I seem to be baking a lot recently! But when I get stressed, I bake. And well, the exam’s tomorrow, so baking is a relatively short and productive revision break. Although, I must say it’s not terribly wonderful for my, ahem, waistline. :P O well.

I made this because on Thursday evening, my other half, B, had some Couchsurfers staying with him! We had a wonderful meal together and talked about everything under the sun from how to properly pronounce “Salford” in the Manchurian accent to driving down dirt tracks in rural Mexico.  They were just starting another several month tour of the UK, Europe and Asia before heading home to Australia.  Talk about living the dream!

Anyways, back to dessert.  It’s the same recipe as I used before, in the Raspberry White Chocolate Mousse.  However, as I didn’t have enough fancy glasses/wasn’t sure how many people would be around for dinner, I decided to make the mousse in one large dish instead of piping into into glasses.  So this mousse has a layer of mousse, followed by a thick smear of strawberry jam, followed by another layer of mousse, and topped off with fresh strawberries.  You can use any fruit I imagine. Mmmm. I might just have to try it with pears sometime! The white chocolate pear cake and muffins have taught me that that is a delicious flavour combination. Serious nommage.

As always, this recipe comes to together really easily and quickly.  Just make sure you make it far enough in advance that it has enough time to chill for two hours.  If you’re making it the night before or very early, I would not add the fresh fruit on top until at the earliest 2h before you’re going to serve it.  I think that fruit is best when it is freshly sliced and not soggy from sitting in the fridge for 12h.

So without further ado, my last recipe before my exam! (er, except I baked yesterday… but that recipe will go up after the exam)

Strawberry White Chocolate Mousse

Serves: 4-6

Ingredients:

• 225g white chocolate (cut into small pieces)
• 200g ounces full flat cream cheese (room temperature)
• 1/2 cup (100g) sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 250mL/1 cup whipping/double cream
• strawberry jam/conserve
• fresh strawberries (about 6 sliced? I can’t remember how many I used. But just buy a quart and eat any leftover. :) )

Directions:

1. Melt the chocolate in a double boiler and set aside.
2. Beat the cream cheese, chocolate, and sugar until light and fluffy.
3. Beat the whipping cream until it forms soft peaks.

4. Fold the whipped cream into the cream cheese in two batches.

5. Spoon half of the mousse into the bottom of a medium/large serving dish. Smooth with a knife/spatula

6. Gently spread a thick layer of strawberry jam over the mousse, being careful not to mix the mousse and jam.

7. Spoon the rest of the mousse over the jam layer in several big dollops.  Then carefully smooth the dollops together to get one thick continuous layer, trying not to mix the mousse and the jam.

8. Slice the strawberries and arrange in an overlapping circular patter over the top of the mousse, starting from the outside and working your way in.

9. Chill for at least two hours before serving.