Chocolate Peanut Butter Parfaits

Chocolate and peanut butter: a pairing as iconic as milk and cookies. These parfaits are the perfect dessert for when you want to make an impression.
Jump to Recipe

Chocolate and peanut butter please even those who don’t have a wide variety of food favorites, like many kids. But these parfaits can be enjoyed by adults and kids alike. Who doesn’t love a sweet treat after dinner?

I will say, they are a little tedious to make. Not difficult, it just takes a little while to make both the peanut butter and chocolate mousses, pipe them in layers in the cups, and then decorate the top. Another thing to note is that each mousse needs to sit in the refrigerator to set for at least an hour before it can be assembled into the cups. The last time I made these, I actually made the mousses the night before and left them to sit in the fridge overnight. The chocolate mousse did fine with that; it was still soft enough to be piped into the glasses. The peanut butter mousse, however, was a little too hard and crumbly. Not a big deal though. I simply microwaved it in 10 second intervals, stirring in between, until it was just soft enough to be piped into the glass.

Now, I keep talking about piping the mousse. What does that mean? By this, I mean that I put the mousse into a pastry bag that has a cake decorating tip on it. Then the mousse is squeezed through the tip and into the serving glass. The cake decorating tips are those that are used to pipe frosting onto a cake in several different pretty designs. For these parfaits, I would recommend using tips with a larger opening. You can't be piping the mousses, especially the peanut butter mousse, through a tiny hole.

The reason I used pastry bags and decorating tips is simply for the sake of the appearance. Piping the mousse resulted in a pretty design, as well as allowing me to keep even layers.

If you don’t have pastry bags and decorating tips, another option is the use Ziploc bags. You can simply add the mousse to a Ziploc bag, use scissors to cut off a small corner of the bag, and squeeze the mousse through the newly created hole.

For the serving glasses, I used some pretty juice glasses that I had at home. You could also use wine glasses, or really any glass or bowl that you would like. With the size glass I used, I was able to get 6 parfaits. Pictured to the right are the glasses I used, including my hand as a size reference.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Parfaits

Yield: 6 parfaits

Ingredients

Chocolate Mousse:

  • 1½ c mini marshmallows
  • 4 Tbsp butter, softened
  • 9 oz semi-sweet chocolate chips
  • ¼ c hot water
  • 2 c heavy cream
  • 2 tsp vanilla

Peanut Butter Mousse:

  • 1 c peanut butter chips
  • ¾ c heavy cream
  • 2 Tbsp creamy peanut butter
  • ½ tsp vanilla

Toppings:

  • Whipped cream
  • Chocolate sprinkles
  • Reese's peanut butter cups

Directions

Make the chocolate mousse:

  1. Heat the marshmallows, butter, chocolate chips, and hot water in a pan over low heat until it is all melted, stirring frequently. Remove from heat and allow to cool almost completely.
  2. Using an electric mixer with a whisk attachment, whip the heavy cream and vanilla until stiff peaks form. Remove half of the whipped cream and place in a separate bowl in the fridge (this will be used for the peanut butter mousse).
  3. Fold the remaining half of the whipped cream into the cooled chocolate mixture until smooth. Cover and place in the fridge to set for at least an hour.

Make the peanut butter mousse:

  1. In a large bowl, microwave the peanut butter chips and heavy cream at 15 second intervals until the chips are softened, stirring in between each microwave session.
  2. Whisk in the creamy peanut butter and vanilla until smooth. Let cool.
  3. Fold the reserved whipped cream (from the fridge) into the peanut butter mixture until smooth. Cover and place in the fridge to set for at least an hour.

Assemble the parfaits:

  1. Use pastry bags fitted with decorating tips to pipe alternating layers of the chocolate and peanut butter mousses. You may do as many layers as you like.
  2. Top with whipped cream, chocolate sprinkles, and a Reese's peanut butter cup.

Notes

  1. After refrigerating, if either mousse is too thick to pipe, microwave for 10 second intervals, stirring in between, until just soft enough.
  2. If you don't have pastry bags and decorating tips, you can use Ziploc bags. Fill the Ziploc bag with mousse, then use scissors to cut off a small corner of the bag and squeeze the mousse through the newly created hole.

  • Copyright： Copyright is owned by the author. For commercial reprints, please contact the author for authorization. For non-commercial reprints, please indicate the source.
  • Copyrights © 2022-2024 Taylor Mark