Chocolate Mousse Parfaits Recipe

Chocolate Mousse Parfaits
Chocolate mousse parfaits are an impressive dessert, but making the star ingredient from scratch is time consuming and requires some expertise.
To accelerate the process of the creation of creating the Chocolate Mousse Parfaits use marshmallows as they provide a stable and smooth base when melted with the chocolate and a little bit of milk. Bittersweet chocolate works well and provides a nice chocolate flavor. Allow the mixture to cool before folding in the whipped cream to achieve a light, airy texture. Crushed chocolate wafer cookies, whipped cream and chocolate shavings complete the Chocolate Mousse Parfaits. You can use either regular or mini marshmallows. You will need six 12 ounce parfait or sundae glasses for this recipe.

Chop chocolate. Combine chocolate, marshmallow and milk in a medium bowl and microwave, stirring often, until mixture is smooth, about 2 minutes. Fill large bowl halfway with ice and water. Set bowl in ice bath and let stand, whisking often, until mixture has cooled and thickened, about 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, using stand mixer fitted with whisk attachment, whip cream and vanilla on medium-low speed until foamy, about 1 minute. Increase speed to high and whip until stiff peaks form, 1 to 3 minutes.

Gently fold one-quarter of whipped cream into cooled cooled chocolate mixture until it is just incorporated, then fold another quarter of whipped cream into the chocolate mixture until just incorporated.

Crush cookies to coarse crumbs in bowl. Divide half of the chocolate mousse among six 12-ounce parfait or sundae glasses. Sprinkle half of the cookie crumbs over mousse and top cookie crumbs with all but ½ cup of the remaining whipped cream. Sprinkle remaining cookie crumbs over whipped cream and top cookie crumbs with remaining chocolate mousse. Shave extra chocolate to liking. Garnish parfaits with reserved whipped cream and shaved chocolate. Serve.

For attractive chocolate shavings, simply use a vegetable peeler and peel them off a large block of choco­late. Large blocks of chocolate make prettier shavings than thin bars of chocolate, but either will work.

Parfaits can be assembled and refriger­ated for up to 4 hours before serving.

CHOCOLATE WAFER COOKIES
You can find two types of chocolate wafer cookies at the supermarket. The kind that we use in this recipe are thin, round, and super crisp; be sure to avoid the long, waffle-patterned wafer cook­ies that have a cream filling (the two are not interchangeable). In our tests,

Chocolate Mousse Parfaits Recipe Serves 6
6 ounces bittersweet chocolate, plus extra for garnish
10 ounces marshmallows ¼ cup milk
2½ cups heavy cream, chilled
½ teaspoons vanilla extract
6 ounces
chocolate wafer cookies