Can You Use Frozen Berries For Raspberry Mousse?

Mousse may sound like a fancy French dessert that takes tremendous skills and years of training at Le Cordon Bleu to make, but that's a misconception. In reality, it couldn't be easier to whip up at home. For example, Alton Brown's luscious chocolate mousse only uses two ingredients and fairly basic cooking techniques. A standard chocolate mousse recipe has a few more elements but is still pretty simple. According to Betty Crocker, making a good chocolate mousse involves beating eggs and sugar together, stirring in hot whipping cream and chocolate, and then chilling the mixture and beating it until the texture is light and airy.

But mousse doesn't have to be only chocolate-based. By definition, the dessert is made from any main ingredient (which could be chocolate) that is mixed with beaten egg whites or whipped cream until it resembles a delicious, thick foam, per Encyclopedia Britannica. In fact, "mousse" literally means "foam" in French. Popular varieties feature fruit as the starring ingredient, such as lemon, pumpkin, and raspberry (via Taste of Home).

Besides having the perfect pink hue for Valentine's Day, raspberry mousse is sweet, tart, and fluffy — and you only need a few ingredients to make it. But if it's not peak raspberry season (aka from June through August, per My Food and Family), you may be tempted to turn to the frozen version for your mousse recipe. But will frozen raspberries work as well as fresh ones do?

If you're craving raspberry mousse in the dead of winter, good news: It is possible to make this treat with frozen fruit. A basic raspberry mousse recipe from Kitchen Cents includes sugar, cream, gelatin, and fresh or frozen raspberries — either will do. One of the steps to make the mousse involves heating up the raspberries with some sugar and water on the stove, so if you use the frozen ones, they'll end up thawing during the process anyway. In fact, MasterClass explains that your mousse might even end up having better flavor when made with frozen raspberries, as the fruit is usually frozen when it's at its freshest.

While you can make this type of mousse with just a few ingredients, there are some fancier variations that turn it into a more decadent dessert. For example, a recipe from Natasha's Kitchen calls for adding lemon juice, and layering the mousse in a cup with ladyfingers and whipped cream. You can also add different types of chocolate into your mousse once it's blended, such as dark chocolate chips or melted milk chocolate (via MasterClass). Or use the whipped treat as an ingredient in another dessert, such as a torte or trifle (via Taste of Home). Whichever way you choose, don't let a lack of fresh raspberries deter you, as frozen ones will still produce a delicious mousse.