This Easy Coffee Mousse Recipe is the perfect dessert to finish a dinner party. Super light, fluffy and creamy, these Espresso Mousse Cups are great make-ahead desserts for the Holidays.
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Ingredients
Making a Coffee Mousse is not only super easy, it also requires a few ingredients only. Coffee of course, but also Cream and Eggs to create the mousse texture.
I chose to add more ingredients like Cacao Powder because chocolate and coffee work so well together, but these Espresso Mousse could easily be made with 5 Ingredients only.
Here are all the ingredients that I used to make this Easy Coffee Mousse (scroll down to recipe card for all quantities)
- Eggs
- Heavy Cream (Thickened Cream)
- Caster Sugar (fine white granulated sugar)
- Instant Coffee Powder (or Espresso Powder)
- Gelatine Powder and Water (you can also use Gelatine Leaves - see note on the recipe card)
To finish the Mousses
- Unsweetened Cacao Powder (skip if you want a sweeter dessert - it will add some bitterness)
- Espresso Powder
These are optional but a great way to finish the dessert. You can use one or the other - or mix them together before sifting them over the cups like I did!
Love a mousse?
Check out my 15+ delicious Mousse Recipes round-up for more inspiration!
How to make a Espresso Mousse
There are a few easy steps to make this Coffee Mousse Recipe: whisk the Egg Yolks with Caster Sugar, heat up the cream with the Coffee Powder, re-hydrate the Gelatine and whip the Egg Whites.
It may sound like a lot of steps but do not worry, it is much easier than it seems!
- Seperate the Egg Yolks and Whites. Place the Egg yolks in a heat-proof bowl and the Whites in the bowl of your Mixer.
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- Re-hydrate your Gelatine Powder (or leaves) with some Water - make sure to follow the instructions on your gelatine package regarding the quantity of water needed.
- Place the Heavy Cream, Instant Coffee Powder and Unsweetened Cacao Powder in a small pot and heat it up on low heat until fully dissolved.
- Whisk the Egg Yolks and Caster Sugar, then pour the warm Cream over it while whisking. Transfer the whole preparation back in the pot and whisk on low heat until it starts to thicken.
- Transfer into a clean heat-proof bowl and mix in the re-hydrated Gelatine. Set aside to cool down completely.
- Whip the Egg Whites until you reach stiff peaks. When the cream has cooled down, fold in the Egg Whites.
- Leave in the fridge to set for at least two hours.
Note: Like explained in my Raspberry Mousse Recipe, this mousse is made with Raw Egg Whites that are whipped. It is absolutely fine to eat raw eggs as long as they are fresh, but if you would prefer to cook the egg whites, you can make an Italian Meringue instead of a French Meringue.
An Italian Meringue is made by pouring a hot sugar syrup over the egg whites while they are being whipped. The heat of the syrup cooks the eggs. You can read more about making Italian Meringue here.
Recipe FAQs
This mousse has a strong coffee flavour that is naturally bitter. That's the way I personally like my coffee (black and with no sugar!), but if you like your coffee to taste sweeter, I would suggest to increase the sugar quantity.
I would also skip the cacao/coffee powder topping which will make the mousse even more bitter, and top it with icing sugar instead.
The French Coffee Mousse need to be kept in the fridge as they contain Cream and raw Eggs.
They can be made ahead and store in the fridge for 2 to 3 days, but are best eaten fresh within 24 hours.
No, this dessert cannot be frozen
How to serve this Coffee Dessert
These Coffee-Flavoured Mousses are a great dessert as they are and do not need extra toppings or sauce.
That being said, there are many food items that can be added to these light and creamy Mousses to make the dessert even more decadent!
I simply topped my Espresso Mousses with a little bit of super thin Espresso Powder and Unsweetened Cacao Powder, but you could also finish the dessert with:
- Chocolate Ganache or Chocolate Sauce
- a Raspberry Coulis or Strawberry Coulis to contrast the coffee flavour
- simple Whipped Cream
- a small scoop of Vanilla Ice Cream
Made this recipe?
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Recipe
Coffee Mousse
Ingredients
- 40 gr ( 2 1/2 tbsp) Caster Sugar, (see note 1)
- 4 Eggs
- 200 ml ( 3/4 cup + 2tbsp) Heavy Cream (Thickened Cream)
- 3 tbsp Instant Coffee Powder , or Espresso Powder
- 1 tbsp Unsweetened Cacao Powder, optional (see note 3)
- 1 teasp. Gelatine Powder (with 3 teasp. of water)
- 1 tbsp Instant Coffee Powder & Cacao Powder, mixed, optional, to finish the mousse
Instructions
- Seperate the Egg Yolks and Whites. Place the Egg Yolks in a large bowl and the Whites in the bowl of you Mixer. Set aside.
- Place the Gelatine Powder in a small bowl with the Cold water, mix and set aside to soak. (see note 2 if using Gelatine Sheet).
