Hello, Chocolate Lovers!

The Cook & Kitchen Staff are celebrating Valentine's Day by offering you fourteen of our most delicious chocolate-coated, cocoa-concocted recipes from our Chocolate Lover's Collection.

Today's recipe is a chocolate lover's dream: a fluffy filling of chocolate mousse over a dark chocolate wafer crust! The Kitchen Staff recommends you add a dab of freshly whipped cream and shaved semisweet chocolate to your already decadent dessert just before serving it to your Valentine's Day favorites.

Pre-heat the oven to 350-F degrees.

To prepare the pie crust, combine the butter and crushed chocolate wafers in a mixing bowl. Press the mixture into the bottom of and onto the sides of a 9-inch springform pan. Refrigerate to firm the crust before baking the mousse.

Using a double boiler, melt both chocolates over a low-heat setting. Stir the chocolate occasionally until it is thoroughly melted. When melted, remove the chocolate from the heat and let cool a bit.

In a large mixing bowl, whip the whipping cream with 2 tablespoons of confectioner's sugar until stiff.

In a separate mixing bowl, beat the four egg whites with 2 tablespoons of confectioner's sugar until stiff.

Add two whole eggs to the melted chocolate, one egg at a time, and mix well. Make sure the chocolate is cool enough to not cook the egg yolks, yet warm enough to easily stir.

Add the remaining four egg yolks, again one at a time, stirring the chocolate mixture each time to thoroughly blend in the eggs.

Alternating between the whipping cream and the whipped egg whites, add about half of each mixture and blend it into the chocolate. Fold the mixture gently to combine the ingredients until all of the egg whites and whipping cream have been added and blended.

Pour the chocolate mousse into the prepared pie crust and refrigerate overnight. To serve, let the mousse warm a bit before loosening the spring form pan, slicing, and serving.

Refrigerate any leftovers, but for a day or two only.

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