Mascarpone Mousse

After making Cheesecake Ice Cream, I had an opened tub of mascarpone in the refrigerator, along with half a package of cream cheese. Unfortunately, there wasn't time to use it up before we left on a month-long vacation. Fortunately, and surprisingly, the cheeses were not moldy when we returned, so I went on a hunt to find a good recipe. I had to get creative, and convert grams to ounces, but this one worked. I'm not a fan of white chocolate, so I was a bit leery, and I'm still not a fan of white chocolate. However, using a less than 50/50 ratio allowed us to have the best of both worlds. 

Mascarpone Mousse

• 8 ounces mascarpone 
• 4 ounces cream cheese
• 2 tablespoons powdered sugar
• 1/4 cup cream
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 1/3 cups chocolate chips, melted
• 1/3 cups white chocolate chips, melted

Cream together the mascarpone, cream cheese, powdered sugar and vanilla. Combine about 3/4 of the mixture with the melted chocolate and spoon into 6 dessert dishes. Freeze for 10-15 minutes. Add the white chocolate to the remaining cream mixture and divide among the dishes. Chill for several hours or overnight. Garnish with whipped cream and chocolate curls (or sprinkles) if desired.

Note that, unlike a typical mousse, this is pretty thick and not light. That's not necessarily a bad thing. It kind of reminds me of the center of a truffle.

Note also that the original recipe called for semi-sweet milk chocolate chips. I'm not sure that even exists; I used half milk chocolate chips and half semi-sweet chocolate chips. You could probably come up with your own combination. Can't go wrong with chocolate!