Milk Chocolate Mousse

Chocolate mousse was my present to Tim this year. :) And some yellow tulips since he claimed prior that nobody's ever gotten him flowers before. :oP Now he can never say that again!

We love chocolate creme brulee but I didn't really want to go buy a torch kit and all (maybe someday!) so I decided to try one of our second favorites, chocolate mouse! Granted this isn't legit mousse at all and it's adapted from Pillsbury... it was tasty and super easy to make. It would probably be a great last-minute dessert idea if you have everything handy.

 

 

Milk Chocolate Mousse

Adapted from Pillsbury

1 1/2 cups skim milk
1/2 cup milk chocolate chips
1 box (4-serving size) chocolate instant pudding and pie filling mix
1 container (6 oz) vanilla yogurt

1 1/2 cups reduced-fat whipped topping
1 1/2 cups fresh strawberries

• In small saucepan, combine 1/4 cup of the milk and the chocolate chips. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly, until chocolate is completely melted and mixture is well blended.

• In medium bowl, combine remaining 1 1/4 cups milk and pudding mix. Beat with wire whisk for 1 to 2 minutes or until mixture is well blended and thickened; stir in yogurt.

• Blend melted chocolate into pudding mixture; fold in whipped topping. Spoon into individual dessert dishes. Top each serving with additional whipped topping and strawberries. Serve immediately or refrigerate until serving time. Store covered in refrigerator.

* Adding some crumbs of chocolate/Oreo cookie to the bottom of the dish or sprinkled on top would make it extra magical.

Adaptations:

1) The original recipe was for "Dark Chocolate Mousse" and called for dark chocolate chips, but I didn't have any, so I used milk chocolate chips.

2) It called for 1 container (6 oz) of Greek Fat Free honey vanilla yogurt, but I didn't read the "Greek" part when I was at the store so I bought regular yogurt and I couldn't find honey vanilla yogurt, so I went with regular vanilla yogurt.

 

 

 

I ended up using HAND WHIPPED cream because.... we had whipping cream, a whisk, and no mixer. :oP It was pretty hard work! It took quite a while and required Tim to help with his own dessert. :oP But hand whipped cream is an amazing thing when it starts to form peaks and stiffen. It's like... yeah, I made liquid into THAT. And then you have a whole new appreciation for churning butter and such. (One time we over whisked the cream and it turned into BUTTER. O_O)

 

 

 

 

For the chocolate mousse, I really liked it! It was not too sweet and nice and light. My only complaint is that it had kinda of a funny after taste, which I'm pretty sure is from the pudding mix (and I love chocolate pudding!) So... yeah, it's not "legit" mousse and I'm not quite sure whether the yogurt was necessary, but it was easy and tasty! :) I definitely want to try it with dark chocolate chips someday --- I think it will make it even better!

It made a pretty big batch and as I was bringing some over to Tim... it occured to me that some Oreo crumbs would be amazing! So I will probably add some to the leftovers. :)

Did you have a special Valentine's day dessert? Or what's your favorite dessert in general?