Valentine's Day Delight: White Chocolate Mousse

This is not strictly a Valentine's Day recipe, infact I usually make it in the summer when the strawberries are at their juiciest. However, it doubles up as a romantic pud so why not see if you can impress the other-half or alternatively indulge your single friends! I am aware that the average student house does not contain a set of mousse rings, so I have developed my own tactics for this recipe, which involves cutting up cream or yoghurt pots to make DIY mousse rings. This is a Mary Berry classic adapted to be more student-friendly, and of course if required it has a romantic decorative twist for Valentine's Day...

For six mousses you will need...

50g dark chocolate

75g hobnob biscuits

200g white chocolate

200ml double cream

200ml crème fraiche

225g strawberries

6 mousse rings if you have them, or if not,  DIY using yogurt pots (see below)

             

You will need to...

- Melt the dark chocolate in a bain-marie.

- Meanwhile, bash the hobnobs with a rolling pin in either a freezer bag or large mixing bowl. When they are finely crushed, stir in the melted dark chocolate. 

- Lay the mousse rings on a baking tray lined with baking parchment. 

- Press the biscuit base into the mousse rings using the back of a metal spoon. Make sure that they are all even and not too thick.

- Chill in the fridge to set whilst you make the filling.

- Melt the white chocolate in a bain-marie, then stir in the crème fraiche and double cream.

- Chop the strawberries into even, thin slices, then remove the bases from the fridge and line the mousse rings with your sliced strawberries.

- Spoon the white chocolate mixture into the middle of each ring - make sure they are only filled to about 2/3 full otherwise it will not hold when the ring is removed.

- Put the mousses back into the fridge and leave to set for about 4 hours.

- When ready to serve, carefully remove the mousse rings and serve with a romantic heart-shaped strawberry slice for Valentine's Day, or on other occasions, a sprig of mint or spoonful of fruit coulis will suffice!

Enjoy! Z x