Mango Mousse with Chili Lime Twist without eggs.

I wanted to take some dessert to one of our girls luncheon, decided to make the Mango Mousse with a twist.  Made chili lime Marie and Butterfly cookies crumble for base and topped with mango mousse and added chili tamarind lime gummy rings, cool whip and mint for garnish.  Since I had to take this to one of our close friends house, I decided to use the Mason jars, but you can use any fancy glasses or cups. You can even make it in a tray and serve it, with desired garnish of fresh mangoes. I only used fresh chopped mango with mango pulp as mangoes were not in season. 

It came out pretty good, except everyone wanted more of the chili lime Marie and Butterfly biscuits (cookies) crumble in between or as a topping, but I did not want to overpower with this and make the mango mousse secondary flavor. However if you like that you can put a layer of crumble in between and may be less in the bottom... You can not go wrong with any of these choices. 

However I had to take this for a get together so I had to make more. This recipe yields about 12 mason jars + two cups and I saved some for my family about 6 x 10 Pyrex glass rectangular pan. You can certainly cut the recipe in half to make less.  Also I used no sugar added mango pulp, but if you use sweetened mango pulp then you may not have to add the agave and powdered sugar in the Mousse, you may just need to sugar for the crumble.

You will need following equipment for this recipe:

• Measuring cups
• Measuring spoons 
• Food processor
• Hand mixer
• Silicone Baking mat and silicone spatula 
• Full sheet pan
• Parchment paper
• Chilled bowl to whip cream
• And Oven of course

Ingredients for Crumble:

• 1 pack of Goya Marie cookies
• 1 pack of Gullon butterfly cookies, (you can  use graham crackers about 15-18 crackers,  if these are not available)
• 3/4 cup of coconut sugar (if not available you can use brown sugar) 
• 8 tablespoon of unsalted butter melted.
• 1 tsp chili powder (or to desired spiciness) 
• 3 tablespoon of Tajin
• 1/2 tsp of crushed cardamom (you don't want to overpower with cardamom flavor)

Ingredients for Mousse:

• 1 chopped ripe mango fresh or frozen and thawed
• Two 29 oz of mango pulp ( I used the unsweetened with no sugar added, available at local Indian grocer, but you can use sweetened one, then you will have put less agave/sugar)
• 4 tablespoon of Agave (3 +1)
• 1 tablespoon of any pepper jelly I used apricot pepper jelly but if you don't have it you can use marmalade. (optional)
• 2 tablespoon of lime juice (1+1)
• 1 pack of cream cheese (I used Neufchatel cheese) 
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 2 packs of unflavored gelatin (from the box of Knorr)
• 1/2 cup of water
• 1 carton of Heavy whipping cream 
• 1/2 cup of powdered sugar or to taste

For Garnish:

• Mango tamarind chili gummy rings (which I bought from TJmaxx) You can use just the crumble for garnish with fresh ripe mango slices or cubes.
• One extra pack of Butterfly cookies (optional) 
• One cup of cool whip thawed in the fridge
• Some fresh mint leaves

Method: 

• To make crumble preheat the oven at 350 F and just before putting the crumble decreased the temp to 325F
• Line the baking sheet with silicone mat and parchment paper.
• Add the both Marie and butterfly cookies or biscuits to food processor with chili powder, cardamom, Tajin and coconut sugar or brown sugar.
• Pulse it till it becomes coarse crumb like texture.
• Add butter and pulse it again until everything is well incorporated.
• Dump the mixture on prepped baking sheet, spread it evenly and bake it for 10 min at 325 until golden brown (in between you can mix the crumb so it is browned evenly)
• Set aside to cook completely.

Method to make the Mousse:

• Clean out the food processor bowl
• Add fresh cut or frozen pieces of ripe mango, and one table spoon of lime juice, puree until smooth. 
• Add one can of  mango pulp or puree and pulse it till it is smooth.
• Add cream cheese, sour cream, three table spoons of agave and pulse until everything is nice and smooth texture.
• Add the pepper jelly or marmalade and pulse it again till everything is smooth.
• Set this mixture aside. 
• Take 1/2 cup of water in microwave safe bowl and sprinkle the gelatin powder evenly over water, let it stand for 3-5 min until spongy, then microwave it for at 10 sec interval and mix in between until gelatin is dissolved completely with no lumps.
• In a separate bowl dump the other can of mango pulp or puree.
• Add gelatin to this mix well.

• Add one table spoon of lime juice and one tablespoon of agave to this pulp, mix well.
• Now beat the whipping cream with hand mixer in chilled bowl until it stiffens to peak.
• Add the mango pulp with gelatin and mango mixture from food processor with cream cheese and sour cream to the whipped cream.
• Fold the mixture until everything is just combined, do not over mix it. Use as  few movement with silicone spatula as possible to bring the mix together.

To assemble:

• Divide the crumble evenly in the mason jars (this recipe yielded 12 mason jar, 2 serving cups and like I mentioned earlier, I saved the extra crumbles for 6 x 10 glass pan.  
• Top it with even amount of mango mousse and remaining one pour it over the crumble in the glass pan.
• Chill it in fridge for at least 4 hours.
• Garnish with one teaspoon of thawed cool whip,  chili mango rings, butterfly cookies and mint leaves.
• I had to chill it garnished but the the chili mango ring became chewy, so wait until last minute to add these.

Enjoy !!

Recipe and Photographs by Surekha.

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