Fresh Mango Yogurt Mousse: Clone of Dannon La Crème

I wish I had a more interesting story to tell you about how I came up with this fruit-based yogurt mousse, but I don't. It's just one of those times when you stand in front of an opened refrigerator staring at what you have and all of a sudden an idea just leaps out at you. Or perhaps I had mango lassi, the famous Indian mango yogurt drink, in the back of my mind at the time and wondered, in a subconscious level, what I would get if I thickened up the thing to a mousse consistency.

I didn't even start out with a recipe; I was just winging it. Ripe mangoes. Cream. Yogurt. Sugar. Gelatin. I mean, seriously, even if this thing turned out to be a runny mess, I figured it would still taste pretty darn delicious.

Boy, am I glad I wrote down everything as I was dumping stuff into the blender. This was a success in all departments: taste, appearance, texture. In fact, the creamy, light, and fluffy texture of this mousse is exactly like that of the commercial yogurt mousse marketed as Dannon La Crème in the US and Danone Danissimo in Canada.

The only exception is that this accidental clone of Dannon La Crème is fresher-tasting and proudly made by your own two hands.

Fresh Mango Yogurt Mousse
(Makes one quart)



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Flesh of 4 ripe good mangoes (You should get approximately 4 cups or 1 lb of mango flesh.)
1 cup heavy cream, chilled
1 cup yogurt or kefir, chilled
1 envelope unflavored gelatin powder
1/2 cup sugar (more or less depending on the sweetness of your mangoes or lack thereof.)
1 pinch salt

• Pour heavy cream and yogurt into your blender (a high-speed blender, such as a Vitamix, yields the smoothest mousse, but a regular blender works as well) and sprinkle the gelatin powder over the surface. Let the gelatin "bloom" for 2-3 minutes.
  
• In the meantime, do whatever you legally and morally can to get the most meat out of those four mangoes. It doesn't matter how you cut or slice them; the flesh will be blended anyway.
  
• After the gelatin powder has softened, dump the mango flesh into the blender along with the remaining ingredients. Blend until smooth. Taste for sweetness as sometimes mangoes can be too tart or too bland. Once the taste is where you want it to be, pour the mousse into small serving containers. It's better to chill the mousse in smaller, single-serving size containers than one big one as the mousse sets much more quickly and firmly in smaller containers.
  
• Cover the opening of the serving containers with plastic wrap and chill for 4-6 hours, or overnight for best results.

Related Posts:
Good Eating Mangoes
How to Peel and Slice a Ripe Mango