Macerated strawberries with whipped white chocolate mascarpone cream
An impossibly easy dessert that takes all of 15 minutes to throw together. White chocolate and mascarpone is such a winning combo and makes a nice change from the usual whipped cream.
Servings: 4 servings
Ingredients
Macerated strawberries
- 400 g strawberries
- 4 tbsp caster sugar
- 1/2 lemon
Whipped white chocolate mascarpone cream
- 200 g white chocolate
- 400 g mascarpone brought to room temperature
- 1 vanilla pod
- extra virgin olive oil to serve
Instructions
Macerated strawberries
- Wash the strawberries and pat dry.
- Remove the tops, then cut each strawberry into quarters and add to a bowl.
- Sprinkle over the sugar and squeeze over the juice of 1/2 lemon - mix well.
- Set aside while you make the cream.
Whipped white chocolate mascarpone cream
- Break up the white chocolate into a heatproof bowl and melt in the microwave in 15 second bursts. You can also place the bowl over a pan of simmering water (make sure the water doesn't touch the bowl) until melted.
- Allow the melted white chocolate to cool to touch, then add the mascarpone and vanilla seeds of a vanilla pod.
- Whisk vigorously for a couple of minutes until everything is nicely combined and you have a pillowy consistency.
- Serve dollops of the cream with a couple of spoonfuls of the macerated strawberries, and a good drizzle of extra virgin olive oil.
It's important that you don't add very cold mascarpone to melted chocolate that hasn't had a chance to cool down. Ideally your mascarpone will have had a chance to come to room temp or close, and you allow the melted chocolate to feel cool to touch.
If you refrigerate the cream it will harden as the white chocolate cools which changes the texture. I recommend making this when you're ready to serve - or if you make it in advance it can be refrigerated for up to 30 minutes.
Notes
How to fix a split cream:
If you add cold mascarpone to not so cold melted chocolate, the cocoa butter will rapidly firm up and solidify, leaving you with a clumpy, split cream.
To fix it, simply heat in the microwave for very short bursts of 10 seconds, then whisk vigourously. Continue heating then whisking until the consistency comes back to a smooth, cloud-like cream.
I use a melt/soften setting to do this on my microwave, but if you don't have that I would recommend reducing the wattage to 900w or lower for this, so you don't overheat the mixture and melt it too much. We just want to heat it enough for the cocoa butter to soften again.
You can also do this by placing a bowl over a pan of simmering water (bain marie) with the same technique of heating briefly, then whisking vigourously.
