Coconut Mango Dessert Cups
Light and creamy coconut mango dessert cups are a delectable gluten-free summer treat. They're very easy to make and are a favorite for coconut lovers!
Servings 8 cups
Equipment
- 1 Blender or food processor
- 1 medium saucepan
- 1 silicone mat optional, can use parchment
- Parchment Paper
- 1 Sheet pan
- 1 Whisk
- 1 Spatula
- 8 Dessert cups for serving
- Food Scale for weighing ingredients
Ingredients
Mango Puree
- 400 grams fresh or frozen mango diced
- 2 tablespoons simple syrup ½ cup water + ½ cup sugar
Coconut Mousse
- 7.5 grams gelatin sheets if using powder add 45 grams of water to soak in
- 62 grams egg yolks
- 45 grams sugar
- 312 grams coconut milk
- 300 grams heavy whipping cream
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
Coconut Nougatine
- 15 grams sugar
- 0.5 grams pectin NH
- 15 grams glucose or corn syrup
- 27.5 grams unsalted butter
- 27.5 grams coconut flakes unsweetened
Instructions
Mango Puree
- To make your simple syrup, add your sugar and water into a small pot over medium heat. Bring it to a boil and cook until the sugar dissolves. Pour into a glass container to cool and store in the fridge.
- Once the sugar syrup boils, take it off the heat and set it aside to cool down to room temperature.
- Once it's at room temperature, pour your syrup into a container and set it aside. You can also store this on your shelf for many months, so it never hurts to make a lot and keep it stored.
- Cut up your mangoes and dice them into chunks. Place the diced mangoes into a blender or food processor.
- Add your simple syrup and blend everything together until it becomes a thin smoothie-like texture.
- Strain the mix into a bowl or container to get rid of lumps and extra pulp. This makes the puree super smooth. Set this aside to use later. If you want to make this ahead of time, you can refrigerate it for a week or freeze it for up to a month.
Coconut Mousse
- Add your cream into the bowl of a stand mixer with the whisk attachment. Whip to a soft-medium peak. Do not overmix, I recommend finishing the mixing by hand.
- Soak the gelatin in cold water (blooming). Let them absorb for 1-2 minutes.
- Add the coconut milk, and half of the sugar into a small pot over medium heat. The sugar prevents the coconut milk from burning.
- Add in the vanilla. Whisk the mix in the pot and bring it to a boil.
- Add the egg yolks and the other half of the sugar into a separate bowl.
- Whisk together until you reach a smooth texture and the sugar is dissolved.
- Once your coconut milk mixture is boiling, temper your yolks with some of the milk by pouring ⅓ of the hot mixture into the yolks while whisking constantly. Pour everything back into the pot.
- Cook everything while whisking constantly until it reaches 181ºF (83ºC). About 2-5 minutes or until the mix no longer drips from your whisk.
- Add in your gelatin. If you're using gelatin sheets, squeeze out the excess water first.
- OPTIONAL: Pour your mix into a separate bowl over ice to cool down the mix quickly to 20ºC-25ºC (Around 70ºC).
- Add ⅓ of your whipped cream into your cooled coconut milk mix to make the mixture lighter. Whisk together.
- Lightly fold in the rest of your whipped cream using a spatula. Set it aside for about an hour so the mousse can thicken. Once it becomes thick and fluffy it's ready to use. Don't let it completely set up before you pipe it into your cups.
Coconut Nougatine
- Preheat your oven to 325º F (162º C).
- Combine your sugar and pectin in a small bowl. Mix together.
- Add your butter, corn syrup, and sugar/pectin mixture into a medium-sized pot over medium heat until it begins to simmer.
- Reduce your heat to low, then add in your coconut. Mix with a spatula until combined.
- Pour the nougatine onto a silicone mat over a sheet pan and spread out with an offset spatula as thin as the coconut flakes are. You can use parchment if you don't have a silicone mat.
- Bake in the oven for about 10 minutes or until golden brown.
- Using a circle cutter or a knife, cut the nougatine right away. (Once it cools down it will set and be too hard to cut.)
- (Optional) Brush the nougatine with a thin layer of melted cocoa butter using a pastry brush. This protects the nougatine from getting soggy. Set aside for decoration later.
Assembling the Dessert Cups
- Pipe the mousse into your cups about ¾ of the way full.
- Put your mango puree into a piping bag and pipe a thin layer on top of the mousse.
- Refrigerate the cups for a minimum of 1 hour to set up the mousse and puree.
- (Optional) Cut a banana into slices and top them each with a pinch of sugar in the raw.
- Lightly caramelize the sugar on top with a blow torch.
- Place the banana on top of the mango puree and add a slice of the coconut nougatine on top. You can decorate your Coconut Mango Dessert Cups how you'd like. Chef Christophe added some gold leaf and lime zest for an extra touch.
Notes
*** I recommend making the mango puree first, followed by the mousse and then the coconut nougatine while the mousse is setting.
- Weigh your ingredients to avoid failure. Using a kitchen scale for baking is super easy and gives you the best results every single time.
- Make sure all your cold ingredients are room temperature or slightly warm (butter, milk, eggs, to create a cohesive batter. Curdled batter causes cakes and fillings to collapse or split.
- Practice Mise en Place (everything in its place). Measure out your ingredients ahead of time and have them ready before you start mixing to reduce the chances of accidentally leaving something out.