Easter Eggs

Hey food lovers!

Today I'm sharing a delicious recipe for Easter.

Trompe-l'œil hard-boiled eggs. :o)

These eggs are made with Kinder eggs, a vanilla mousse and a caramelised mango/fresh mango insert.

Here are the ingredients to make 12 eggs:

- 6 Kinder eggs

Mango insert

- 1 mango

- 1/2 gelatine sheet (0.83gr)

- 10gr butter

- 35gr sugar

- 1/2 tsp lemon juice

Vanilla mousse

- 2 gelatine sheets (3.32gr)

- 80gr milk

- 16gr heavy cream

- 2 tsp vanilla flavouring

- 1 egg yolk (20gr)

- 35gr sugar

- 120gr heavy cream

Mango insert

To start, we are going to prepare our mango inserts.

Begin by cutting half a mango into small cubes of about 0.5 cm. Keep the other half in the fridge for later.

Soften 1/2 gelatine sheet (0.83gr as in Switzerland sheets weigh 1.66gr) in very cold water.

Then pour 100gr of diced mango into a small saucepan and add 10gr of butter.

Also add 35gr of sugar and 1/2 tsp of lemon juice. Note: use fresh lemon juice, not concentrate. :o)

Cook everything over medium heat for about 4 minutes.

Your mango pieces will caramelise. :o)

Once the mango is nicely caramelised, remove the saucepan from the heat. Add the softened half gelatine sheet.

Let it melt for 1-2 minutes.

Then blend everything to get a lovely mango purée.

Take a 3 cm half-sphere mould and place it on a tray so you can move it easily afterwards.

Fill 12 cavities with your mango purée.

Once all cavities are filled, place the mould in the freezer for a minimum of 1h30-2h. You can of course do this a few days ahead to spread out your work. :o)

Wait 1h30 before starting your vanilla mousse.

It should not be ready before the mango inserts are frozen. :o)

Vanilla mousse

Let's get started on the vanilla mousse.

Begin by softening 2 gelatine sheets in very cold water.

Then in a saucepan, pour 80gr of milk, 16gr of heavy cream and 2 tsp of vanilla flavouring.

In a separate bowl, pour 1 egg yolk and 35gr of sugar. Whisk the mixture until it turns pale.

Heat the mixture until it begins to steam. Then remove it from the heat. The mixture must not boil!

Then pour the hot mixture over the egg yolks/sugar and whisk well.

Then pour everything into a saucepan and heat over medium heat until the mixture reaches 83°C. Never stop whisking.

If you exceed 83-84°C, your eggs will curdle... It is therefore very important to whisk vigorously and to monitor the temperature.

Congratulations, you have just made a crème anglaise. :o)

Once 83°C is reached, immediately pour the mixture into a bowl. Do not leave your crème anglaise in the saucepan. The mixture would continue to heat.

Add the softened gelatine sheets and mix for 1-2 minutes until they melt and are evenly distributed throughout the mixture.

The cream now needs to cool down to 27-25°C before you can fold in the whipped cream. If you want to speed up cooling, you can place ice cubes under the bowl. Stir frequently so the mixture does not set at the bottom of the bowl.

Be careful, the cream must not drop below 25°C. It would set due to the gelatine.

Once the crème anglaise is at about 27°C, whip 120gr of heavy cream.

Then fold it into your crème anglaise. Gently mix with a whisk to obtain a smooth and homogeneous mousse.

Place your vanilla mousse in a piping bag and set it aside at room temperature while we continue with the next steps.

Unwrap 6 Kinder eggs. Cut them in half using a knife.

Try to get the cleanest cut possible.

Cut the remaining half mango into small 0.5 cm cubes. You will need about a quarter of a mango. You can eat the rest. :o)

Place the mango cubes in the bottom of the Kinder eggs, about 1 tsp. Be careful not to overfill them! You need to leave room for the vanilla mousse.

Fill each egg with vanilla mousse.

Take your mango inserts out of the freezer, unmould them and place them on top of the vanilla mousse.

And there you have it, our trompe-l'œil eggs. :o)

All done! :o) You can keep them in the fridge. Wait about an hour before enjoying them (to allow the mango inserts to thaw).

The kids can help you create these lovely trompe-l'œil eggs.

The recipe is quite simple to make and at our place they were eaten very quickly.

These eggs keep in the fridge for 2 days without any problem.

Have a lovely Sunday!

Karin

P.S.: All the equipment used can be found at the bottom of the recipe.