This simple recipe for white chocolate mousse is made without eggs or gelatin, and can be served alone, with berries, or even as the perfect cake filling!
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Most recipes for chocolate mousse call for making an egg-based chocolate pudding, and folding that into whipped heavy cream. They're delicious and I love them. But they're also a bit finicky to get exactly right.
You can make white chocolate mousse by just melting straight-up white chocolate and folding it straight into whipped cream. But that makes for a much heavier, much sweeter mousse. Just another few ingredients are all it takes to make this super light and fluffy, not-too-sweet mousse.
This white chocolate mousse simply must be served chilled, or it tends to wilt. That's really not a Very Big Problem. If you're serving it on a warm day, just keep it in the refrigerator until right before you're ready to serve it.
When you make this recipe with store bought white chocolate, you'll need to be extra careful not to try to heat the chocolate too quickly or it will seize and possibly separate. If that does happen, don't panic! Add the butter and the rehydrated dry milk, and just keep stirring. It should come together smoothly.
Ingredients and Substitutions
I like to provide you with as much information as possible about the ingredients in my recipes, and possible substitutions for them. Please keep in mind that, unless I specifically indicate that I've tried the substitution myself, you're working off my best-educated guess.
Dairy: If you use my recipe for vegan white chocolate, you're half of the way (a quarter?) to making this recipe dairy free. If lactose is your issue, you should probably be fine with the heavy whipping cream. If not, try using coconut cream in place of heavy whipping cream. The whipped cream won't be quite as stable, though, and will taste a bit, well, coconutty.
In place of the nonfat dry milk, use coconut milk powder, which is much more widely available than it used to be. In place of butter, try butter-flavored Spectrum nonhydrogenated vegetable shortening. Boy, that's a lot of dairy to replace.
Eggs: Haha just kidding; this recipe is already egg-free.
Sugar: This recipe simply needs confectioners' sugar in both the white chocolate (unless you can find sugar-free white chocolate, in which case bless your heart). The only substitute that I know for confectioners' sugar is Swerve brand powdered sugar replacement. Try that!
White Chocolate Mousse
Ingredients
- 2 cups (16 fluid ounces) heavy whipping cream chilled
- ½ cup (58 g) confectioners’ sugar
- ¼ cup (24 g) nonfat dry milk
- ⅓ cup (2 ⅔ fluid ounces) hot water
- 10 ounces white chocolate chopped (plus more shavings for serving)
- 4 tablespoons (56 g) unsalted butter chopped
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- Berries for serving
Instructions
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, or in a large bowl with a hand mixer, whip the heavy whipping cream on medium-high speed until soft peaks form.
- Add the confectioners’ sugar and beat until stiff, glossy peaks form. Place the bowl of whipped cream in the refrigerator to chill.
- In a small bowl, whisk the dry milk into the hot water until it dissolves completely. Set it aside.
- Place the chopped white chocolate in a small, heat-safe bowl, and place it over a bowl of simmering water to create a double boiler, stirring occasionally until the chocolate is melted and smooth.
- Add the butter and vanilla, and mix until once again melted and smooth. Remove the bowl from the heat.
- Whisking constantly, add the milk powder and water mixture. Whisk until smooth.
- Set the mixture aside to cool, whisking occasionally until the bowl that the chocolate mixture is in is no longer hot to the touch, about 5 minutes.
- Remove the large bowl of whipped cream from the refrigerator, and pour the slightly cooled chocolate mixture into the bowl.
- Carefully mix and fold the ingredients together, taking care not to deflate the whipped cream more than necessary.
- Divide the mixture among serving jars or bowls.
- Cover and refrigerate until set, about 2 hours. Serve chilled, with white chocolate shavings and berries.
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Hi, I’m Nicole. I create gluten free recipes that really work and taste as good as you remember. No more making separate meals when someone is GF, or buying packaged foods that aren’t good enough to justify the price. At Gluten Free on a Shoestring, “good, for gluten free” just isn’t good enough! Come visit my bio!
Emily says
I just made this, and it curdled big time! I used salted butter because that’s all I had on hand, but otherwise I followed the recipe exactly. Would that really have made a difference? I tried to be very careful with combining the white chocolate mixture with the whipped cream, but…eek!
Nicole Hunn says
The salted butter shouldn’t have made much of a difference, Emily. The only thing I can really think of is the white chocolate you used. I find that I get the best results when I use very high quality white chocolate (especially best with my own homemade vegan white chocolate), and make sure the mixture is well-blended and cooled before adding it to the whipping cream. It won’t be as smooth as mousse made with eggs, but it shouldn’t curdle “big time”!
Jennifer S. says
YUMMMMMMMMMMMM! Thanks lady!! :)
Carole Altenberger says
Do you have to use dry milk powder and water? Could 1/3 cup reg. or no fat milk be used instead?
Nicole Hunn says
You can try heavy cream, Carole, but I don’t think that plain nonfat milk will work, no. The ratio of water to dry milk in this recipe is lower than in skim milk.
Teresa Brooks says
Since going dairy free I’ve been making my mousse using avocado and either raw cacao or carob in place of chocolate with great success. Last night would have it that I made my first aquafaba choc mousse using aquafaba and 70% dark chocolate (naturally dairy free).
Now I’m going to try out your recipe but do you think I could omit the chocolate and use berries at all? This is one option I have not tried with either of my methods for gluten and dairy free mousse as yet.
Nicole Hunn says
This is a very simple recipe, Teresa. What you’re describing is essentially changing it completely. I’m afraid I don’t recommend that. I’d try looking around my recipe index for a recipe that suits your needs better.
Ellin says
Will this work with milk chocolate? I don’t really like white chocolate.
Thanks! Love your recipes.
Nicole Hunn says
I bet it would, Ellin, although instead of 10 ounces of chocolate and 4 tablespoons of butter, I’d try 12 ounces of chocolate and 2 tablespoons of butter. Let us know how it goes! I also have a recipe for Paleo chocolate mousse on the blog (just use the search function) that you might prefer.