This light and fluffy French Vanilla Mousse is the easiest mousse recipe you can make. Delicious with a light, sweet flavor, you will want to make this over and over again!
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If you love mousse, this easy French Vanilla Mousse will be fun to make. To me, French vanilla has a much more intense vanilla flavor that is hard to beat. I did use a vanilla bean in this recipe. You just need to scrape the seeds and add them to the whipped cream. You can also use vanilla bean paste or vanilla extract.
I have to admit, I almost feel guilty sharing this mousse recipe with you. This creamy mousse is so easy to make, it only has 3 simple ingredients. This mousse without eggs recipe makes a beautiful dessert!
All you need are just a few ingredients and you are on your way to making this easy vanilla mousse recipe! Check out all of my delicious mousse recipes.
How to make the vanilla mousse:
Making this mousse without gelatin is not hard to make. Let me show you how easy this mousse is to make for dessert.
Step 1: Whip the whipping cream until stiff peaks are formed. This should take about 3-4 minutes.
Step 2: Add the vanilla beans and powdered sugar and whip to blend it all together.
HINT: If you don't have vanilla beans on hand, you can use vanilla extract.
Step 3: Refrigerate the mousse for 2 hours until it is cold.
Step 4: Pipe the mousse into glassware, a bowl, a mug, or any fun single-serve dish.
Just in case your family loves mousse as much as mine does, try these delicious mousse recipes: Fresh Raspberry Mousse recipe. It is hands down one of the most popular mousse recipes on my blog. White Chocolate Mocha Mousse is a fun take on Starbucks white chocolate mocha flavored coffee.
Fun topping ideas:
Top this vanilla bean mousse any way you like or don't. You can dress this easy vanilla dessert any way you like!
- Caramel sauce
- Chocolate sauce
- Sprinkles (If you are gluten free, be sure to check my list to ensure your sprinkles are gluten free!)
Tips and Recipe FAQ:
For this recipe, I didn't want to use gelatin. The best way to thicken mousse without gelatin is to make sure your whipped cream forms stiff peaks when you whip it.
I recommend you refrigerate this mousse for at least two hours. You can put it into the freezer for 45 minutes to one hour if you would like it to chill faster.
This mousse should keep fresh for up to 3 days in your refrigerator. Store it in an air-tight container so it doesn't dry out.
Mousse is a light and fluffy dessert that can be flavored in many ways with both vanilla, chocolate, and fruits. Because my homemade mousse has no gelatin, it is even lighter and fluffier than a regular mousse.
If your mousse is runny, most likely you did not whip the heavy whipping cream long enough.
If your cream is not really cold, it will not whip as well. Never try to whip room temperature whipping cream.
The two are definitely similar but heavy cream has a slightly higher fat ratio than whipping cream.
You can make this mousse dairy-free by using VERY cold coconut cream. Don't use regular coconut milk or low-fat coconut milk. It has to be canned coconut cream. You can learn how to use coconut cream to make whipped cream with this coconut whipped cream tutorial.
More vanilla recipes to try!
- Gluten Free Vanilla Cake
- Gluten Free Vanilla Crescent Cookies
- Old Fashioned Vanilla Cream Sauce
- Easy Gluten Free Vanilla Wafers
Recipe
Light and Easy French Vanilla Mousse
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups whipping cream * see note
- 1 vanilla bean scraped so you get the seeds only
- 3 tablespoons powdered sugar
Instructions
- Pour the whipping cream into a bowl. Use an electric mixer on high speed to beat the whipping cream until stiff peaks form. This should take 2-3 minutes.
- Add the powdered sugar and vanilla beans. Mix on low speed for 10-15 seconds to blend.
- Put into a container and chill for 2 hours.
- Remove from the refrigerator and either spoon the mousse into glassware, or you can make it fancy and use a frosting piping bag to pipe the mousse into the glassware.
Notes
- If you don't have a vanilla bean, use 1 teaspoon vanilla extract.
- Heavy cream and whipping cream are very similar but heavy cream has a slightly higher fat content. I recommend using whipping cream for this recipe.
- If your mousse turns out runny, you probably didn't whip the whipping cream long enough. Be sure the peaks are stiff before adding the vanilla and powdered sugar.
- Store in an air-tight container in the refrigerator. This mousse will keep fresh up to 3 days in the refrigerator.
Nutrition
Nutrition Disclaimer
Nutritional information is an estimate provided to you as a courtesy. You should calculate the actual nutritional information with the products and brands you are using with your preferred nutritional calculator.
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This post was updated from an older June 2015 post with more details and easier-to-follow directions.
Bee
lol this is just whipped cream.....
Christy Collacott
This is not in any way a mousse I'm afraid.
It is a recipe for Creme Chantilly. Otherwise known as
whipped cream
Teresa
Can this mousse be frozen?
Sandi Gaertner
Hi Teresa, I haven't tried freezing it. If you do, please let me know how it works.
Rae
Great looking recipe! Just wanted to add it to a cake layer, and I wondered when would I add gelatin to set it a bit more? I saw a comment about gelatin 🙂
Sandi Gaertner
Hi Rae, I don't think alone this would hold up between cake layers, but I do like your idea to add a little gelatin to firm it slightly.