Easy white chocolate mousse with chocolate shortbread

Easy white chocolate mousse with chocolate shortbread

Ingredients

• ½ cup whipping cream
• 150g white chocolate
• 100g cream cheese
• 3 tbsp icing sugar
• 1 vanilla pod
• Pinch of salt

Chocolate shortbread

• 225g butter
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 cups flour
• ¾ cup cocoa powder
• ¼ tsp salt
• Icing sugar, for dusting

Garnish

• Fresh blueberries
• Fresh raspberries
• Fresh mint

Method

1. Whip the cream until stiff peaks form and set aside.
2. Melt the chocolate in a bowl placed over a pot of boiling water, making sure the bowl is not touching the water. Alternatively you can melt the chocolate in the microwave, stirring every 30 seconds. Set aside.
3. Slice the vanilla pod down the centre and scrape the seeds out with the back of a knife.
4. Add the seeds to a bowl with the cream cheese, icing sugar and salt and beat until smooth.
5. Add the melted chocolate and beat until smooth.
6. Add the whipped cream and fold in.
7. Serve immediately topped with fresh berries, mint and chocolate shortbread or place in the fridge for two hours for a firmer mousse. The mousse will keep in the fridge for up to two days.
8. To make the chocolate shortbread, cream the butter and the sugar for 1 min, scrape down the sides and beat again for another min. If you overbeat at this stage too much air gets into the mixture and the cookies won’t hold their shape when placed in the oven.
9. Add the egg and beat, scraping down the sides and beating again.
10. Combine the flour, cocoa powder and salt in a separate bowl and then mix into the cookie mixture.
11. Mix until combined being careful not to overbeat.
12. Roll out the dough between two pieces of parchment paper until approx ½ inch thick.
13. Place in the fridge for 1 hour.
14. Remove from the fridge and cut the cookies into heart shapes with a cookie cutter.
15. Return to the fridge for 10 mins – 1 hour. This will help the cookies keep their shape in the oven.
16. Bake for 8 – 10 mins in a preheated oven at 180C.
17. Allow to cool for a few mins on the baking tray and then place on a wire rack to cool completely.
18. Dust with icing sugar and serve with the white chocolate mousse.