Almond Mousse

Our brains work overtime. Have you ever thought about that? At least, I do believe mine does. It never stops working except when my kids are driving me crazy. Duh...
I give the credit to the brain for coming up with different recipes. Not just mine, all the recipes came to existence because of this wonderful thing.
For example, we have mango lassi, mango kulfi, mango mousse, mango ice cream, mango bread, mango milk shake....
We have strawberry ice cream, strawberry mousse, strawberry milk shake....
We have almond cookies, almond with penne, almond butter, so why not almond mousse?
At least, that is my excuse for coming up with this recipe.

Actually, I had heavy cream that I wanted to use up and I didn't want to make more ice cream. This makes a lot of mousse. Perfect for parties. You can freeze them in individual cups and use it when you have the party. They are good in the freezer for 3 months. I use the 3 Oz solo cups and freeze them.

Ingredients:
Heavy cream - 4 cups
Almonds - 1 1/2 cup blanched (See notes on how to do it)
Sugar - 2 cups or less if you like it less sweeter
Rose essence - 1 tsp (You could use cardamom, I wanted something different today)
Agar agar - 2 TBSP (If you don't mind using gelatin, use 2 TBSP of gelatin)
Cold Water - 1/2 cup
Warm water - 1/2 cup

Method:
In a food processor, take the blanched almonds and powder them. If you like the crunch of almonds, you can make a coarse powder. In a bowl, sprinkle agar agar to cold water and let it rest for about 5 minutes. When almonds are almost ground, add warm water, sugar to the food processor and keep running it. When it has come to desired fineness, turn off the food processor and mix in the cold water to which you had added agar agar. Run it again to incorporate everything. Mix in the rose essence or flavor of your choice. Scrape it to a bowl and set aside. To the same food processor, add whipping cream and turn it on. Keep an eye on it since couple of seconds more, it'll turn into butter. You could use your mixer instead for this. I was lazy to clean two gadgets. Whip till you get stiff peaks. Fold in the almond sugar mixture gently to the whipped cream. Try not to deflate the whipped cream. Pour into serving cups and refrigerate for couple of hours or freeze the rest for later use. These stay fine in the refrigerator for about a week. You could garnish them with some chopped almonds.

Notes:
To blanch almonds, bring enough water to cover the almonds to a boil. Pour the boiling water on the almonds placed in a bowl. Leave it for exactly one minute. Drain and rinse with cold water. You'll be able to see the wrinkling of the skin. When you can handle the almonds easily, start squeezing them between your index finger and the thumb. Skin will peel off easily. Or you could use already blanched almonds.

You should definitely taste this. This was great and has the consistency of something in between ice cream and kulfi. One of my kids loved it but the other one didn't due to almond bits. So, if you are a picky eater, make sure you have made the almond into a fine paste.

Enjoy!!