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Maple Mousse
4 eggs, well beaten 1 cup maple syrup 1 teaspoon vanilla 2 cups cream, whipped Beat the eggs very light, add the syrup and cook until it thickens, stirring constantly. Place the dish in a pan of ice water and stir until creamy, add the vanilla and the cream (whipped stiff). Fill a mold and pack in ice and salt for four hours. For the packing, use four parts ice and one part salt. Serves eight.
A cooked-custard mousse from the era when a home freezer meant either a packed ice mold or the small freezing compartment of a new electric refrigerator. The whole dish hinges on cooking the egg-and-syrup base gently enough that it thickens without curdling.
- Cook the base over water, not over the flameBeaten eggs and syrup set into curds fast on direct heat. Use a double boiler or a bowl over simmering water and stir without stopping until the mixture coats the spoon, around 170-175F.
- Chill fully before foldingThe ice-water bath is not optional. If the custard is even faintly warm it will deflate the whipped cream and the mousse will freeze dense rather than light.
- Maple syrupUse real syrup, not pancake syrup, which is corn syrup with flavouring and will taste flat once frozen. A darker grade gives more maple character against the cream.
- CreamTwo cups of cream means two cups measured liquid, whipping up to roughly four cups. Whip to soft-stiff peaks only; overwhipped cream turns grainy in a frozen mousse.
- Ice and salt packingFour parts crushed ice to one part rock salt, layered around a tightly covered mold set in a bucket, with a hole for drainage. Drain and repack as the ice melts over the four hours.
- Freezer insteadThis is a still-frozen mousse and needs no churning, so a covered mold or loaf pan in the freezer works. Allow five to six hours, or overnight, and temper 10-15 minutes at room temperature before unmolding.
- UnmoldingDip the mold briefly in warm water, run a thin knife around the edge, and invert onto a chilled plate.
- YieldEight servings as written, and they are rich; small portions with a little extra syrup poured over suit it better than large ones.
Maple mousse belongs to a family of still-frozen desserts that dodged the labour of the hand-cranked ice-cream freezer: a cooked custard lightened with whipped cream sets firm on its own, without paddling to break up ice crystals. Maple syrup was a well-established North American sweetener, used here as both sugar and flavouring rather than as a topping.