Cherries with Mirror Glaze – Sour Cherry Mousse That Looks Real

Soak the Gelatine in cold water and squeeze it out well. Put it in a Bowl with 25 g granulated sugar and 25 g liquid egg white and warm everything over a water bath to approx. 35 °C. Keep stirring until the gelatine has fully dissolved. Best to check the temperature with the Thermometer – that way the gelatine sets cleanly later on.

Take the Bowl off the water bath and whip the mixture with the Hand mixer until you get a dense, glossy foam that slowly cools down. It should hold its shape but stay supple – that's the air that makes your mousse so light later on.

Stir 85 g White couverture (tempered to 40 °C) smooth with 85 g sour cherry puree until there are no lumps left and the mixture is evenly creamy. Important: both should be at a similar temperature so the chocolate doesn't clump.

First gently fold the foam into the cherry mixture – with the Dough scraper in calm, circular motions from the bottom up (folding). Then add 85 g whipped full cream in the same way.

The mousse is ready when it's light and airy and pale pink, with no streaks. Pipe it with the piping bag into the Silicone mold cherries, approx. 7 g per cavity, and smooth the surface with the Spreading palette.

Put the mold in the freezer overnight. The cherries need to be completely frozen through – when you tap them they feel hard and can no longer be pressed in. Only then will they keep their lovely shape when glazed. So plan the recipe over two days: the mousse in the evening, the glazing the next day.

Soak the Gelatine for the icing in cold water. Put 40 g full cream, 50 g sour cherry puree, 67 g granulated sugar and 17 g Glucose syrup in a saucepan and bring everything to a boil, stirring occasionally. Take the pan off the heat, add the squeezed-out gelatine and stir briefly until it has dissolved.

Pour the hot mixture over 67 g white couverture drops and let it sit for a minute so the chocolate melts. Blend everything smooth with a stick blender – hold it at an angle and just below the surface, so as few air bubbles as possible form.

Color the icing bit by bit with Mulberry, Red and Black until you have a rich, deep cherry tone.
Let the icing cool to 26–28 °C and check the temperature with the Thermometer. Too hot and it's too thin and runs off; too cold and it turns thick and pulls threads. Right in this window it settles as a wafer-thin, glossy film around the cherries.

Carefully unmold the frozen mousse cherries straight from the freezer out of the Silicone mold and dip each one fully into the glaze. Lift them out with a fork or a dessert skewer.

Let them drip briefly over the Bowl and set them on a Cake rack or a plate. Work quickly – the glaze sets immediately on the cold surface.

Temper the Dark couverture (or simply melt dark Cake icing) and fill it into a small paper cornet. Snip the tip only minimally so you get fine strips of about 3 mm. On baking paper, pipe 35 strips of about 3 cm each and put the sheet in the freezer for a few minutes. Peel off the hard stems and set them into the little dip at the top of each cherry – singly or two slightly crossed for the classic double cherry. Finally, add a small mint leaf, and the effect is perfect.