Mint Chocolate Mousse Cookies & Cream Parfaits

Had a dinner party tonight with some friends out on the patio. It was lovely. I will blog about all of that later... in the meantime, another dinner party means more recipes! So this is the dessert that I made. Mousse from scratch, which was a first for me. It turned out great though. Not as pretty as the picture from online, but it taste good, which is what really matters. Everyone loved it and it was perfect light dessert for the end of our diner. I even dressed it up a little with part of a mint chocolate cookie and a little mint leave from the herb garden. Yeah, it still didn't look that pretty... but I tried :)

Ingredients

• 2 C. chilled Heavy Cream, divided
• 2 large Egg Yolks
• Pinch of Salt
• 2 T. Sugar
• 1/2 t. Vanilla
• 4 oz Bittersweet chocolate chips
• 3 T. Sugar
• 3-4 drops doTERRA Peppermint Essential Oil
• 10 Mint chocolate cookies
• Mint Leaves, for garnish

Instructions

1. Heat 1/3 cup + 1 T. cream in a saucepan until hot.
2. Whisk together yolks, sugar, and a pinch of salt in a bowl until combined well, then add hot cream in a slow stream, whisking until combined.
3. Transfer mixture to saucepan and cook over moderately low heat, whisking constantly, just until it thickens. Add in the vanilla and chocolate chips and whisk until the chocolate is melted and fully incorporated. Set aside to cool.
4. Beat remaining cream, 3 T. sugar, and peppermint oil in a bowl with an electric mixer until it holds stiff peaks. Divide Whipped cream in half and set other half aside.
5. Whisk one fourth of cream(of a half that was set aside) into chocolate custard to lighten, then fold in remaining cream gently but thoroughly. Spoon into a piping bag and set aside. Place the other half of the whipped cream in a separate piping bag.
6. Crush the mint cookies into small chunks.
7. Pipe a layer of chocolate mousse in the bottom of 6 small glass dishes. Pipe a layer of the mint cream on top of each chocolate mousse layer. Sprinkle about 1 T. of crushed cookies in each glass. Pipe another layer of chocolate mousse on top of the cookies. Pipe a swirling of mint cream on top of each glass and place a piece of cookie and a mint sprig on top of the cream. Let set in the refrigerator for 2-3 hours. Serve well chilled.