No Bake Chocolate Mousse Cheesecake

This morning the hubby was on Facebook and suddenly said "Ooo that looks yummy". He showed me a picture of a chocolate mousse cheesecake that his friend posted on pinterest. It did look yummy and after looking at the recipe it not only looked delicious but complicated! Now I've made cheese cakes from scratch before, but didn't feel like spending a day in the kitchen heating up the house when it was 98 degrees outside. So I created my own "no bake version"! If you would like to make the fancy version, you can find it here... I am sure it is decadent! But if you'd rather go the no bake route, you can follow my recipe. Either way... Enjoy!

No Bake Cocolate Mousse Cheesecake

Ingredients

1 Oreo cookie pie crust

Cream cheese layer-
8oz of softened cream cheese
4oz of cool whip
1/4 cup sugar

Mousse layer-
1 1.4oz sugar free instant chocolate pudding
1 packet of Dream Whip (Found in the baking aisle at my local grocery store)
1.5 cups of cold milk

Ganache layer-
6oz semi-sweet chocolate chunks (or chips)
Heavy Whipping cream (I bought a half pint container and probably used about a quarter of it (approximately 1/4 cup)... Sometimes I just don't measure things, and go by look and texture instead.)

Directions-

Beat cream cheese with electric mixer until smooth. Add in the sugar and beat until smooth. Add 4oz of Cool Whip (half of an 8oz container), beat again until smooth and somewhat fluffy.

Spread in the bottom of the pie crust. Chill in refrigerator while you make the next layer.

Add the contents of both the pudding mix and the dream whip into a bowl. Add the milk and beat for at least 2 minutes, longer if you want it fluffier. Chill this for 5 minutes in the fridge to firm up before adding it to the cheesecake layer. Once it has firmed up, carefully spread it onto the cheesecake layer. Then chill in the fridge while you make the final layer.

Pour the chocolate chunks into a microwave safe dish, set about a TBS to the side for tempering. I love using my Pampered Chef Micro-Cooker for melting chocolate! Pour in some heavy cream... Just enough to lightly cover the chocolate. Microwave for 30 seconds and stir, then again for 30 seconds. Don't worry if it looks curdled or like it isn't melting like straight chocolate, you will smooth it out later. Stir in the reserved chocolate pieces to cool the chocolate down. Depending on your microwave, it may take longer... But after the two 30 second intervals, I reccomend lessening it to 15 seconds at a time, stirring in between. Once the chocolate is melted, begin to beat it with your mixer. As you beat the chocolate, slowly stream in more cream until the chocolate is smooth.

Spread the ganache layer on the cheesecake and chill for at least two hours. This is the hardest part.

Finally enjoy with a scoop of the remaining Cool Whip. This baby is rich!

~eem