Hungary for Mousse...bars

I meant to write so much more last week, but life got in the way.  This last week has been rough.  Meetings.  Discrimination.  Decisions.  Will I have the courage to stand up to it?  What's right is rarely popular.  I have never been a popular person as it is so it shouldn't be foreign to me.  But fear ripples through my viens, weakening my resolve.  I believe you must give credit where credit is due and not doing so would be plagerism--at least when it comes to writing papers.  Oh that I might have the cunning of a lioness and the voice of her roaring, golden maned mate.  I pray to do what is right.

I needed something to distract me and clear the soot from my soul.  So I baked.  I've long desired to try these Hungarian Mousse Bars from Epicurious.com.  Before you say it's too much work, just know they're divine.  Plus, you have me giving you tips!

I used Silpat rather than wax paper.  In hindsight, I'd rather have used the paper.  The delicate cakes are difficult to remove the heavy Silpat from.  If you mess up like I did, just mash it back down in the empty spots.  I also didn't have apricot jelly so I subed black raspberry.  Good decision.

One pan was Silpat, the other was this.  Both work equally well.

Jam layer in back, ganache layer in front.

 It's important to make sure you have STIFF peaks everytime the recipe says for stability.



Stiff peaks on the egg whites.



Stiff peaks on the whipped cream.

    
 

Several reviews stated that the mousse didn't set properly.  I had no problems.  I set the mousse bowl inside a bowl full of ice as suggested, however, I sprinkled a generous amount salt on the ice.  It acts as a cataylst for the reaction.  When I felt it was on th slow side still, I popped it in the fridge for about 5-10 minutes.  (My husband claimed this really did nothing.)

Set mousse.

Mousse spread across cake and jam layer.

Personally, I don't feel geletin is necessary for the whipped cream layer either.

They were very delicate when assembled so we (hubby helped) flipped them onto the bottom of another pan and pealed the wax paper off that way.  If you want them to look like the picture on Epicurious, you need to either use smaller pans or cut the cake layers in half and stack them on each other first, then proceed with the rest of assembly.

Melts in your mouth, not in your hand.  Well, a bit on your fingers.

Everyone who ate them, loved them.  I hope you do too!