This recipe is amazingly easy to make. I do not remember where I got the idea of using condensed milk, but it may have been from my wife, who always uses condensed milk in her caramel custard, a favorite of our granddaughter, Shorey. (Remove the whole lid from the condensed milk can, rather than just puncturing it, so you can empty it completely using a rubber spatula.) You can also make this dessert with orange, lemon, or other citrus fruits. The cream should not be beaten until stiff, only to a gentle peak. Overbeating the cream would make the dessert set too hard and give it a slight taste of butter rather than sweet cream.

Using a microplane, remove 1 rounded tablespoon of rind from the limes. Place in a bowl, then squeeze the limes to get ½ cup of juice. Mix with the rind and add the bourbon. Whip the cream by hand or with a mixer to a soft peak. Open the can of condensed milk and add the contents to the lime juice mixture. Mix well with a whisk. Using a rubber spatula, fold in the whipped cream until well combined. Spoon the mousse into a glass serving bowl or into individual bowls. Let set in the refrigerator for least 1 hour, then serve sprinkled with blueberries.

Excerpted from Jacques Pépin Quick & Simple © 2020 by Jacques Pépin. Photography © 2020 by Tom Hopkins. Reproduced by permission of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. All rights reserved

Home chef Robbie Raffish shares what she learned by making this recipe:
Let me preface this with you must like limes to like this. I had made Pépin ’s lime-cranberry sauce for Thanksgiving and it was so tart that I realized this could be a French vs. American palate thing. For this recipe I used two small limes and that was strong enough to make this tart but enjoyable. I also learned that the thing I have been calling a “zester” is really a “microplane” which was good because he recommends the latter!