One of my favorite restaurants in Memphis is Casa Grill. It’s the best Mediterranean food I’ve ever had and have yet to order something that I haven’t liked. Half the time I let the owner, Aimer, order for me. Places like that make me never want to make gyros or hummus myself, how could it possibly compare? So instead I make variations.
The mousse they serve there is insanely good. I didn’t even like chocolate mousse until I had theirs. When it comes to chocolate, I’ve always needed nuts, or something to break up the solid chocolate flavor. Do not even think of giving me a slice of chocolate cake with chocolate frosting unless there is vanilla ice cream to “make the medicine go down” so-to-say. Plain chocolate ice cream is out of the question. And a solid chocolate bar? There better be peanut butter hidden in the middle or nuts in it before appealing to me. (This is where you say I am a strange female.) But the Casa Grill chocolate mousse? Sharing doesn’t work well with me.
Instead of trying to recreate that wonderful little bowl of goodness, I decided to mix it up with another popular dessert – baklava. You make the mousse separately, spoon it into little phyllo cups, and top it off with baklava-styled nuts and a dollop of honey. The results are obnoxiously scrumptious.
I worried that they would become soggy the longer they sat, with the flaky cups absorbing the moisture from the mousse, but I was pleasantly surprised that after two days in the fridge they maintained their crispiness! I originally had this as a “serve immediately” recipe, but I take it back. Although I doubt you will have to worry about storing them past the second day because they should magically disappear before that problem arises.
BAKLAVA MOUSSE CUPS
Makes 30 mini cups
Ingredients:
CHOCOLATE CARAMEL MOUSSE
1/2 cup sugar
3/4 cup plus 1-1/2 Tbsp heavy whipping cream
2-1/2 Tbsp salted butter, room temperature (or unsalted plus 1/4 tsp salt)
7 oz semisweet chocolate chips
3 eggs, separated
NUT TOPPING & CUPS
1-1/2 cups chopped walnuts
1/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup butter, softened
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp salt
Honey
2 pkgs frozen pre-baked mini phyllo cups
Directions:
- Make the mousse: Combine the sugar and 2 tablespoons water in a medium saucepan. Do not stir. Cook over medium-high heat to a dark caramel, swirling as it begins to brown to distribute the sugar. While the sugar and water are going at it, heat up the cream in a saucepan or microwave just until warm.
- Take off the heat and deglaze and add your room temperature butter. Add your warmed cream and whisk vigorously. Add the chocolate, wait for a minute or two for it to melt and mix until smooth then wait a few more minutes to cool. Add a little bit of warm chocolate to the egg yolks and stir it around a bit to bring the eggs to a warmer temperature and then added them to the chocolate mixture. Mix in the egg yolks.
- Whisk the egg whites until they form firm peaks and then fold into the chocolate mixture. Cover with plastic wrap and chill for at least 6 hours.
- Make the topping: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Meanwhile, in medium bowl, stir walnuts, sugar, butter, cinnamon and salt with fork until mixture is well mixed and crumbly.
- Sprinkle nut mixture evenly over parchment lined baking sheet. Bake 1o to 15 minutes or until caramelized. Allow to cool before crumbling any nuts which may have stuck together.
- Assemble: Spoon 1 tablespoon chilled mousse into each phyllo cup. Top with nuts and a dollop of honey. Serve immediately or store in fridge for up to 2 days.
Source: Mousse from A Cozy Kitchen. Topping adapted from Betty Crocker.
12 comments
These look irresistible. What a great combination, smooth creamy, flaky, crunchy and sweet!
Erin these look amazing! What a clever use of ingredients. I would also love to help with the bake sale but that falls right when I’ll be out of town without a means to bake. I’ll check it out though!!
Love this little creation – and I love that they hold up for a few days. Its great to have a few recipes on stand by for when you need to cook ahead.
Individualized baklava is a great idea, lots better than cutting and removing it from a pan. I will have to keep an eye out for the mini cups-this looks delicious.
What a cute idea to put it in these little cups! I love plain chocolate! In fact, really there better not be nuts in my chocolate! I can do peanut butter, or caramel but not nuts! I know, I am strange too.
Strange folks are more fun, right?
These look so good! Although, I love anything that includes chocolate mousse, yum :)
NO WAY! This is such a smart idea! Love it!
Yay, I’m glad you agree!
I just had baklava for the first time this past weekend. This sounds awesome with the chocolate mousse and I love the twist of the individual cup servings. It sounds wonderful Erin!
Thanks! I can’t believe you just have baklava for the first time!
whaaaaa…?! What a fantastic idea!!! I love baklava!