- Add the Caster Sugar to the Egg Yolks and whisk until foamy and lighter in colour.
- Place the Heavy Cream, Instant Coffee Powder and Cacao Powder in a small saucepan and heat it up on low heat until the powders have dissolved, occasionally stirring. Don't let the cream boil.
- Pour the hot Heavy Cream over the Egg Yolk and Sugar while beating. Whisk well, then transfer back into the saucepan on low heat. Keep whisking until the cream starts to thicken, then directly remove from the heat and transfer back into a large, clean bowl.
- Add the re-hydrated Gelatine to the cream and whisk well until completely integrated. Set aside to cool down fully.
- While the cream is cooling down, start whipping the Egg Whites to get stiff peaks.
- When the cream is cool, gently fold in the Whipped Egg Whites in 3 to 4 times. Try not to overwork the cream.
- Pour the Coffee Mousse into individual cups or jars and place in the fridge to set for at least 2 hours.
- Optional: when ready to serve, sprinkle some Instant Coffee Powder and Cacao Powder over the mousses to finish them.
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Notes
- This recipe is Low-Sugar. Associated with the flavour of Coffee that can be a bit bitter, this sweetness level might be too low for you. If you like your desserts to be on the sweeter side, you can absolutely increase the Sugar quantity and double it. I would also suggest to skip the Cacao/Coffee Powder topping that is unsweetened and substitute it for Icing Sugar or some Chocolate Shavings.
- You can substitute 1 teaspoon of Gelatine Powder with 1 Gelatine Sheet. Follow the instructions on the package for the quantity of water needed to re-hydrate the gelatine sheet, and make sure you drain it well before adding it to the cream.
- The unsweetened cacao powder will make the dessert more bitter. For a sweeter flavour, you can discard it.
Clementine says
This recipe kinda glosses over some details, namely the amount of time for most parts. If I wasn't already familiar with the basics of mousse, I might have been a lot more confused. Also "cool" is not a specific enough temperature. I assumed it meant completely room temp, instead of my first thought, which was "cooler than room temp, so I should put it in the fridge." If you are NOT a novice baker, this recipe is perfectly acceptable, but I know a couple years ago I would be confused on "how long to I cook it on the stove after I temper the eggs? how thick is thick enough? How long should I be whisking the egg yolks? 1 minute? 5 minutes?" Approximate times would be helpful for newbies.
Also, to any newbies reading this: mine was successful, and I cooked it on the stove after tempering for about 5 minutes, whisked the yolks for about 3 minutes, and interpreted "starts to thicken" as "coats the back of a spoon and makes a clean line when you swipe a finger through." About the thickness of a nice Spanish hot chocolate (not like the American kind) was what I aimed for. I also doubled the sugar, and found the sweetness to bitterness ratio quite good. Also, my cream did get to a slight simmer when I heated it, and it was still perfectly fine. Not sure if a simmer was intended, or just heat it to the point of steaming?
Either way, I enjoyed the results of this recipe, but found the instructions a bit vague for a recipe that normally requires some precision. I used this in between the layers of MK's coffee flavored cake with the white choco coffee ganache, and it was an excellent pairing.
Benton says
I tried two batches of this recipe and both were a disaster. The first batch I put the gelatin in the water first (as instructed), but the next series of steps took (I'm guessing) longer than it took the recipe writer, because by the time I came back to my gelatin is was solid and unusable. One Packet of gelatin wasted. I managed to use another mixture of water and gelatin, but the end results was still way to runny and never set. The second batch, I tried modifying this receipt to use a previous recipe that I used (and really liked but couldn't find again - used liquid espresso). The second batch was a little better than the first, but still never fully set and was extremely bitter (as previous reviews has mentioned). I don't mind bitter, and was actually preferring something not as sweet (trying to stick to keto), but this was almost inedible, and I'm guessing in part due to the unsweetened cocoa powder.
A Baking Journey says
Hi Benton, I'm sorry to hear you had troubles with this recipe! It is normal for the gelatine to become solid once mixed with the water - it will always re-dissolved once mixed with the warm cream. I am guessing the issues with the mousse not setting might have come from the gelatine not being added properly/not fully dissolved? For the bitterness, I completely understand that it might not be up to everyones taste; I personally drink my coffee with no milk or sugar as I personally like it bitter 🙂 As mentioned in the notes of the recipe, this mousse is intended to have a strong, sometimes bitter coffee flavour but you can absolutely increase the amount of sugar if that's too bitter for you! Hope that helps 🙂
Abarna says
Is there anyway i can add more sugsr incase if i want it sweeter? Can i add after heating the coffee mixture and yolk mixture?
A Baking Journey says
Hi, yes you can absolutely add more sugar if preferred, simply increase the quantity of caster sugar that gets mixed in with the Egg Yolks 🙂