White Chocolate Chèvre Mousse with Lemon Curd

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I don’t have the biggest sweet tooth in the world. That’s not to say I don’t have one. I do. It’s just a bit of shrinking violet. It doesn’t speak up often, but when it does, it is next-level annoying. And it usually wants something that is far from sophisticated. Gummy bears, Swedish Fish, Mars Bars – these are (sadly) a few of my favorite things. But occasionally, my bratty sweet tooth aids me in my work. It gives me a kernel of an idea, and the more grown-up parts of me take it across the finish line. These White Chocolate Chèvre Mousse Cups with Lemon Curd are one such example. Usually, a white chocolate craving doesn’t lead anywhere good, but this time, against all odds, it took me somewhere very good indeed.

These cups feature dollops of white chocolate and goat cheese mousse tangy and tart lemon curd centres. The white chocolate was definitely my sweet tooth’s idea, and I got to say, I’m not mad about it. The white chocolate satisfies the childish side of my palate while the soft goat cheese tempers its sweetness and brings the dish into more savoury territory. The lemon curd grows the dish up further by adding acidity and a whisper of bitterness to the proceedings. All in all, this is a dessert a largely silent sweet tooth can get behind. 

Now that you’ve waded through my attempts to anthropomorphize a mythical tooth, I feel you should be rewarded with actual information. Namely, how to make these cute, kind-of-retro White Chocolate Chèvre Mousse Cups. The first thing we’re going to do is split a vanilla bean lengthwise. Use the blunt side of the knife to scrape out the caviar. Retain the pod because we’re going to use it. And even if we weren’t going to use it in this recipe, I would never encourage you to throw a good pod away. Put that sucker in some overproof vodka and make your own extract at the very least. 

Once the caviar has been separated from the pod, put both aside so we’re free to tackle the curd. We’re going to make the curd first because it requires the most chilling time. Place four egg yolks in a non-reactive bowl. Add the juice of three lemons, some sugar, that famous vanilla bean pod, and a pinch of salt. Fill a small pot with 3-4” of water and bring it to a healthy simmer. Place the bowl over the pot and slowly cook the curd over the simmering water. Cook until the mixture registers 170°F. Pour the finished curd through a fine mesh strainer suspended over a bowl. Transfer the bowl to the fridge and chill for a couple of hours until it reaches a spreadable consistency.

While the curd is becoming its best self in the fridge, we’re free to move on to the mousse. Coarsely chop some white chocolate and transfer it to a bowl. As we did with the curd, we’re going to suspend this bowl over some simmering water to melt our chocolate. Once the chocolate has melted, take it off the heat. In a separate bowl, place the softened goat cheese. Pour in the melted chocolate and add the vanilla caviar. Squeeze in a little lemon juice for some added brightness and whip everything together until very smooth. 

Pour a cup of heavy cream into yet another bowl (my apologies to your dishwasher) and whip on high until stiff peaks form. Add half of the cream to the white chocolate mixture and fold until no streaks remain. Add the remaining cream and once again fold until no streaks remain. Transfer the mousse to the fridge and chill for 1 hour. We don’t want the mousse to set up completely. We just want it to stiffen slightly so it’s pipeable. If you want to make the mousse in advance, you can. Just be sure to take the mousse out of the fridge 30 minutes before you want to pipe it. 

When you’re ready to pipe, grab a couple of coupes. You can, of course, use whatever dessert dishes you wish, but I like a grand ol’ coupe. It instantly elevates what I would consider a relatively simple dessert. Transfer the mousse to a piping bag. You can go with a simple round tip, a star tip, or a fluted tip. I was keen on keeping these simple, so round tip it was. 

Assemble these White Chocolate Chèvre Mousse cups by piping a massive dollop of mousse in the center of the coupe. Then, using the back of a spoon, carve out a little nook in the center of the mousse. Transfer the mousse to the fridge so it sets up completely. An hour of chilling should get you where you need to go. Once the mousse is solid, spoon the curd into that nice hollow in the middle of the mousse. And your White Chocolate Chèvre Mousse cups are done!

From here, you could either return the coupes to the fridge until you’re ready to serve or take the cups directly to the table. If you choose the former, I would take the cups out of the fridge 10 minutes before serving, just to take the chill of the fridge off. You could finish these White Chocolate Chèvre Mousse Cups off with a lemon twist, but I thought they looked pretty as is. Although I did get fried egg vibes from them, but I’m not mad about it. 

Enjoy!