Jell-o Fruit Mousse

I'm not a big Jell-o fan and never have been. The wobbly weirdness just doesn't appeal to me. However, I saw this recipe on Our Best Bites on Saturday night and decided it would be the perfect Easter dessert, in part because I already had all the ingredients and in part because I prefer light, fruity desserts for Easter since we generally spend the day loading up on chocolate bunnies and peanut butter eggs. Last year I made a Pavlova topped with fresh fruit and it was wonderful but decided to try this mousse recipe instead :) Good choice because we both really liked it!

If you don't really care for the texture of Jell-o, I suggest trying this recipe because it's not like regular Jell-o at all. It's airy, fluffy, kind of foamy, and fruity. I used pineapple Jell-o but any flavor would work. Next time we want to try raspberry!

You can head on over to Our Best Bites (link above) if you want to see what the fruit mousse looks like. It's really very pretty if you have pretty little individual serving dishes to pour the mixture into, but I don't have those and it's considerably less pretty when scooped out of a big serving bowl and plopped into a little bowl, which is of course how I had to serve it. I did not top the mousse with Cool Whip because I made a double batch and used up all the Cool Whip, and I also didn't make the orange cream topping in the original recipe, but the mousse was great on its own.

Quick note: I doubled the recipe. If you do this, I suggest you blend the hot Jell-o mixture, cream cheese, and cold water in 2 separate batches, combine them in a bowl, and whisk in the Cool Whip. I did manage to fit all of the hot Jell-o mixture, cream cheese, and cold water in my blender, but it came very close to over flowing and I needed to stir in the Cool Whip by hand.

Jell-o Fruit Mousse

1 C boiling water
3 oz box Jell-o
1/2 C cold water
1/2 brick cream cheese (4 oz)
1/2 of an 8 oz tub Cool Whip

Bring water to a boil in a small saucepan and stir in Jell-o until dissolved. Add half the cold water to cool the mixture down a bit. Place cream cheese in blender and pour Jell-o mixture on top. Cover and blend until completely smooth, then add remaining cold water and blend. Add Cool Whip and blend just until completely combined. Pour into individual serving dishes or one larger bowl, cover, and refrigerate until set, about 6 hours. Top with additional Cool Whip if desired.

Yield: Six 1/2 C servings