Pumpkin and White Chocolate Mousse Parfait

So this is a recipe we tried out for Thanksgiving, and everyone except for Aaron really loved this.  Oma, Opa, Owen, Noah and I all gave it a 9, while Aaron gave it a 4 :).  White chocolate and pumpkin are both things he really dislikes.  Oh well :).  You have to have pumpkin on Thanksgiving.  This was unfortunately incredibly high in calories, but if you make the serving small enough, which we did, it's not too terrible.  The servings for 1/16 of the total are 460.

The white chocolate has a lot more subtle flavor than the pumpkin, so it's important to make the white chocolate layers thicker than the pumpkin ones.  I also made the choice to add more cinnamon graham cracker crumbs than ginger snap crumbs, because I don't love ginger or ginger snaps.  We also didn't add any caramel to this, as the recipe suggests, but it was delicious just the same.  Here's what we did:

1 c pumpkin puree

4 c whipping cream, divided

1/2 c sugar

3/4 t cinnamon

1/4 t nutmeg

12 oz white chocolate chopped

1 T vanilla

15 ginger snap cookies, crushed

9 cinnamon graham crackers, crushed

 

In a medium saucepan over low heat, combine pumpkin, 1/2 cup of cream, sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg, mixing until sugar dissolves. Transfer mixture to a large bowl and set aside.
In another medium saucepan (or wash and reuse the same one) over low heat, combine white chocolate and 3/4 cup of cream until smooth. Transfer melted chocolate mixture to another large bowl and set aside.
As both of these mixtures are cooling to room temperature, prepare the whipped cream. Beat the remaining cream and the vanilla in a bowl using an electric mixer until soft peaks form.
Fold 1/4 of the whipped cream into the white chocolate mixture using a spatula. Then fold in another 1/4.
Fold 1/4 of the whipped cream into the pumpkin mixture using a spatula. Then fold in another 1/4. (All of the whipped cream should be worked into the mixtures by now.)
Cover each bowl and chill for at least 2 hours.
Assemble the parfait by transferring each mousse to a separate piping bag (OR use handy Ziplock bags and cut a small corner off of each) and layer the mousse and ginger snaps into the serving glasses in any order you like. Top with caramel sauce and more ginger snaps. Chill for another hour. Serve chilled.