Chocolate Raspberry Mousse

Raspberries are in season and plentiful now – they are sweet and delicious on cereal in the morning or on ice cream for a night snack. There are a variety of desserts that can be made using this wonderful fruit. One of my favorites is this chocolate raspberry mousse. For the mousse, frozen or fresh raspberries can be used. This recipe is featured in our From Oma’s Kitchen Cookbook along with many other good raspberry ideas.

You can replace raspberries with any fruit in season. Examples are: strawberries, blueberries,peaches, blackberries, or pineapple. Prepare a day ahead of your special occasion in a 9 - 10"(22 - 25cm) spring form pan.

Chocolate bottom:

½ cup/125 ml butter

3 square semi-sweet chocolate

1 ¼ cups/310 ml sugar

1 tsp/5 ml vanilla

3 eggs

2/3 cup150 ml all-purpose flour

½ tsp/2 ml baking powder

½ tsp/2 ml salt

Filling:

1 pound/450 gm crushed berries

1 Tbsp/15 ml gelatin (1 envelope)

½ cup/125 ml sugar

11/4 cups/310 ml liquid, juice drained from berries plus water

2 Tbsp/30 ml lemon juice

11/4 cups/310 ml whipping cream (whipped)

3/4 cup/150 ml whipping cream - to decorate

Fresh berries - to decorate

To make the cake - Melt the chocolate with the butter at low heat until smooth. Add sugar, vanilla, and eggs. Mix well. Sift together flour, baking powder and salt. Add to the chocolate mixture - blend. Spread into a greased spring form pan. Bake @ 350E F (180EC) for 25 minutes.or until set. Cool in the pan.

Gelatin filling:- Drain berries - add enough water to the juice to make 11/4 cups(310 ml) of liquid. Combine gelatin, sugar, liquid juice and lemon juice in a saucepan and bring this mixture to a boil. Stir to dissolve. Remove from heat and chill. Mixture should be the consistency of egg whites when ready to beat. Beat 11/4 cups (310 ml) whipping cream to form stiff peaks. Beat gelatin mixture separately, until light. Fold together and fold in crushed fruit. Line 9" (22 cm) spring form pan with strips of parchment paper. Pour filling mixture over cake base in the pan

Refrigerate 4 to 24 hours.

To decorate - Beat remaining whipping cream and use the fresh berries to enhance the appearance. A few mint leaves can be added.

Raspberry Jelly

This is the time of year when I clean out my freezer ahead of the coming fruit season. I use up any frozen fruit from last year, to make room for the fresh strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, plums and apricots that I will pick and freeze during the summer. I find that it is most convenient for me to freeze the berries in bags, and then make my jam fresh during the winter, as we need it.

Recently I found some raspberries in my freezer and decided to make jelly to share with my family and to give away as gifts to friends.

I poured about five cups of raspberries into a large pot (10 inches/25 cm diameter), added about an inch/2.5 cm of water to the pot and set the pot to boil. After boiling a minute, I set the pot to cool. Then, when the mixture was cooled, I prepared a jelly bag out of three layers of cheese cloth. I laid the layers of cloth into a large bowl, poured the fruit mixture into the bowl, pulled all the ends together, tied a knot with cotton string and hung the fruit to drip into the large bowl overnight. I did not squeeze the cheesecloth bag­—to keep the juice clear and bright.

I followed the Certo recipe instructions and made two batches. Each batch required 4 cups/1 liter juice, 1 box of Certo crystals, and 5 ½ cups/1.375 L granulated sugar. This yielded approximately 7 cups/1.75 L jelly.

The Certo instructions told me to bring the juice with the Certo powder to a rolling boil, then add the sugar and bring this mixture to another rolling boil—letting this boil exactly one minute. The small jelly jars must be sterilized and dried thoroughly. I used new lids which were immersed in a small bowl of boiling water; then dried so there was no moisture on them. I poured the hot jelly into the prepared jars and screwed on the lids until they were tight. As the jars cooled they were sealed.

Enjoy your jelly and share it with friends. The beautiful, bright red raspberry jelly makes a great gift, since everyone appreciates the sweet, tangy flavour as well as the colour of this jelly.