Southern Silken Peanut Butter Delight

It seems like I am on a roll with the desserts. This is a decadent, chocolate, peanut butter mousse.

You can put it into a cracker pie crust if you want, but it is wonderful served with no crust at all.

I got this recipe out of a cookbook, Recipes and Remembrance, that was given to me as a wedding gift. Recipes and Remembrances is a collection of recipes from the Zeta Rho Chapter - Sigma Theta Tan International. Some copies may still be available in Columbus, Mississippi.

Ingredients
1 (4 oz) bar of white chocolate
2 cups of whipping cream, divided
1/2 cup of confectioner's sugar, sifted
1 cup of creamy natural peanut butter
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract, divided
1 package of cream cheese softened
1/2 cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips

Beat together cream cheese and half a cup of confectioner's sugar with 1 teaspoon of vanilla at medium speed with an electric mixer. Add peanut butter and blend some more. In a double boiler melt white chocolate and add to peanut butter mixture, mix until blended.
Whip one cup of whipping cream until light and fluffy. Fold it into the peanut butter mixture. Pour into pie crust or serving dish and freeze for half an hour.
In the meantime melt the semi-sweet chocolate chips in a double boiler, add 1/2 teaspoon vanilla. Set chocolate aside to cool. Whip the other cup of  whipping cream until light an fluffy. Fold whipped cream into the cooled, melted chocolate. Spoon chocolate mousse on top of peanut butter layer. Refrigerate for at least one hour.

Optional Cracker Crust
1 3/4 cup crushed multi-grain crackers or rice crackers if going gluten free
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup melted butter

Combine cracker crumbs, sugar and melted butter in medium bowl. Press mixture in the bottom and up the sides of a 9-inch deep-dish pie plate. 

For a lighter version:
Substitute ricotta cheese for the cream cheese.
Substitute meringue for the whipped cream, fold it into the cooled chocolate the same way you would the whipped cream. Use at least 5 large egg whites for the meringue and please be sure to use farm fresh eggs or pasteurized egg whites for the meringue. The melted chocolate might cook the egg whites but there is no guarantee that it will. 1 large egg white is about 1/4 cup of liquid.