Strawberry and pistachio will always be on of my favorite dessert combinations – the tartness of red fruit against the salty, crunchy, smokiness of a pistachio is just so addictive. It also might be because my birthday is so close to Christmas that I just love the color contrast between red/pink and green. Pistachio and lemon is another one that I adore for similar flavor-related reasons, with the sour of lemon playing off of the pistachio. During my time at Milkbar, we had this lemon-pistachio brioche, which featured a soft fluffy brioche that had pistachio frangipane baked into it and lemon curd, and I still dream about that five years later. And of course, when it comes to strawberry and lemon, I love strawberry lemonade. I am only human and I did have a childhood in the states, after all. So it just made sense to combine the three ingredients into one dessert, and this wound up being the end result! I have been playing around with strawberry puree a lot lately; this is because I have been buying fresh strawberries, and in an attempt to preserve the leftover berries I can’t eat in time, I have been blending them up into strawberry puree and freezing them for later. In an attempt to use up all of that puree, I landed on this dessert. The end result was this almost summer into fall strawberry-pistachio-forward mousse cake with accents of lemon running through it. It is honestly one of the prettier mousse cakes I have made recently, and I just love the way all of the components came out. We have a fluffy pistachio jaconde sponge, pistachio mousse, strawberry-lemon curd filling, strawberry-lemon mirror glaze, macerated strawberries, and pistachio isomalt tuiles.

From a technical standpoint, I would give this recipe a 7.5 out of 10. Like with a lot of my mousse cake/mirror glaze cake recipes, a stand mixer will be your best friend, especially when it comes to whipping the cream for the pistachio mousse, and whipping the egg whites for the jaconde sponge. Jaconde is usually an almond and whipped egg-based batter that is used in cakes like Gateau Opera or some renditions of tiramisu. In this case, I subbed out the almonds with ground pistachio to make it a pistachio-flavored cake instead. It is a technical batter in that you need those egg whites to be really whipped, otherwise the cake will deflate and taste tough. With the strawberry lemon curd, there are egg yolks used as a thickener along with the cornstarch. I would say just keep an eye on the mixture as you whisk it over the stove, since you just want the curd to thicken, but not scramble. With the pistachio mousse, the main key here is temperatures; you have to make a pistachio-white chocolate ganache first, and then fold whipped cream into that. Let the ganache mixture cool down to lukewarm at the hottest before you fold the cream in, otherwise the mousse will be thick and dense instead of light and airy. The mirror glaze is a pretty straightforward recipe, and it is actually a modified version of one I used years ago! And with the tuiles, I would say that would be the only other semi-challenging component. We are baking isomalt with pistachios into thin, sugary sheets. Just be delicate with these and you should be A-Okay here! All in all, I would say that this is one of the less challenging mirror glaze cakes I have posted, but it is all the delicious, nonetheless!

For the strawberry lemon curd:
juice and zest from 3 lemons
4oz strawberry puree
2 egg yolks
2 tbsp cornstarch
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 tbsp olive oil

In a pot, heat up the lemon juice, zest, and strawberry puree. In another bowl, mix together the other ingredients. Pour half of the heated lemon juice-strawberry puree into the bowl with the other ingredients while whisking. Then transfer everything into the pot with the remaining lemon juice-strawberry puree and return the pot to the stove. Whisk everything in the pot on medium-high heat for 2-3 minutes, or until the mixture begins to cling to the sides of your whisk. Pass the curd through a sieve to remove any lumps. Prepare a ring mold with cling wrap and cooking spray and place onto a lined sheet tray. Pour the curd into a 5-inch ring mold. Transfer the mold to the freezer and freeze solid, at least 2 hours, before attempting to unmold the curd. Keep the curd frozen solid for the initial assembly of the mousse cake.

For the pistachio jaconde:
2 egg whites
1.5oz granulated sugar
.1oz vanilla extract
2oz finely ground pistachio powder
2oz all-purpose flour
a pinch of salt
1oz olive oil

In a bowl, whip the egg whites with sugar and vanilla extract until stiff peaks form. In another bowl, sift in the pistachio powder, flour, and salt. Fold the flour, olive oil, and whipped egg whites together to form your batter. Spread the batter onto a lined quarter sheet tray in a flat, even layer and bake at 350 degrees F for 20 minutes. Allow the cake to fully cool before cutting out two 5-inch disks from the cake.

For the pistachio mousse:
4oz roasted and salted pistachios, shelled
1/4 cup milk
2 tbsp gelatin powder
4oz white chocolate
a pinch of green spirulina powder
.1oz vanilla extract
6oz heavy cream

In a blender, puree the pistachios with milk until completely smooth. Pour the pistachio milk into a pot and add to that the gelatin and white chocolate. Bring everything to a simmer on low heat until the gelatin and white chocolate are fully melted in. Allow the mixture to cool to lukewarm before stirring in the green spirulina and vanilla. In a separate bowl, whisk the heavy cream to stiff peaks. Fold the cream through the pistachio ganache to form your pistachio mousse.

For initial assembly:
Line a 6-inch ring mold with cling wrap and spray the interior of the mold with cooking spray. Place the ring mold on a small, lined sheet tray. Pour roughly 1/3 of the mousse into the bottom of the ring mold. Then press into that one of the two 5-inch disks of pistachio jaconde. Then pour in another 1/3 of the mousse, and then press into that the frozen solid strawberry lemon curd disk. Then pour in the rest of the mousse and press into that the second disk of jaconde. Freeze the cake solid, at least 2 hours, before attempting to unmold. Keep the cake frozen solid for glazing.

For the strawberry-lemon mirror glaze:
1 1/2 tablespoons gelatin powder + 3 tablespoons cold water
1/4 cup lemon juice
7oz strawberry puree
a pinch of salt
1 cup white chocolate

In a pot, melt down the bloomed gelatin into the lemon juice, strawberry puree, and salt on medium heat. Once the gelatin is fully dissolved into the other liquid, pour the mixture into a bowl over the white chocolate. Allow the white chocolate to sit in the warm liquid for at least a minute before stirring together to combine. Pass the glaze through a strainer to remove any lumps. Make sure that the glaze is at 90 degrees F for optimal pouring. To glaze the cake, place the frozen cake on an icing rack or an elevated surface, and pour the glaze on top of the cake, allowing the excess to drip off the sides and the glaze itself to solidify before transferring the cake to another surface.

For the isomalt-pistachio tuiles:
.1oz olive oil
1oz finely ground isomalt
.5oz ground pistachios

Sift the isomalt onto a sheet tray lined with a parchment sheet coated in thin layer of the olive oil. Sprinkle the pistachio on top of that. Bake at 350 degrees F for 5 minutes – the end result should be translucent sugar with pistachio pieces throughout. Allow that to cool down completely before cracking into smaller shards to plate with. Store in an airtight container.

For the macerated strawberries:
Fresh strawberries
Juice and zest from 1 lemon
2 tbsp granulated sugar
1 tbsp strawberry puree
1 tsp olive oil
a pinch of salt

Hull and quarter the fresh strawberries. Toss with the other ingredients and allow them to sit for 10-15 minutes, refrigerated.

For serving:
Arrange the macerated strawberries on top of the cake, and garnish the top of the cake with the pistachio isomalt to finish.