and adds a lovely, mildly tart balance to the rich white chocolate.

More Easy Elegant Desserts to Try!

Ricotta-Mascarpone Mousse with Balsamic Strawberries Rhubarb Fool Ricotta and Summer Berry Parfaits Pavlova with Raspberry Sauce Easy Lemon Pudding

Press the purée mixture through a mesh sieve with the back of a spoon into a bowl. You want to end up with 1 cup of purée. Stir in 1 tablespoon of the lemon juice and set aside. Stir until smooth, set aside. Using a large rubber spatula, gently fold the remaining whipped cream into the mixture. Refrigerate for 1 hour.