Chocolate Peanut Butter Cheesecake Mousse

I made this for dessert for our first girls’ night dinner. As you probably know by now, chocolate and peanut butter is my favorite flavor combination. Don’t get me wrong, I love it all. But when in doubt, I always go for some sort of peanut butter chocolate concoction and am never disappointed. And in a pinch – ya know, those times where you absolutely need dessert to cure whatever troubles you have but haven’t gone food shopping in weeks and can’t imagine moving more than the ten steps from your couch to your kitchen - a spoonful of peanut butter with a couple chocolate chips saves the day.

This dessert is a little more labor intensive than dipping a spoon in peanut butter and shoving it in your mouth but not by much. And it’s totally worth it. I whipped this up right before dinner so it would be nice and chilled by the time we were ready.

The mousse was a little hard to make because my apartment was SO HOT. I don’t think that the whipped cream got as light as it would have in an air conditioned venue. But I’m trying to conserve money and it’s more important for me to have cable so that I can watch TLC all night than it is for me to be cool.  Priorities, people.

For a mousse, this dessert is very rich and dense due to the cream cheese (again, also probably due to the sweltering heat of my kitchen suffocating the whipped cream). It tasted like a softer no-bake version of chocolate cheesecake. Minus all of the time and effort! If you wanted a lighter dessert, it would probably be delicious if you completely cut out the cream cheese and cut the sugar in half. You would obviously lose the cheesecake taste but it would be lighter… if that’s what you like.  I generally like my desserts so rich and sweet that a normal human being could only take one bite, while my sweet tooth and I can finish off a gigantic plate and look around for seconds.

I obviously chose to top the mousse with chopped Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups. Because… well, why not jump at the chance to pack a little extra peanut butter and sugar in there? And the crust is totally optional. I tend to like a little graham cracker for the texture and because it looks pretty at the bottom of individual portions. But feel free to leave it out if you’re not feelin’ it.

So give this rich and creamy mousse a try for yet another twist on the classic chocolate peanut butter combo! 

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cheesecake Mousse (4 servings) from Saving Room For Dessert

• ·         4 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
• ·         1/3 cup confectioners' sugar, sifted
• ·         dash of salt
• ·         1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
• ·         1/4 cup milk chocolate chips, melted
• ·         1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
• ·         1/2 cup whipping cream

Toppings:

• ·         4 Reese’s cups, chopped
• ·         1/2 cup whipping cream, whipped and sweetened with 2 tablespoons confectioners' sugar

Graham Cracker Crust

·         2 tablespoons butter, melted

·         3/4 cup graham cracker crumbs

1. 1.      Mix together butter and graham cracker crumbs. Push to the bottom of parfait dishes, mason jars, wine glasses, etc.
2. 2.      In a medium mixing bowl beat the cream cheese, peanut butter, salt and vanilla together until smooth. Melt the chocolate chips and stir into the cream cheese-peanut butter mixture. Sift in the confectioners' sugar and blend well.  In a separate bowl beat the whipping cream until stiff peaks form.  With a rubber spatula, gently fold half the whipped cream into the peanut butter mixture.  Then blend in the remaining whipped cream taking care not to over mix or beat the mixture.  
3. 3.      Spoon the mousse into 4 serving bowls and refrigerate for about an hour.  Top with additional sweetened whipped cream and chopped Reese’s if desired.  Serve and enjoy!

loving my mason jars :)