A semi-sweet, heart-shaped chocolate bowl filled with a creamy vanilla bean cheesecake mousse topped with a sweet berry compote. An easy-to-make, impressive dessert to share with the ones you love this Valentine’s Day. 

Making chocolate bowls to serve desserts in has been on my to do list for a while now. Many recipes create chocolate bowls using balloons that you blow up, dip in chocolate and then pop to create a bowl. I’m a little bit balloon-blowing-up-challenged, so I wanted to find an easier way.

A few years back I bought some Wilton heart shaped silicone baking cups.  I decided they would make a perfect mold for a Valentine’s Day dessert. Initially, I dipped the outside of the mold in chocolate, but it was hard to remove the mold, and the inside of the cup was prettier than the outside.

So I switched and ladled chocolate in to the cup, then swirled it around to evenly coat the sides of the baking cups. Now the inside and the outside looked pretty, and they were much easier to remove from the mold.

When I was searching for ideas for fillings for my chocolate hearts, I stumbled on the White Chocolate Mousse Cups recipe on Taste of Home. Their recipes gives directions on how to make chocolate cups in cupcake papers if you don’t want to purchase silicone molds. I decided to make a cheesecake mousse instead of white chocolate mousse, and I added a quick berry compote on top.

There are several steps to make this dessert, but they’re all pretty quick and easy. And best of all, this beautiful dessert tastes as good as it looks.

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Yield: 8 servings

Chocolate Cheesecake Mousse Cups with Berry Compote

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Prep Time 1 hour

Total Time 1 hour

Ingredients

Cups

• 6 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped*

Cheesecake Mousse

• 8 oz. light (Neufchatel) cream cheese, softened to room temperature
• 1/2 cup sugar
• pinch salt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste or vanilla extract
• 1 cup whipping cream

Berry Compote

• 1 cups frozen sliced strawberries
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
• 1 1/2 cups fresh berries

Instructions

Chocolate Cups

1. Place chocolate in microwave safe bowl. Microwave at 50% power for 1 minute. Stir thoroughly. Continue to microwave and stir at 15 second intervals until smooth and completed melted.
2. Put 2 tablespoons chocolate in the bottom of a heart shaped silicone cupcake mold. Slowly rotate the mold at an angle so the chocolate evenly coats the sides of the mold. 
3. Chill until set, about 25 minutes. Carefully loosen the edges and then slowly peel the baking cup away from chocolate cups. (If you're using a heart shape, start peeling at the v instead of the point.)

Cheesecake Mousse

1. In a large bowl with a handheld mixer or in the bowl of a stand mixer, beat the cream cheese, sugar, and salt until smooth and creamy, about 2 minutes. Beat in vanilla bean paste. Slowly add the cream and beat until the mixture is light and fluffy, about 2 minutes.
2. Pipe in to chocolate cups. Chill for at least 30 minutes. Serve with mixed berries

Berry Compote

1. In a medium saucepan, mix together the frozen strawberries, sugar, and lemon juice. Over medium heat, bring to a boil.
2. Reduce heat to low and simmer, stirring occasionally, until mixture thickens and is syrupy about 10 minutes. Transfer to a small bowl and let cool slightly.
3. Add fresh berries and stir to coat berries. Serve at room temperature or refrigerate until ready to use

Notes

*I used Ghiradelli dipping chocolate. I recommend you use a good quality semi-sweet chocolate that melts wells. You can also use chocolate chips and add 1 tablespoon shortening.

More Valentine’s Desserts you might like:

Vanilla Bean Panna Cotta with Strawberry Coulis, Barbara Bakes
Valentine Trifecta Cookies, Barbara Bakes
Valentines Day Flourless Chocolate Cake Recipe, Vintage Mixer
Red Velvet Brownie Cups, Taste and Tell
Almond Meringue Recipe with Raspberry Sorbet, Cookin’ Canuck