Lemon Mousse Bombes

This post is super late, but as I've harped about over and over again: I work a lot!

I made these little desserts for Easter, on a sudden lift of energy that came from the heady idea of a whole Saturday off (the Saturday after Good Friday, I didn't work. It was an Easter miracle!).

The recipe is from the incomparable Jen Yu of Use Real Butter. She is one of my several culinary heroes. I pretty much stuck to the recipe, except I made a regular ol' yellow cake (I didn't have the ambition to make a chiffon cake).



















I used Ghiradelli chocolate and lemons from my parents' backyard. They were super juicy and sweet and lovely.

I really didn't allow myself much time to do this. I generally don't allow myself any time to do anything, but somehow (more miracles), things get done and I don't end up with egg all over my face (usually).

Made the cake, lickety-quick:


















Made the lemon mousse using Ms. Yu's recipe. It is a wonderful, very lemony and tart and not overly sweet. I made it again some time after Easter and it was every bit as great as I remembered:


















So all the in-between steps are missing, i.e. how the bombes get assembled. Go look on Use Real Butter, because the photos are better and the steps are explained very clearly!

Basically, a bombe has an outer shell of chocolate, a filling of ice-cream or mousse, and a base of cake/cookie/shortbread. Yummy concept.

This recipe used white chocolate for the shell, had lemon mousse for the filling, cake for the base, and a surprise inside- macerated raspberries. My finished bombes:


















Chopped one in half to "test" it. I took the chilled bombe straight from the freezer and cut it open without letting it warm up a little bit first, which is why the chocolate chipped off. No patience over here!

And you can tell how unevenly I cut the cake. I didn't level it before I cut the rounds from it. Honestly, I felt like it would be a waste of cake! No one was going to cut the bombes in half before consuming, so I thought my secret would be safe. Forgot to take into account my penchant for blogging... dangit.


















My bombes' high school yearbook picture, whence you can observe how the incorrectly tempered chocolate created swirls of white against cream. I'm not a good chocolate temperer, never have been. I've accepted that and am okay with it now.


















I ended up making 36 bombes. They are 2.75" across, good for about five bites. (Actually, my dad ate one in a bite and a half, but he's got a giant sweet tooth.)

White chocolate is probably my least favorite form of chocolate, but in this dessert, it's perfect. Kind of buttery and rich, without the strong scent of darker chocolates.

I also decorated some of the bombes with colored royal icing. I don't actually have any pictures of the decorated bombes, but it was simple stuff- pink or purple flowers with green leaves, pink or purple butterflies, springtime-y goodness. It was Easter, I was feeling festive, it was appropriate- I am not normally a pink and purple kind of girl.

Thanks, Jen, for the great recipe! I'll definitely be making these again, though quite as many.