Sweet Endings

As promised here is the finale to our anniversary dinner. I had been wanting to try this "special" chocolate mousse out and to see if my lovely husband would be able to detect it's ingredients. I knew if he didn't taste it, you really couldn't taste the difference. The special ingredient would be tofu. I don't really think this is anything revolutionary, I've seen recipes for it before but I recently had a conversation with a colleague of mine about it, and she was saying how easy and great it was- that you really couldn't tell the difference. I paired this with a crunchy chocolate peanut butter layer and served it with a leftover berry compote I had made for some pancakes the morning before. I would imagine this would also be very good with hazelnut paste, or another nut butter (instead of peanut butter). When baking desserts at home I try to scale down the portions so we aren't eating it for a week straight (or being tempted by it). I do love to freeze things and I suppose this would probably freeze well- anything with higher amounts of sugar and fat usually does pretty well- depending on the ingredients. I'm sure you'll hear more from me in the future on freezing tips (tip #1 invest in a food saver- one of the greatest tools in my home kitchen). So for this purpose, I cut this recipe down and used a little 6" spring form pan I had, but this recipe could easily be doubled to make a bigger one. I made quite a thick base, which also could be thinner allowing for more mousse, and in retrospect it is a little hard to cut/ eat so less of it would make it more user friendly.

Peanut Butter Chocolate Mousse Torte (serves 4 in a 6" pan)

Peanut Butter Base:

1/3 cup peanut butter (I used all natural freshly ground without any problems so any would work)
1 TBS oil (I used hazelnut but anything that was fairly neutral or a nut base)
3.5 oz melted milk chocolate, melted to room temp
1/2 cup + 2 tbs feullitine (hard to find outside of a professional kitchen- it's kind of like crushed up sugar cones) or you could substitute crushed up sugar cones or cornflakes.

Put the peanut butter and oil into a mixing bowl whip until lighter in color. Pour in the melted chocolate and mix until almost all incorporated, then fold in the feullitine. Pour into a dish or springform pan or ring mold that has been lined with plastic wrap(for easy removal) smooth out the top and make sure it evenly covers the bottom. Put in the refridgerator to chill- to speed up the process put it in the freezer

Mousse:
4 oz dark chocolate (use good chocolate you like, the flavor really comes through)
3 oz silken tofu
2 tbs maple syrup (this is optional or can be adjusted depending on how sweet the chocolate is you are using)
1 tsp vanilla extract
Melt the chocolate in the microwave (very slowly) or on a double boiler. Put the silken tofu in a bowl with the maple syrup and vanilla and use an imersion blender to smooth out the tofu (or alternately you could do all this in a blender). Add the chocolate and use the imersion blender just until completely mixed in. Do not mix too long and make sure the base is ready to go because this mousse sets up fairly quickly. Pour into the mould and smooth the top. Place back into refridgerator for atleast 1 hour to fully set up. Remove the mould and use a very hot knife when cutting through to serve.

I have also entered this into Art You Eat #1 - Chocolate Theme, just in time for Valentines Day!