Cream Cheese Mousse

This super creamy, light, and fluffy cream cheese mousse needs only five basic ingredients. It's not too sweet and is delicious as a stand alone dessert or layered into parfaits or trifles.

What Is Mousse?

Mousse is pudding's lighter, fluffier sibling. Mousse recipes incorporate air into the mixture through the addition of whipped cream or whipped egg whites. I have also used gelatin to stabilize mousse, like in my German Chocolate Cake Trifle recipe.

You can make a vast array of flavors of sweet mousses such as vanilla, chocolate, caramel, citrus, and other fruit.

Mousse flavors can also be savory! Fish, meat, and vegetables seasoned with herbs and spices are mixed into a fluffy base similar to sweet mousses using gelatin, whipped egg whites, or whipped cream (unsweetened).

This recipe will show you how to make a sweet cream cheese mousse that is no-cook, very little fuss, and ready in just a few minutes.

Tips For Whipped Cream

This cream cheese mousse gets its light, pillowy texture by folding in some homemade whipped cream. If you've never whipped your own cream before, I understand that it might seem a little intimidating. I promise it's quite a simple process with a few things kept in mind. Here are some tips that will help:

• Everything Should Be COLD! The heavy cream, bowl, and whisk attachment for your mixer should, ideally, be cold before whipping your cream. I like to place the bowl and whisk into the freezer while preparing the other steps of the recipe to give it a bit of chill. Cold cream and equipment will help your whipped cream reach its maximum volume.
• Start Low. Start whipping the cream by setting your mixer to a low speed. Keep mixing until the cream starts to look foamy and frothy. When this happens, increase the speed to high and continue whipping until stiff peaks form.
• Stiff Peaks. You will know your cream has reached the stiff peaks face when you lift the whisk out of the mixture and turn it upside down. If you have a peak or spike of whipped cream that continues to stand straight up - doesn't flop over - then you've reached stiff peaks.
• Don't over-whip. Once you have reached stiff peaks, stop whipping! Continuing to whip the cream at this point will backfire and cause it to collapse, resulting in a dense mess instead of light, fluffy cream. Check for stiff peaks frequently and stop as soon as you see them.

How To Serve

This cream cheese mousse is a versatile recipe that can stand alone as a dessert, or it can be used as an addition to other sweet dishes. Here are some ideas:

• Parfaits and Trifles: I have personally used this mousse as a layer in a trifle and it was amazing! You can make individual trifles or parfaits and layer with cookie crumbles, brownie pieces, cubed cake, and fruit.
• Fresh Fruit: Dollop some mousse alongside a plate of fresh seasonal fruit, drizzle with homemade fruit syrups, or layer with cooked fruit compotes - yum yum!
• By Itself: You don't actually need to do anything special to serve this mousse, just spoon or pipe it into a pretty glass dish and grab a spoon.
• Toppings: Finish off the mousse - and make it pretty - by adding sprinkles, chocolate shavings, or graham cracker crumbs.

Pretty Glassware

Just chiming in here to let you guys in on one of my favorite hobbies - shopping thrift stores for fun glassware! I absolutely love browsing through thrift stores in my town looking for interesting dishes and glassware to use in my photos or to use when serving certain special dishes. I found the old-fashioned ice cream dishes at a local Goodwill. Try it out, but heed my warning: you may become addicted to dish thrifting!

If you'd rather order some dishes online, here are some similar ice cream dishes that I found on Amazon.

Can You Make The Mousse In Advance?

Yes, you can make cream cheese mousse in advance, but not too far in advance. Making a batch the day before you intend to serve it is fine, and it will keep in the refrigerator for a few days, though it will start to lose some of its fluffiness the more time passes.

A Kitchenaid stand mixer makes creating whipped cream and mousse so easy! (click to shop)

Can You Freeze Cream Cheese Mousse?

Yes, you can! To Freeze: spoon the mousse into an airtight freezer safe container and freeze for up to 8 weeks. To Thaw: transfer the container to the refrigerator and let it thaw until it can easily be spooned out and served.

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