How to Balance Sweet and Nutty Flavors in Cherry Oreo Mousse

The recipe for cherry Oreo cola mousse with hazelnut garnish might sound daunting given the elements mentioned, but sometimes even chaos works perfectly well. With a combination of a reduced cola concoction adding flavor to a creamy mousse, supported by a bed of firm, crumbled Oreo sprinkled with hazelnuts resting on top of the creamy mousse, it’s a recipe worth dying for. Do check out the recipe on our website, while we help you get everything just right. Let’s start with the top, the very garnish itself – hazelnuts!

Toasting the Hazelnuts

This is essential to enhance the nuttiness of the hazelnuts and for them to develop that deliciously fragrant aroma that will make for a wonderful garnish in your mousse. Just like your other usual nuts like almonds and cashews, hazelnuts also benefit from being roasted, especially in the oven for a short period of time, to release a heavenly nutty aroma that complements the cola and cherry flavors in the mousse as well as the Oreo base quite well.

Salt is Essential

A teeny bit of salt is added to the hazelnut mix already but if you want to cut out the acerbic taste of the sweet mousse and Oreo base, sprinkle salt over the hazelnuts, something flaky and with oceanic taste, like sea salt. Salt has a tendency to naturally enhance the sweetness while also taming it, creating depths of flavor for a dessert that sounds and seems over the top and this also prevents the dessert from cloying.

Espresso the Mousse

Consider adding espresso powder, instant coffee powder works just as right into the mousse during the folding stage. A tiny amount (¼ teaspoon) of espresso powder incorporated into the mousse cuts through sweetness and complements both the cherry and hazelnut flavors without overwhelming the mousse and making it taste like coffee.

Toast the Hazelnuts Well

The ideal time to roast the hazelnuts is around 15-20 minutes until they are lightly browned and fragrant at 180°C, in a preheated oven. This helps to bring out their natural oils and give way to them developing a robust nutty flavor that pairs quite well with the sweetness of the cherry cola Oreo mousse. The flavors of hazelnuts are very autumnal, and you can easily swap them for almonds, pistachios, walnuts or even pecans for a different flavor profile altogether.

Layering Strategically

You might go the easy route and just make a messy creation that might just taste the same as a well-crafted one, but somewhere, aesthetics does make desserts more appealing. The recipe for the cherry Oreo cola mousse with hazelnut garnish exactly calls for that. The bottom layer is a compact disc of Oreo crumbs, upon which the cherry cola mousse rests. A final sprinkle of roasted hazelnuts with their earthy aroma and the delectable sugary coated crunch, if you’re making a nutty praline, is just sheer perfection.

Introduce Bitter Elements

Use Oreos that lean towards the dark chocolate variety to cut down on the saccharine sweetness of the mousse that might be a tad too sweet form some, given it draws its sweetness from the cherries, cola and sugar. Given that the Oreos might also be a tad too sweet you can add a sprinkle of unsweetened cocoa powder to the Oreo crumbs to offset the sweetness.

Adjust sugar based on cherry ripeness

Do a taste test with the cherries and reduced cola used in the cherry cola mousse recipe before adding the sugar into the mix. You can reduce the sugar in the mousse by 1-2 tablespoons if the cherries are particularly too sweet or increase slightly if using tart varieties. Same goes for the cola, add the base ingredients into the mousse then adjust the sugar quantity.

Flavor Infusions

If you wish to tap into your inner alchemist, we recommend trying flavor infusions for the cherry cola mousse. You could puree blueberries or strawberries and add a bit of it into the cherry mix to add a tartness to the mousse especially if the cherries are way too sweet. You can also go the herbal route and add a little bit of mint or basil into the mousse. If that sounds like a bit much, go for them as garnish.