Strawberry Mousse is an ethereal, light as air dessert made with strawberry puree for freshness and dried strawberries for intense flavor. Serve it with a dollop of whipped cream and a strawberry on top.

Why this is the best tasting Strawberry Mousse

Fresh strawberries are so delicious to eat because they are super-juicy. While that’s a good thing when you want to eat a fresh berry, it’s a problem when you want to infuse strawberry flavor into a dessert.

I challenged myself to make a light and fluffy Strawberry Mousse with a distinctive, fresh-strawberry flavor. Because a great mousse starts with a thick and flavorful base, I had to balance out the moisture from the berries without overwhelming the delicate strawberry flavor.

Cooking the berries is one way to do reduce the moisture. This is the approach I use for Roasted Strawberry Hand Pies. But cooking changes the flavor of the berries. I wanted fresh strawberry flavor not a cooked/jammy flavor.

When I created my Strawberry & Rosé Wine Macarons, Strawberry Ice Cream and my Strawberries & Cream Bundt Cake I used freeze-dried berries to get fresh strawberry flavor without extra water. I take the same approach with this recipe.

Freeze dried strawberries are simply berries with all the moisture removed. Without extra water, they have a concentrated flavor. The dried berry powder also thickens up the strawberry puree to make that thick and flavorful base for our mousse.

Because the strawberries are never cooked, the flavor is pure fresh-berry bliss.

Ingredients for Strawberry Mousse

Fresh strawberries – Nothing compares to the flavor of ripe seasonal strawberries, but you can use frozen berries if strawberries are out of season.
Granulated sugar – For a sweet note.
Freeze dried strawberries – Adds deep berry flavor without watering down the mousse.
Heavy cream – Whipped cream lightens and enriches the strawberry base.
Orange liquor (optional) – Remember, alcohol enhances flavor.
Unflavored gelatin powder – Just enough for the mousse to hold it’s shape.
Egg whites – Folding in meringue creates an ethereal texture for this mousse.

How to make Strawberry Mousse

two photos showing strawberries before and after macerating with sugar.

To draw out the juice, toss the berries with sugar and allow them to macerate.

three photos showing how to puree and strain strawberries to make mousse.

Puree the berries until smooth.
Strain the juice to remove seeds.
You should end up with 2 cups of strawberry juice.

three photos showing ground strawberries in a food processor, whisk strawberry powder into a bowl with berry juice and folding whipped cream into a bowl of strawberry juice

Grind the dried strawberries to a powder.
Stir the powder into the strawberry juice.
Fold the whipped cream into the strawberry juice.

one photo showing bowls of whipped egg whites, melted gelatin and strawberry mousse base. middle photo showing how to whisk gelatin into a bowl of strawberry mousse and third photo showing how to fold whipped whites into strawberry mousse

Melt the gelatin, whip the whites.
“Liason” the gelatin into the strawberry mousse.
Fold the meringue into the strawberry mousse.

a bowl of strawberry mousse and a spoon pouring mousse into a serving bowl

Fold just until the meringue is incorporated.
Portion into serving bowls then refrigerate until set.

Pastry Chef Tips for making the fluffiest Mousse:

Start with a thick base which can hold lots of air.
By adding not only whipped cream, but also whipped egg whites you will have the fluffiest and lightest texture possible. The meringue elevates strawberry whipped cream to a true mousse.
Fold the components together very gently to retain as much as the air as possible.
Pipe or spoon the mousse into serving dishes while it’s still soft. Refrigerate until the gelatin is set

Storage

Strawberry mousse can be stored in the refrigerator for 2-3 days. Keep the surface of the mousse covered so it doesn’t dry out. Strawberry Mousse can be frozen in a freezer safe container or between cake layers. Defrost before serving.

How to turn Strawberry Mousse into a cake filling.

Strawberry Mousse is the perfect filling for Vanilla Chiffon Cake, Vanilla Genoise or chocolate cake.
Have the cake layers baked, trimmed and ready to go before you begin making the mousse.
To keep the mousse from oozing out, pipe a dam of buttercream around the rim of each cake layer.
Spread the mousse within the buttercream dam while it’s still soft.
Refrigerate the cake to set the mousse before you ice the cake.

For chocoholics I recommend this classic Chocolate Mousse recipe and for vanilla-holics I have a recipe for Vanilla Mousse too.

Now that you’ve made this recipe what should you do with the extra yolks? Check out this collection of recipes that use extra yolks for some great ideas.

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4.59 from 12 reviews