White Chocolate Mousse Torte

As I did last year, today for my birthday, I will show you a “small sin” recipe. Before I celebrate with my friends tonight, I want to show you the dessert I’m going to treat them. An impressive and very, very tasty white chocolate mousse torte on a ginger cookie base! An ideal treat to celebrate a birthday, a name day, good news, or whatever makes you happy!

This cake is the start of a number of recipes for the Christmas table that will follow in the coming weeks. Do not think it’s early! We must plan ahead! 😉

Our recipe is very simple and fast, with remarkably few ingredients! Only the chocolate stars might be a little challenging, but I think they worth the effort. For the base of the cake I used PEPPARKAKA ginger biscuits from IKEA, which you will find, this time of year, in a very nice festive packaging in a metal box. They give a wonderful flavor to the cake. Their peppery taste matches perfectly and balances the sweetness of white chocolate.

As far as the serving stand, I chose the ARV BROLLOP from IKEA. It has a lid and it matches with every other serveware!

Total time: 25 minutes (+30 minutes for the chocolate stars)

Servings: 12

Ingredients:

• 225g (8oz) PEPPARKAKA ginger biscuits from IKEA*
• 80g (2.8oz) butter
• 700g (1 ½ lb) white choholate
• 570 ml double cream
• icing sugar and cocoa powder, to decorate
• chocolate stars, to decorate

Instructions:

1. Line the base of a 22 cm (8.6in) spring form with parchment paper.
2. Finely crush the biscuits in a food processor. Transfer to a bowl.
3. Melt the butter in a saucepan and pour it in the bowl with the crushed biscuits. Stir well and press mixture at the base of prepared tin. Put the form in the refrigerator for at least 15 minutes.
4. Break or chop the chocolate into small pieces and put it in a medium size saucepan with half the cream (285 ml).
5. Heat gently, over low heat, stirring occasionally, until the chocolate melts. Transfer the mixture into another bowl to cool. Allow about 15 minutes to cool, stirring occasionally.
6. Meanwhile, whip the remaining cream (285 ml) until it forms soft peaks. Pour into the lukewarm chocolate and mix well until homogeneous. **
7. Pour the mixture over the biscuit base and put the tin back in the refrigerator for at least 3 hours, but better leave it overnight.
8. When it’s time to serve, remove the cake from the mold, decorate with chocolate stars, sprinkle it with some icing sugar and cocoa powder and serve cold.

Chocolate Stars:

Melt 500g. white, dark or milk chocolate in a bain-marie with 50 g. butter. Spread it on a sheet or pan, lined with parchment paper and place in the refrigerator to freeze. When it’s time to decorate, remove it from the refrigerator, allow 1-2 minutes to thaw and stamp out with star shaped cutters. Store in a container in the refrigerator, interleaved with parchment paper.

If you want two kinds of stars, as I did, melt 250 g. white chocolate and 250 g. milk chocolate or black and follow the same procedure.

Notes:

*If you don’t have access to an IKEA store, you can substitute the ginger biscuits with digestive biscuits and 1 – 1 1/2 tsp ground ginger (depending on how you like it).

**Do not heat the chocolate at high temperature. If this happens your chocolate will become a solid mass. It should be barely warm but still liquid before adding the whipped cream. If the chocolate is too cold, it won’t combine with the cream.

The original recipe said that the torte can be freezed in the tin, wrapped in plastic wrap. Unwrap and thaw in the refrigerator overnight. Decorate to serve. I did not try it, but it is practical.

Original recipe from the “Good Housekeeping” magazine.

PS. Today’s recipe posted for my candidacy in the “Food Blog Awards 2015”, particularly in the “Best Design & Site Architecture” category. If you would like to vote for me, login to your facebook account and click here. You should click the “like” button below the text. Thank you!  🙂