Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Volume 2 (183 page)

Either more
crème Chantilly
sweetened with confectioner’s sugar and flavored with rum or vanilla;

Or
crème anglaise
(custard sauce)

Serve the
Saint-Cyr
immediately, accompanied by the optional whipped cream or custard sauce.

(*)
AHEAD-OF-TIME NOTES
: Dessert may be unmolded onto serving dish, covered with a bowl, and returned to freezer for an hour or so before serving; in its mold, it may remain frozen for several weeks. Leftover baked meringues should be kept either in a warming oven at about 120 degrees to prevent them from softening, or wrapped airtight and frozen; if frozen, you may need to re-crisp them in a 200-degree oven for 20 to 30 minutes.

Other flavorings and serving ideas for the Chocolate Mousse

Rather than molding the chocolate mousse in a meringue-lined mold, you may wish to mold it as is, and decorate with
crème Chantilly
for serving; or you may turn the mousse into individual serving pots, chill rather than freeze them, and serve like the usual chocolate mousse with sweetened whipped cream on the side. Instead of using meringues, you may fold into the mousse a cup or two of
pralin
(
caramelized almonds
, or
walnuts
), which always gives an interesting texture and taste to chocolate mousse. There is also the richer chocolate mousse in Volume I, on page 604, with its egg yolks and butter rather than meringue and whipped cream; when you use this formula, you need not freeze the mousse, because the butter, which congeals when refrigerated, holds the mousse in form when it is unmolded.

  
CHANTILLY MERINGUÉE

[Whipped Cream with Italian Meringue—for cream fillings and ice cream]

The Italian meringue of hot sugar syrup whipped into egg whites, so successful with the preceding
Saint-Cyr,
Step 1
, also serves other purposes. You may use it as a base for
butter-cream frosting and fillings
; you may also fold it into whipped cream to give the cream more body and stability as a filling for cream puffs, cream horns, and Napoleons or
mille-feuilles.
Or this same
Chantilly meringuée
may be packed into a mold or bowl and frozen, thus becoming what can truly be called an iced cream. (Although you can fold plain beaten egg white into whipped cream and freeze it, the meringue does a better job because it completely discourages the formation of ice crystals, giving you a wonderfully soft and smooth ice cream.)

For about 1 quart of meringue whipped cream—Chantilly meringuée

½ the
meringue italienne
called for in Step 1

1 cup chilled heavy cream in a 2½-quart bowl

A large bowl with a tray of ice cubes and water to cover them

A hand-held electric mixer or a large wire whip

1 to 2 tsp vanilla extract

A rubber spatula

Prepare the meringue mixture, and beat slowly until it is cold. Meanwhile, prepare a
crème Chantilly
as follows. Set bowl of cream over ice cubes and water. Circulate beater or whip about in cream to incorporate as much air as possible as you beat; continue beating until cream has doubled in volume and beater leaves light traces on surface. Stir the vanilla into the meringue mixture, then fold in ¼ of the whipped cream to lighten the meringue. Scoop rest of whipped cream on top and fold it in by rapidly cutting down through center to bottom of bowl and then out to side with rubber spatula, rotating bowl as you do so;
repeat the movement rapidly until cream and meringue are blended and deflated as little as possible.

TO USE AS A FILLING

Use as is, or fold in
pralin
(
caramelized almonds
,
walnuts
), or shaved
chocolate, or fresh strawberries, raspberries, or sliced peaches, or bits of glacéed chestnuts or glacéed fruits macerated in rum or kirsch.

TO USE AS ICE CREAM
Chantilly Glacée, au Chocolat

[Vanilla Ice Cream with Chocolate
Sauce]

It is hard to improve on this universal favorite, and wonderful to have your own private brand.

For about 1 quart, serving 4 to 6 people

1)
The vanilla ice cream—Chantilly glacée

The preceding meringue whipped cream

A 1-quart mold or metal bowl with rounded bottom

Plastic wrap

Prepare the meringue whipped cream, turn into bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and freeze 3 to 4 hours at least before unmolding and serving. (This will be a rather soft and tender ice cream.)

2)
The chocolate sauce—for about 1½ cups

3 ounces semisweet baking chocolate

1 ounce unsweetened baking chocolate

¾ cup water

1 Tb instant coffee

A 6-cup saucepan

A larger saucepan of simmering water to hold chocolate pan

A wire whip

1½ Tb heavy cream

1½ Tb butter

1½ Tb dark rum

Pinch of salt if needed

Break up the chocolate and combine with water and coffee in saucepan. Stir slowly over moderate heat until chocolate is melted and smooth, then set in simmering water and cook for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Beat in the cream, butter, rum, and, if needed, a pinch of salt. Set aside. Sauce should be tepid when it goes over the ice cream; reheat to tepid, beating it, if necessary, later.