Lemon Cheesecake Mousse Recipe With Honey Lemon Curd
Lemon Cheesecake Mousse is a decadent, creamy, incredibly delicious dessert that you'll come back to for more. And that's ok! This is healthy!
Equipment
- Hand mixer or egg beaters - for whipping cheese and heavy cream
- small saucepan - for making lemon curd
- Few Bowls - for mixing and whipping (place the bowl for whipping cream into the refrigerator befor starting)
- Spatula - for folding and scraping
- Serving dishes - This recipe makes four 1 cup portions.
Ingredients
For The Lemon Curd
- 4 eggs at room temperature
- ⅓ cup mild raw honey
- 1 tablespoon lemon zest - about 4 lemons, slightly overpacked.
- ½ cup fresh lemon juice - about 4 lemons
- 5 tbsp butter
For The Cheese Dessert
- 1 cup lemon curd
- 2 cups quark cheese or substitute - see notes!
- 1 cup heavy cream
- ¼ Cup mild honey - or maple syrup or sugar
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
Instructions
Make Lemon Curd
- In a small saucepan combine the eggs and honey and whisk together well.
- Whisk in lemon zest and lemon juice, then add the butter.
- Put on medium-low heat.
- Heat while stirring till the mixture starts to show the first bubble. Lower the heat and keep stirring for another minute to thicken. Do not let it boil or you'll get scrambled eggs, keep it just below the simmer.
- Pour the lemon curd through a strainer into another dish if you prefer. I didn't, but it will yield a smoother curd in case there are little lumps.
- Place a greased piece of parchment directly on top of it, to keep any skin from forming. You can also use a butter wrapper for this with the greasy side down.
- Leave on the counter to cool. If you don't use it right away, refrigerate it. It will stay spreadable in the fridge. You can also freeze it for later, if you have left overs.
- This makes 2 cups of curd. This recipe uses one cup.
Make The Lemon Cheesecake Mousse
- Whip the whipping cream till stiff.
- In a bowl, cream the cheese and lemon curd till very smooth. Add the honey and vanilla and whisk or cream till well incorporated.
- Add the whipped cream to the cream cheese mix and use a spatula to gently fold the cream in, until incorporated. This will give it the fluffy texture that you associate with a mousse.
- Transfer into a serving bowl or individual dishes and chill for a few hours.
Notes
Substitutes For Quark That Will Work In This Recipe
Nothing will be exactly like quark, but it will still be delicious in it's own way, so please use what you can get or prefer. Cottage cheese - probably the closest to quark and it's easy to get from the grocery store. Try to get a low-salt, small curd variety and drain it first if it seems wet. Then blend it well. Ricotta cheese Farmer's cheese (from Russian ethnic stores, also called tvorog) Queso Fresco - When you buy it in the store, this might be too salty and maybe too dry, but you can try it. Or make your own pretty quick! It's super easy and takes just 15 minutes to make with regular pasteurized whole milk. And it takes maybe a half hour to drain. This works well in any German quark cheese recipes, I nick-name this quick quark, but it is not probiotic. Greek Yogurt - I'd use the full fat version for best flavor. Cream Cheese - And yes, regular cream cheese works too. It will make the dessert heavier and you may need to add a little milk or yogurt to make it less thick. I'd try to find a natural cream cheese with live cultures, such as Nancy's organic probiotic cream cheese. This is also free of stabilizing gums. Chevre Cheese - Use your favorite chevre recipe or try mine and omit the salting. Be sure to drain it well! Store bought chevre usually tastes too strongly goaty for this recipe. Clabber Cheese - If you make clabber cheese, you can certainly use it for this recipe. Be sure to drain it really well.Garnish Ideas And More Ideas To Use Lemon Cheesecake Mousse
- Garnish With Lemon slices
- Candied lemon slices or strips
- A sprinkle of lemon zest
- A sprig of lemon balm leaves
- Piped whipped cream
- Use some of the mousse and pipe it on top
- Natural colored sprinkles for a kid's party
- Lemon zest curls for a fancier look
- Seasonal Berries
- Make it a red, white and blue layered dessert with blueberries and raspberries. Top with a little paper flag
- Make a crust with your favorite cookie crumbs like graham cracker, lemon shortbread, ginger snap, or vanilla cookie crumbs. Mix with butter and press into pie plate, top with lemon cheesecake mousse and decorate pretty with piped whipped cream, lemon zest, candied lemon pieces, or top with berries or berry sauce (instructions for blueberry sauce are in my lemon blueberry cheesecake recipe).
- Layer with berry sauce and leftover cake pieces of cookie crumbs for a trifle. Soak the cake pieces in a lemon syrup or limoncello for an adult dessert.
- Use as a lemon cream cheese spread for lemon pound cake slices, or as frosting in a layer cake. You might need to double the recipe for that, but you should have enough curd for a double recipe.
Storage
Store this dessert in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. It will still taste fine for a week or so, but it will start to lose its fluffy texture.
What To Do With Citrus Rinds:
If you use organic lemons, you can make any of these recipes below. If your lemons are conventionally grown, I'd just stick with making the cleaning vinegar. Lemon skins are normally treated heavily with stuff you don't want to eat.
- Ferment it into a vinegar. Follow my Apple Cider Vinegar recipe! Use it for cleaning or for sipping to get probiotics and the many great health benefits of lemon peel.
- Make A Citrus wine! I am using the peels from making this recipe to ferment into wine. This tastes super delicious when adding a small dash to a winter spice tea. You get lots of health benefits and a great flavor this way.
- Make an easy cleaning vinegar by adding white vinegar or any vinegar to your lemon peels and let them infuse for 2-3 weeks. Strain and use for cleaning. Check out my friend Marta's page for using citrus vinegar as a cleaner.
- Make candied citrus peel for baking things like fruit cakes, pannetone, hot cross buns and German christmas gingerbread, fruit bread, and christstollen. Recipes to come, stay tuned. Homemade candied citrus peel is far superior to the stuff you get in those little plastic containers at the grocery store.
- Make a tincture of lemon peel. It has many health supporting properties!